Definitely one of my great idols, she had the most beautiful lines with her graceful ballerina’s legs. If Cyd Charisse was the womanly femme fatale, Vera-Ellen was sweet, innocent, childlike, even a little goofy. She combined classical ballet and pointe work, with the 1940s style “American ballet”, ballrooming, tap, vernacular jazz and blues movement, acrobatics and even toe tap. She had the tiniest waist in Hollywood at the time. Check out Vera-Ellen dancing in these films, alongside the likes of Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Danny Kaye:

Wonder Man (1945), The Kid from Brooklyn (1946), Three Little Girls in Blue (1946), Carnival in Costa Rica (1947), Words and Music (1948), Love Happy (1949), On the Town (1949), Three Little Words (1950), Happy Go Lovely (1951), The Belle of New York (1952), Call Me Madam (1953), Big Leaguer (1953), White Christmas (1954), and Let’s Be Happy (1957).