Danielle Comerford

Jazz II
Professor Good
12/8/16
Gene Kelly: The Man Who Just Wanted to Dance in a Pair of Jeans

“You dance love, and you dance joy, and you dance dreams. And I know if I can

make you smile by jumping over a couple of couches or running through a rainstorm,

then I’ll be very glad to be a song and dance man,” Gene Kelly once said. There is no

doubt that Kelly achieved this feat, becoming one of the most iconic American dancers

of all time. Kelly made it possible for people to believe in the power of song and dance

and brought joy to anyone who watched his work. Through his influence as a dancer,

actor, singer, director, and choreographer, Kelly influenced the dance, and more

specifically the jazz dance, world in ways that other dancers could only imagine.

Gene Kelly, originally named Eugene Curran Kelly, was born on August 23, 1912

in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the third of five children in an American Irish

working-class family. His mother, a dancer herself, enrolled all of her children in dance

lessons, which Kelly did not particularly like for many years of his early life. This was

probably in part to the fact that he was taunted, teased, and bullied by other boys in the

neighborhood. Hollywood magazine, in 1942, reported on Kelly’s early days of brawls

with the boys: “So Gene rolled up his sleeves and went to work…Then, bruised and

tattered, he appeared at dancing school, where he flew about the floor with more grace

than any of the soap-shiny little boys around him!” (Not a Lucky Boy). Similar stories

abound as Kelly defended his dancing honor time and time again. It probably did not
help his cause that he was as equally adept at sports as he was at dancing. He played

football, baseball, and could hold his own in a fight, which eventually would influence his

athletic style of dancing that he was so famous for (Not a Lucky Boy).

Kelly’s dance lessons were put to use when his mother opened the Gene Kelly

Studio of the Dance with one studio in Pittsburgh and one in Johnstown (Career

Timeline). At eighteen years old, Kelly was teaching dance classes at the studio, after

his early dance years were spent in the studio and performing in small acts that his

mother signed him and his brothers up for (Career Timeline). At twenty-one, Kelly

graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in economics, on the track to

becoming a lawyer. However, Kelly had a feeling that law school and simply teaching at

a dance school in Pittsburgh was not going to be quite fulfilling enough, and he booked

a one-way ticket to New York City.

The year 1938 rolled around and Kelly found himself in his first Broadway job as

a dancer in Leave it to Me (Career Timeline). The 1940s were when Kelly’s career

really started picking up though. In 1941, he married Betsy Blair, a dancer that he met

while choreographing Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe (Career Timeline). The

following year, Kelly had his Hollywood debut, alongside Judy Garland, in For Me and

My Gal (Career Timeline). From that point on, Kelly’s career skyrocketed, both onstage

and on film. One of his most iconic scenes became the “Alter Ego” dance in the film

Cover Girl, which was released in 1944. This particular scene required the combining of

two separate rolls of film so that Kelly could be shown dancing alongside his reflection

(Morgan). This dance scene really exemplified one of Kelly’s main goals throughout his

career: trying to integrate dance numbers with the plot. Oftentimes, dance numbers in
musicals were simply there for show. Kelly’s “Alter Ego” dance, and many of his dances

to follow, actually gave exposition to the plot or even advanced the plot in some cases

(Morgan).

Not only was Kelly a famous dancer on his own, but he was also known for his

work with other famous performers of his time. One of these performers happened to

be Frank Sinatra, who Kelly actually taught to dance. In 1945, Kelly earned a “Best

Actor” nomination for his work alongside Sinatra in Anchors Aweigh. This film actually

highlighted and renowned for pushing the boundaries of what dance can do on film.

This was in part to the fact that Kelly mixed live action film with animation, the first time

this had ever been seen with dance on film (Danceheritage.org). One of the most

famous scenes from this film is when Kelly’s character, Joseph Brady, teaches Jerry the

Mouse how to dance. The call and response nature of the dance puts a smile on any

audience member’s face, eventually leading to awe when Kelly ups the ante and starts

performing intricate jumps and leaps alongside the mouse.

Later in 1945, Kelly joined the Navy and ended up working in the photographic

division of the Naval Air Force (Career Timeline). This meant that he was assigned to

perform in and make films, documentaries, and newsreels for the Navy (Collins). Kelly

did not stay in the Navy for very long because in 1946 he teamed up with Fred Astaire,

another well-known performer of the time, for a dance sequence in The Ziegfeld Follies

which were a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway (Career

Timeline). Fred Astaire became a long-time colleague and friend to Kelly, however

Kelly wanted to be sure that his style was different from Astaire’s. Unlike Astaire, he

incorporated much less ballroom dancing into his choreography, instead focusing on the
distinct American athletic style he had been honing (Anatomy of a Dancer). This style

has impacted the nature of dance today, particularly jazz, in the differentiated of the

lower, loose movement and the great leaps and jumps that are based in Kelly’s ballet

training.

In addition to all of his other many talents, Kelly tried his hand at directing. He

directed On the Town in 1949 with Stanley Donen, which has since been on Broadway

and was revived a couple of years ago (Career Timeline). Over the next few years,

Kelly’s work became critically acclaimed, including winning seven Oscars for An

American in Paris. Kelly also received a special Oscar for his work in this film, for his

“extreme versatility as an actor, singer, director, and dancer, but specifically for his

brilliant achievement in the art of choreography” (Anatomy of a Dancer). This nod was

well-deserved because of the complete brilliance of the film’s seventeen minute ballet

sequence. This sequence incorporates not only different styles of dance, but

extravagant costumes, different set designs, lighting, and special effects that thread

together seamlessly to create a masterpiece. Lastly, Singing in the Rain has become

one of the most popular movie musicals of all time and especially iconic to Kelly’s

career as the man who tap dances through the puddles (Career Timeline).

Much of Kelly’s work portrays him as the easygoing, everyday guy, so while there

may be a lack of versatility in his characters, he makes up for it with his wide variety of

dancing. Part of that lack of versatility was intentional, though. Another one of the main

ways that Kelly influenced the jazz and dance world was by presenting himself as this

everyday guy, time and time again (Collins). He has been quoted saying, “I didn’t want

to move or act like a rich man. I wanted to dance in a pair of jeans. I wanted to dance
like a man in the streets” (Collins). Seeing Kelly like this, made dancing more relatable

and accessible for people of all ages and it reaffirmed the notion that yes, boys can

dance.

As the years went by, Kelly quietly flew under the radar and out of the spotlight.

In 1957, he divorced his wife and three years later ended up marrying his longtime

dance assistant, Jeannie Coyne (Career Timeline). It was not for a long time that he

would show up on the scene again, but in 1974, he hosted an MGM compilation film

with Fred Astaire of some of their greatest moments (Career Timeline). He also

received the Kennedy Center Honors and was awarded the Lifetime Achievement

Award from the American Film Institute, further validating how gifted Kelly truly was.

Kelly’s work truly transformed how dance was presented on film, especially because he

wanted to try to recreate the interactive quality of dance onstage to dance on film

(McLean). His weighted style of dance still impacts jazz dance today, especially in his

athletic contributions and the fusion of ballet, jazz, and tap influences

(Danceheritage.org).

Kelly passed away in his home on February 2, 1996, from a series of strokes

(Career Timeline). However, there is no doubt that his work will continue to have a

lasting impact on the dance world for years to come. My group members, Sam and

Jen, were easy to work with and we were all interested in learning about Kelly and the

influences that he has on us, maybe without us even realizing it. Kelly truly was a

dance icon that has enchanted audiences for years, thanks to his easygoing smile, the

slight swagger in his step, and the delighted way in which he dances.
 Works Cited

"Gene Kelly | Career Timeline | American Masters | PBS". American Masters.

N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.

"Gene Kelly | Anatomy Of A Dancer | American Masters | PBS". American

Masters. N.p., 2006. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.

Morgan, Ryan. "Kelly, Gene". Pabook2.libraries.psu.edu. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.

McLean, Adrienne L. "American National Biography Online: Kelly, Gene".

Anb.org. N.p., 2000. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.

"100 Treasures - Gene Kelly". Danceheritage.org. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.

Collins, Karyn D. Gene Kelly (1912-1996). 1st ed. 2012. Print.

"Not A Lucky Boy". Gene Kelly, Creative Genius. N.p., 2016. Web. 7 Dec. 2016.