Invitation to the Dance (film)

"Circus" The first segment, set to original music composed for the film by Jacques Ibert, is a tragic love triangle set in a mythical land sometime in the past. Kelly plays a clown, who is in love with another circus performer, played by Claire Sombert. She, however, is in love with an aerialist, played by Youskevitch. The clown, after entertaining the crowds with the other clowns, sees his love and the aerialist kiss, and then wanders into a crowd in shock. That night, he watches them dance together, and after the lady finds him with her shawl, he confesses his love to her. The aerialist finds them and thinks she has been unfaithful and leaves her. The clown sees her affection for the aerialist. Determined to win her, the clown tries to walk the aerialist's tightrope, only to fall to his death. Dying, he urges the two lovers to forgive each other. "Ring Around the Rosy" The second segment, named after the nursery rhyme "Ring Around the Rosy" was based upon Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde, and it is set to original music by André Previn, who is off-camera at the piano. It tells romantic stories tied by the exchange of a gold bracelet. The bracelet originally is given by a husband (David Paltenghi) to his flirtatious and apparently unfaithful wife (Daphne Dale). She gives it to her paramour, an artist (Youskevitch), at a party. The husband sees this and stalks off. The artist gives the bracelet to a model (Claude Bessy), who gives it to her boyfriend the Sharpie (Tommy Rall), who is introduced giving an acrobatic dance at a stage door. He in turn gives it to the femme fatale (Belita), only to have her present it to a crooner (Irving Davies) after his performance. He gives the bracelet to a hatcheck girl (Diana Adams) She returns home to her boyfriend, a Marine (Kelly). When the Marine sees the bracelet, he angrily takes it and storms out. Coming out of a bar, he encounters a streetwalker (Tamara Toumanova) and dances with her, giving her the bracelet before walking off again. The husband encounters the streetwalker and sees the bracelet. He buys it from her and reunites with his wife, returning it to her. "Sinbad the Sailor" The third segment takes its name from the Arabian Nights hero. It is a fantasy consisting of live action and William Hanna-Joseph Barbera-directed animated characters set in the casbah of a Middle Eastern country. Kelly plays a sailor who is sold a magic lantern. Rubbing the lamp, he discovers a childlike genie (David Kasday). Put off by the genie at first, the sailor soon befriends him and changes his clothes into a miniature sailor suit to match his. The genie uses his magic to transport them both inside a book of One Thousand and One Nights. This puts him in conflict with a cartoon dragon, and then two palace guards wielding swords, and falling in love with a cartoon harem girl. With the genie's help, he defeats the two guards by out-dancing them. The harem girl then joins him and the genie after the latter changes her clothes into a women's naval uniform. The film ends with the three of them as they dance into the distance together. This segment includes complex dance sequences showing a live Kelly dancing with cartoon characters in the picture. Use is also made of the original themes of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade by the MGM music department team of adapter Roger Edens, conductor Johnny Green and orchestrator Conrad Salinger. ==Cast==

• Gene Kelly - Pierrot / The Marine / Sinbad • Igor Youskevitch - The Lover / The Artist • Claire Sombert - The Loved • Claude Bessy - The Model • Tamara Toumanova - The Streetwalker • Diana Adams - Hat Check Girl • Tommy Rall - The Sharpie • Belita - The Femme Fatale • David Paltenghi - The Husband • Daphne Dale - The Wife • Irving Davies - The Crooner • Carol Haney - Scheherazade • David Kasday - The Genie ==Production==

Kelly had gone to England for tax reasons, and Invitation to the Dance was one of three films that he made there. From the beginning, he intended it to be an all-dance film with no dialogue. This concept caused apprehension at MGM, because "dance, particularly ballet, was then considered longhair at best, homosexual at worst." Kelly initially had not wanted to appear in any of the segments because he "wanted to show the world that other people danced besides himself and Fred Astaire," but he was forced by the studio to appear in the film himself. Shooting continued into 1953 on the "Sinbad" sequence, which made it MGM's second longest shooting schedule at the time. Difficulties arose during production of the "Ring Around the Rosy" segment. The original score, by British composer John Addison, was not judged suitable, and "the ballet was finished to bits of the Addison score and counts," with Andre Previn brought in to "tack the music onto the existing choreography." ==Reception==

Critical At the time of its release in May 1956, Invitation to the Dance was not well-received by critics. The New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther wrote that the idea of an all-dance, no-dialogue film was "exciting and refreshing," but called the film "a jumble of stories and styles." Crowther added that Kelly was "not a particularly imaginative choreographer...his story ideas are somewhat hackneyed and his dances are too elaborate." However, he praised Kelly for "having the urge and nerve to try this film." Times critic wrote that the Sinbad sequence indicated that "Hollywood just cannot bring itself to bring the art before the coarse," Box office The film was a financial failure. According to MGM records, it earned $200,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $415,000 in other markets, recording a loss of $2,523,000 and making it the studio's biggest flop of the year. Kelly later stated that "the public wasn't ready for a serious dance film, and besides, by the time it came out, the popularity of film musicals had declined." ==Awards==

Invitation to the Dance generally is viewed as not among Kelly's better work. It was rarely revived or shown on television in the years after its release. ==See also==