Lovely Leslie Caron

Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong era. How wonderful must it have been in the 1950s, when pretty much every major film had an amazing dance sequence (or five), featuring the talents of stars like Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Cyd Charisse?

NPR just did a great interview with one of those golden-age leading ladies: Leslie Caron. I’m going to use it as an excuse to post some videos of this beautiful dancer, whose sparkling ballet technique brightened films like An American in Paris and Gigi. (And you should definitely listen to the interview. Caron may be 81 now, but she’s still plenty spunky—and full of gems. Did you know that Kelly used to call her “Lester the Pester”?)

Here she is showing off her versatility—and her gams—in An American in Paris:

And here’s one of her fantasy duets with Kelly in the same film:

Here she is in doing some very intense choreography in the “Nightmare Ballet” from Daddy Long Legs:

And here she is getting very romantic with Astaire in the same movie (the dancing starts about 3 minutes in):