Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were the greatest dance team in the history of American movies. In the course of developing their partnership and dancing before the movie camera they revolutionized the Hollywood musical comedy in the 1930s. Though their partnership only lasted for six years and nine films between 1933 and 1939, with a tenth film as an encore ten years later, they definitively set the standards by which dancing in the movies would be judged for a long time to come. Although they both had independent careers before and after their partnership, neither ever matched the popularity or the artistic success of their dancing partnership.

The dancing of Astaire and Rogers created a style that brought together dance movements from vaudeville, ballroom dancing, tap dancing, soft shoe, and even ballet. Ballroom dancing provided the basic framework...