Chita Rivera: The Toast Of Chichicastengo 1933-2024

Source: forbes.com

By: Hal Rubenstein

The first Broadway show I ever saw was Bye, Bye Birdie. It took me about ten minutes to develop a lifelong crush on Dick Van Dyke. Tall and lanky, all loose arms and limbs, looking acting like a clown trapped in an attractive man’s body, I didn’t want to be just like him. I wanted to be him. Because one of the great advantages of that transference was that would make me able to dance with the woman alongside him, a mesmerizing, bewitching, spark-emitting dynamo named Chita Rivera. Of course, having loved movie musicals even at an early age, I had seen lots of people dance on the big screen. But to dance like that in person nonstop while singing, and when done, keep right on going without calling for a five-minute recess was jaw dropping.

To whirl yourself around like that with so much control, at a staggering speed to match her astounding grace was almost too much for this kid to comprehend, and yet I couldn’t take my eyes off her. It was like getting a brain freeze from too quickly inhaling your favorite flavor ices from Lemon Ice King of Corona, but you keep on licking anyway. By the time Rivera finished her big number, “Spanish Rose,” I fell under a spell that would remain unbroken for the next fifty years. I never missed another Broadway show she starred in and caught her cabaret acts whenever I could.

Rivera’s paramount talent and electrifying radiance made her a magnetic presence, yet it wasn’t her extensions or razor-sharp footwork that generated our universal awe. It was the spark in her eyes, the joy on her face, the commitment of her body to treat choreography, not as if she was dancing for her life, but as if dance was what was making her feel most alive. If producers could have bottled that exuberance, cases would have been sold out during intermission.

Read more at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/halrubenstein/2024/01/30/chita-rivera-the-toast-of-chichicastengo–1933-2024/