Greatest Dance Music: Beethoven's 7th Symphony- 4th Movement

When you hear the music of Beethoven's 7th Symphony, especially the fourth and final movement, it is impossible to sit still... the intensity of the rhythm makes you get up and shake your body and tap your feet. Wagner called the 7th symphony as the "apotheosis of dance" which is the highest or ultimate form of dance. The music here is charged with energy and is overflowing with uninhibited joy. Also, Beethoven has so infused the composition with syncopated beats that you wonder whether the great composer was attempting to challenge or tease the dancers of his era!

I was fortunate to find clips of the gifted dancer-choreographer Fred Astaire that display his playfulness to match the joy expressed in Beethoven's masterpiece. While I had the freedom to choose the various dance clips, I am not sure how Astaire would have improvised to the syncopated passages!

Here then is an attempt to combine the fluid dance movements of the following artists with the bouncing rhythm and delightful sounds of this magnificent symphony of dance: Fred Astaire paired with Ginger Rogers, Rita Hayworth, and Eleanor Powell; Tim Balfour paired with Lisa Miles imitating Fred and Ginger; Mikhail Baryshnikov, and a Gypsy dancer from Rajasthan .

Music: Beethoven Symphony No.7 in A, Op.92: IV. Allegro con brio
Karl Böhm, Conductor: Vienna Philharmonic

Visual excerpts taken from these videos:
Lisa Miles and Tim Balfour - A Variation on Fred and Ginger for the third act of Opera Australia's production of Die Fledermaus at the Sydney Opera House.
Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell: "Begin the Beguine" -- Film: Broadway Melody (1940)
Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth: "So Near and Yet So Far" -- Film: You Will Never Get Rich (1941)
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers: "Pick Yourself Up" - Film: Swing Time (1936)
Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell: "Jukebox Dance" -- Film: Broadway Melody (1940)
Rajasthani Banjara (gypsy) folk dance -- Film: Latcho Drom directed by Tony Gatlif (1993)
Mikhail Baryshnikov -- Film: White Night (1985)
Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth: "I'm Old Fashioned" -- Film: You Were Never Lovelier (1942)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Beethoven
• seventh
• Symphony
• classical music
• best
• greatest
• dance
• astaire
• ginger rogers
• rita hayworth
• eleanor powell
• baryshnikov
• rhythm
• yt:crop=16:9

[ritupm]

Beautiful ! :) Uninhibited JOY of Dance is apparent when dancers like Fred here, or in any form of Dance, just as in any job one does, actually LOVE what they do ! :) One of the greatest joy & success of a dancer is when their dance "seems" effortless to their audience, to get the maximum pleasure from not just the intricacies of the "steps" of a particular dance form, but the expression of DELIGHT & EASE of flow of the dancers, which can come ONLY when one is *in tune* from within! Superb ! :)

[chanto7]

Woderful dance and music.So creative of you. Great woork!

[ratboygenius]

BRAVO! Apotheosis of the dance for sure! Love it. And feel the love in it!

[ken38urb]

What an ordered musical mind!! This was not composed by a mortal from this planet . Its complexity and beauty is unmatched except by his other works. I find this a true 8th wonder not of this world

[janab71]

the gypsy dancer is absolutely amazing.............

[janab71]

fabulous............love it.............thanks x

[keonepax]

This is amazing!  Love it!

[thissong4you]

Thank you for this. Your uploads are amazing. Absolutely stunning juxtaposition. Your sequencing is enchanting.

[Uday2310]

Suparb!! I know it takes hours to complete this type of work & U have done it.from begaining to the end it is just Fantastic.U have done very accurate editing for video frames.U took Rajasthani Ghoomar dance from 2:00 to 3:20.very good keep it up.

[BharatGul]

A very enjoyable collage of dances to go with a celebrated piece of music. Loved the addition of the Rajasthani folk dancer to the sequencing you made. One would think Beethoven composed the music just for her ! Thanks.