Bob Fosse and Tommy Rall - Duet from 'My Sister Eileen,' 1955

Love it! Fosse's movements are so precise and economical there, noticeably tighter than Tommy Rall's. In the series of turns at about 2:49, each one is *exactly* the same as the next. He must have had a fantastic little body under those clothes. And it's good to see him keeping his neck and shoulders less hunched than he later affected. Fosse's vocabulary of moves became a little repetitive to my eye, but he was just brilliant. And not nearly as repetitive as Gene Kelly's, whose dancing I used to love but, after a lifetime watching it, kind of grates on my nerves.

Their dancing is fabulous...the same caliber or even better than Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire.

Where do dancers get the energy to do this over and over and over... I know they used to take speed, but still.. you need SO MUCH energy for professional dancing.

Awesome, OP!

Fosse was a genius but TR was every bit the dancer Fosse was.

This is amazing. These two are genius dancers.

I never heard of Tommy Rall. He's spectacular! He passed away in 2020. at age 90.

Dazzling!

R1 is right. Fosse is better.

Donald O’Conner felt Tommy Rall was the best dancer—better than Gene.

Tommy Rall could have had a big career in film musicals had he been born ten years earlier. Although Gene may have sabotaged him (he didn’t appreciate competition)

Loved that. I'd never heard of Rall before and found myself watching him the whole time. Amazing ballet moves and handsome, too.

Rall's singing was also superior.

TR was terrific, much better dancer than Gene Kelly. R1 is so right about Kelly's dancing-so repetitive. It seemed so robotic with Kelly, no spontaneity at all. Look at Fosse & Rall in that-it looks like they're making up the steps as they go along.

Rall was a more athletic and acrobatic dancer than Astaire But no one danced as gracefully and elegantly as Fred. Fosse had a good body, but look at Rall--you can practically see the muscles bulging under the suit. Fosse was so slight. He was really tiny, too. Too lazy to google, how tall was Fosse?

Not sure why Rall didn't have a bigger movie career? Perhaps he was born too late--he came of age just as those big movie musicals were dying out. By all accounts, he was straight. Married twice, 2 kids. Perhaps he refused to service Arthur Freed or some other big studio exec/producer?

Or perhaps he didn't really enjoy the movie making process? Lots of theatre people find the endless waiting around on movie sets a real chore.

Rall's big break was "Kiss Me Kate" dancing with DL fave Ann Miller, as well as Fosse, Carol Haney, Jeanne Coyne (married to both Kelly and director Stanley Donen), and Bobby Van. Get a load of Rall's ass in those tights--"a thing of beauty is a joy forever".

Rall was also DL mega, uber, super, duper fave Ms. Streisand's ballet partner in the "Swan Lake" parody in the FG movie. It's hard to concentrate on Rall's dancing with Barbra's mugging and clowning, but if you watch him closely, you can see just how terrific a dancer he was, even in that short scene.

I remember reading in one of the Jerome Robbins bios that Rall was dancing in one of the earlier Robbins' shows (maybe "Look Ma, I'm Dancin?). Robbins had a major crush on Rall, which was not reciprocated. Robbins proceeded to make Rall's life a living hell thereafter (as Robbins was wont to do on all his shows). I think Rall ended up leaving the show early rather than be subjected to Robbins wrath.

His big movie break

He’s good but he’s no Bobby Banas.

*

I'm glad some of you dance mavens agree with me about Gene Kelly. I thought I might get roasted. Fosse's stereotypical hat moves are better than Gene's. In fact, it's mostly that head-tipped-back, hat-cocked, wide-grinned, "ain't life grand?" move that most annoys me about Kelly.

My comments at R1, though, were definitely not intended to take away from Rall. It's just that I'm more attuned to Fosse and am not very familiar with Tommy Rall's dancing. :)

Maybe it's the "lifetime of watching" that is grating y'all about Gene Kelly. We've all seen the same clips thousands of times. But he was a trailblazer at the time.

R12 looks like you found your answer about TR's stalled career- he wasn't willing to suck the right cocks.

He's good but he's no Bobby Burgess.

Who is, r8...