Astaire Unwound (ceiling dance from Royal Wedding)

This video shows how Fred Astaire's famous "dance around the room" was filmed by Stanley Donen in the 1951 movie "Royal Wedding" (now in public domain). To see a detailed account of how this video was made, visit http://www.bigfott.com/Astaire_Unwound.html .

While the actual filming of this number was apparently entirely undocumented, Donen recreated the effect in 1986 for Lionel Richie's "Dancing on the Ceiling" music video. I've posted a behind the scenes look at that here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrvTB3-1nSg .

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• fred
• astaire
• unwound
• royal
• wedding
• you're
• all
• the
• world
• to
• me
• ceiling
• dance
• dancing
• deconstruct
• bigfott
• galen
• fott

[Mau506]

If you look carefully in the left picture you'll notice how the room vibrates while it's spinning.

[BigfottStudios]

@Mau506 Often, yes. That's one of the clues I used to try to figure out exactly when the rotations occur. It does seem to start with a "lurch" sometimes, which jostles the cameraman.

[Veggieman87]

Oooh, very cool! I love little tech tricks like this!

[ThePwnedsouthpark]

@Mau506 :youdontsay:

[wildwombat]

Nicely done.

Having heard how it's done & then being able to visualize it , is soo much easier.

[deckard2001]

what a sham! Fred Astaire IS dancing on the ceiling, the laws of gravity do not apply to him. Why? Because he is in love!

[fairekitty]

@CYNLAGASCA , Yes Fred Astaire was Michael's inspiration for many of his dances. He said so many times. What thrilled Michael the most was when Fred told him how much he liked MJ's dancing.

[BigfottStudios]

@Luinathiel Thanks! I found a five minute excerpt from the documentary on Vimeo wherein Donen does indeed confirm that. Magnets it is!

[Luinathiel]

@BigfottStudios I didn't remember but looked it up, should be "Stanley Donen: You Just Do It :)

[BigfottStudios]

@Luinathiel Ah okay, thanks! Do you remember what the documentary was?

[Luinathiel]

@BigfottStudios I saw a documentary with Stanley Donen some time ago in which he talked about this scene and how they made the photo stick with help of magnets, might have been from there Rtmax45 got his information :)

[CYNLAGASCA]

My son once saw this movie in the TV and he never forgot it. He said he climbs the wall like Spiderman or Dracula. And he likes all Fred Astaire scenes with his dancing talent. He requested to see it on You-tube tonight. Fred is really great. He must be the inspiration of Michael Jackson in his tap dances. Thanks.