OPEN POST: Gene Kelly Was The Sex!

 

Fred Astaire had the skills and the polish. Gene Kelly had the skills and the sex.

Though he left us in 1996 at age 83, he remains the premiere Hollywood practitioner of dance as brash bravado and potent, earthy sexuality. 

Some might say that Rudolph Valentino was the better dance-as-sex practitioner, but time has not been kind to his tango scenes, which now look strained, and at times, comical. It really was another time.

Gene's endures because of his seemingly effortless moves and brawny masculinity, which was at once thrilling, but never crude. The old adage "women wanted him, men wanted to be him" must have been conjured up with him in mind. 

Before Fosse revitalized dance for the modern age - giving it a refined and cooler-than-cool touch of sleaze - Gene was the go-to for dance and eroticism. Only Cyd Charisse was his rival, a dancer whose every move seemed to say, "Touch me if you dare." Together? They were a bonfire. 

Yet no matter how many dancers and dance styles have come and gone since Gene left us, he remains modern, his appeal forever fresh, lusty and inspired.

Photo Credits: MGM/TCM, Getty Images