Eleanor Powell

I agree! I think that she was pretty equal with Fred Astaire as far as technical ability.

Yes my favorite dancer to watch. Recently paid my respects at her burial place. Too bad her marriage was not good because she sacrificed her career for it.

Her dancing was wonderful to watch. I was amazed at how limber she was, back bending on one leg with the other leg pointed up.

They are two completely different styles: you really can’t compare ballroom dancing with tap dancing, but I love them both.

Ellie really blew me away in the finale of this film, especially when she threw her leg up and then did a kick-out while leaning all the way back to one side. What balance and control!

There really isn’t anyone to compare her with today. Even Beyoncé would fall after her first attempt at a pirouette! Ellie did more than a dozen! And every dance movement Beyoncé does has cuts every 10 seconds. Ellie did it in one complete take, no cuts!

Just finished watching it and she was superb. Her last dance number was a thing of beauty, just incredible. Otherwise, a very fun and light film, odd to see Jimmy Stewart sing and dance, but that's what it seemed like everyone had to do back then. 8/10

She was an amazing tap dancer! Just extraordinary to watch, she never let her incredible speed and precision stop her from being entertaining.

IMHO she was on a par with Fred Astaire as a tap dancer, but Astaire was way ahead of her when it came to dancing with a partner, so I'd have to call him the better dancer overall as he was more versatile. Astaire could make a partner waft like an angel, but Powell wasn't about dancing with a partner, she was about taking center stage and holding it on her own. The one time she danced with Fred Astaire, they seemed to be more competitive than cooperative, each trying to out-tap each other instead of dancing in the kind of perfect harmony he had with Ginger Rogers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-b4M8jssX8