Presidents who can dance

J

jon

Member
It's a little hard to be sure from still photos, but judging from the slideshow, George and Barbara Bush know how to dance properly (OK, his fingers on her back are kinda spread too far, and maybe the hold is a bit close for foxtrot, if that's what they were doing).

Warning: that's a link to Yahoo News and probably won't be good for more than a few days, at most.
 
I saw film of them dancing on T.V. this evening.

It was reported that he doesn't like to dance, and that he only danced at the ball for the military personel. The video pictures obvioulsy showed he doesn't know how.

Can any one think of a President that could dance?
 
Well, Gerald Ford danced with the Queen of England at the US Bicentennial.

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Things might have worked better for their spouses given that the English probably still train potential aristocrats in these things:

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And Betty herself seems to have been the more enthusiastic dancer anyway:
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Even on the Cabinet room table:
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Update: It appears that she studied and performed professionally with Martha Graham some years before meeting Gerald.. not exactly ballroom of course, but a good source of confidence for attempting it.

All images from the Ford library at http://www.ford.utexas.edu/library/docs.htm
 
DancePoet said:
It was reported that he doesn't like to dance, and that he only danced at the ball for the military personel. The video pictures obvioulsy showed he doesn't know how.
Click to expand...
According to the captions on the "Yahoo" slideshow, Bush actually danced at several of the balls. It looks like the ball with the military personnel is the only one where he danced with someone other than his wife, though.

By the way, I didn't see any pictures where George and Laura were making eye contact while dancing. :? They seemed to be mostly posing instead of enjoying the music and each other -- which tends to indicate that he's probably not much of a real dancer.
 
JFK grew up in the Swing Era. I wonder if he did any dancing at the White House. Well, other than the horizontal mambo with MM.
 
I think political figures should learn how to dance in any case. And when I say dance, I mean dance. Not know a couple of step to do at formal balls. I think they should master at least one type of dancing. Think of how better things would be for the world if the leaders were that passionate!

Twilight Elena
 
Bush certainly can't(I'm refering to "dubya"). Saw news of the inauguration over here and he was pushing Laura around.(chuckle) The amount of money spent on the inauguration itself, in the midst of the tsunami tragedy, has caused a bit of a stink over here. I'm only a casual observer, living over here in Japan. What do youse guys think?
 
From the footage i've seen he's definately not a dancer, he can fumble his way through a couple of steps for a photo opportunity, but that's it.
 
cocodrilo said:
Bush certainly can't(I'm refering to "dubya"). Saw news of the inauguration over here and he was pushing Laura around.(chuckle) The amount of money spent on the inauguration itself, in the midst of the tsunami tragedy, has caused a bit of a stink over here. I'm only a casual observer, living over here in Japan. What do youse guys think?
Click to expand...
That and the fascist security policies for the inaguration...welcome to Amerika.
 
The cost of the inauguration caused a bit of a ruckus over here, too, although I don't remember it being specifically mentioned in the context of the tsunami (226,000 people so far yikes! :( )

I'm not too impressed with the Bush's posture in the slide show. But hey, at least they took the photo op, right? :wink: And I'm with you, Twilight Elena. I think, at a minimum, high level political figures should learn to manage their way around a dance floor. Social graces, yes? They all learn which fork to use and how to give a public speech, right? So spend a couple bucks at the local Arthur Murray, and learn how to dance, too (if you want MY vote. LOL.)

Nice photos, btw, Chris. 8)
 
The irony is that most people who will see the film or still pictures of him dancing won't likely know the difference.

At least he and his wife were smiling. So from a image standpoint, he'll look ok whether or not he can dance well, how many dances he has with folks or how many balls he "danced" at. And he can't dance well.
 
I don't think they can, pygmalion. They don't have the groove! :banana:
I think we should create our own DF reality show, where 12 political figures are stuck in a house with "Gene Kelly" instructors (it's a dance school) and all the mirrors they can handle! First one to become Fred Astaire wins!
Then again, they'd probably fight like married women all the time, so the show would go to the dogs. :? Yikes. The "Jerry Springer Dance Studio"? I don't think so!

Twilight Elena
 
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