Shall We Dance? - The true story of the couple who taught the world to dance

Douglas Thompson

Metro

2014

362 páginas

12h 4m

ISBN-13: 9781784180140

On the eve of the Great War, they had the world at - and watching - their feet. If God is in the details, they were divine.
Vernon and Irene Castle were the world’s first true celebrity couple. He, an Englishman, was tall and slim, as poised as an elegant evening out, a template for the Hollywood idols who should follow. In a staid age, she, a New Yorker, was a glorious, modern beauty, with her hair cropped into a ‘shock’, a disdain for crippling corsets, a love of martini and a good time.
Together, they beat the censors and made their vibrant dancing acceptable for all. In the fashionable quarters of New York they opened a dance school and night clubs to which Society flocked. They broke the rules by touring with black musicians, and led the way forward to Charleston-galloping Gatsby Generation. They enlightened and enchanted from London to Paris to New York, spreading a breathless joy, as though their music had one note, and their dances one step, too many. Launching one racy dance craze after another, they taught the world to dance - and often dress - they way we do today. Adored and acclaimed, they were stars long before the celebrity constellations grew crowded.