Dancing Feat

• Share

When he finished making Blue Skies, Fred Astaire thought he would stop dancing. He didn't want people to start asking, "What's that old duffer still hanging around for?" But last week the old duffer was hard at work at some new dances in a new setting.

In Manhattan, Dancer Astaire, now 47, teamed up with an old friend, Charles Casanave, to open a plush new dancing studio (deep red carpets, blue-green walls, yellow and red covered furniture). There, at $70 for a ten-hour course, Astaire hopes to teach all comers to dance something like Astaire.

One new dance—named, oddly enough, "The Astaire"—is something like the "Shag," in which a dancer jumps from one foot to another as if trying to shake water from his ears. The teaching will be done by some 80 instructors. Astaire will do none himself.

A TIME researcher found out one reason why—after dancing with the great Mr. Nimblefoot himself. Said she:

"At first, I was afraid he'd start dancing me over the furniture. A graceful glide got me functioning. But then I got an attack of nerves. We twirled, or rather we tried, but my knees buckled. They just weren't up to it. I caught my breath as he swung me again. Then, I sort of stiffened up like a cold cod. Then, I almost bit my tongue and then, thank goodness, the music stopped."

"That's the trouble," sighed Astaire. "People sometimes stiffen up when they dance with me."

Nevertheless, the new company, which has already sunk $250,000 to $300,000 in its studio and plans to open more studios in other cities, is dancing right along. It has already signed up 1,500 pupils, has made a deal with Western Electric to teach its employees, hopes to gross up to $1,000,000 in New York alone its first year.

Although he was described as being "very happy that there are more high-grade dance schools coming into the business," Arthur Murray—whose 80-some schools now gross $22,000,000 yearly—cut his rates from 10 to 20% at week's end, to "celebrate," said he, "our 33rd anniversary."