"Why do we have to lose things to find out what they really mean?"

When I found out that Cyd Charisse, undoubtably the greatest female dancer of the musical's golden age, has died I decided to compile a list of my favourite Cyd Charisse movie moments.

Broadway Ballet - perhaps Cyd's most famous film role was this one in Singin' In the Rain, even though she appeared for less than 10 minutes and didn't speak! This number is a perfect example of the creativity going on at the Freed Unit at MGM at the time, referencing everything from gangster movies to Dali. This routine could only have been performed so perfectly by Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEObZxQ8dG0

Fated to be mated/ All of you. Apparently Silk Stockings was Cyd's favourite of her films, and I think it's probably mine also. This is my favourite Charisse-Astaire number ever. Warning - difficult to appreciate without the context of the rest of the film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHvu6g1bmOo

Red Blues. Another one from Silk Stockings. The film was a remake of the 1939 Greta Garbo film Ninotchka (also a wonderful film if you can get to see it), about a female Soviet Union official who falls in love with an American man. here cyd and her russian comrades are making a song and dance about the repressive Stalinist regime under which they live! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKfAPUy6Nas

Dancing in the Dark - With Astaire again, this time from the Vincente Minnelli film "The Band Wagon". I love how it starts with them falling into step and slowly becomes a full-blown dance routine, subtly merging the line between the realistic and the expressionistic - all too often done clumsily in movie musicals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzQMl0p4ajw

Silk Stockings - from the film of the same name, Cyd gets this number all to herself. It's about the joy of allowing yourself a little luxury, even if you are supposed to be a straight-laced Stalinist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUY9FAqRg4I

Girl Hunt Ballet - another number with Astaire form the bandwagon, Cyd's red dress is iconic. Here's an excerpt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDGGw3RH5ug This blog is named after this piece, because it blends high and low culture.

The Heather on the Hill - Brigadoon is a cruelly overlooked film, and in my opinion far superior to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, the other big MGM musical of 1954. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZVCWUbomlg

Baby you Knock Me Out. Thought I should include something from the sublime "It's always fair weather" -It's not available on DVD to my knowledge but pops up on TCM occaisonally. Charisse was underused in this film, but this number is unusual in that neither Astaire or Kelly are anywhere to be seen! (Although Gene Kelly was in the film) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKdUmQGWlYg
And here's a treat - a deleted number from the same film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0ePfbiElmo