So I have a friend who is much more hooked into the Hollywood news scene than I am just sent me this still from a new musical with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone that is filming now, possibly set in the 1930s?

Anyway, I immediately went “Hey!  I’ve seen that before!”  Hop skip dance apart, hop skip dance together, arms sway back and forth, and then clinch and spin together.  And I knew it was a Fred and Ginger number, but I couldn’t remember which one.  Because I have of course seen them all many many times (yes, even Barkleys of Broadway and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle).  Come, follow me on my journey to an answer!

So, my first thought was “Isn’t This A Lovely Day” because I remembered a lot of skipping out and skipping in, in that one.  Plus, it was another outdoor dance, like the Ryan Gosling one, and they didn’t do many of those.

Only, there is a lot of skipping in and out, which the pants facilitate, but no swinging of the arms.

But the pants started me thinking about other numbers where Ginger is wearing pants, and thus there is more sort of skippy kicky visible footwork.

This is my all time favorite number of theirs, because they are both so happy, but it still isn’t the one I was thinking of.  There is a lot of side by side and facing each other steps, but no big swingy arm thing, so this isn’t it either.

Youtube suggested this, from the same movie, and it does have quite a bit of arm stuff, but it is kind of more of a downer than I was remembering the one I was looking for.  But I watched it anyway for that awesome kneel and dip move right at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtZrXzoaJvc

(also, Ginger really needs another slip, you can totally see the outline of her legs through the skirt)

And then that led to this one, the infamous feather dance (Ginger’s dress kept shedding feathers and getting in their eyes, until Fred Astaire actually lost his temper on set for the first time ever and stormed out, and then the next day each individual feather was sewn in place and never moved again.  Poor wardrobe mistress).  It’s completely gorgeous, (that big souring instrumental “DANCE with me” towards the end!) and again there are a lot of skip together kind of moves, but still not the one I was thinking of.

But then I remembered this one, and I was feeling really really confident about it!  But, no!  Although it is one of my favorite numbers, just because Ginger looks so happy in it!  Unlike their early numbers, where Fred had to constantly lead, grab her, spin her, guide her, but 1937 he had molded her into a confident partner who was able to effortlessly follow his moves with no guidance necessary.  Also, Gershwin!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_Wl83o9HTs

The real benefit was, once I started thinking about how good Ginger is in Shall We Dance, it made me curious to look at The Gay Divorcee and see how far she had really come.  And oh my gosh, she was so bad!  I mean, not bad-bad.  Not Renee Zellweger in Chicago bad.  Clearly a trained and experienced hoofer.  But not at that Fred Astaire level yet.  More importantly, it’s the Continental!  No, I’m not just quoting from the gosh-awful lyrics which will be stuck in your head for the next five weeks, it’s an exclamation of joy!  Because the song I was thinking of is “The Continental”!  Check out the move at 1:16 and then again at 2:15.