For a dance fan and former employee of The Joffrey Ballet (sadly, in a non-dancing role), dance in almost any form is cause for delight. (There was that ghastly time about ten years back when young Robin developed an unfortunate passion for hip-hop, but we won't dwell on that right now.) Whether in a diner or a bar, on a dock or a parapet, in a ballroom or a bedroom, dance on GH is welcome in its own right and as an opportunity for nonverbal story driving. Any time we the audience can be shown a thing, rather than being told what to believe or to feel, our spirits rise. When the showing is accomplished through body language and rhythmic movement, magic sometimes ensues. How lovely that room is made for that magic to be organic within the everyday framework of the show, rather than kept bottled up until a Nurses' Ball or special event uncorks it. For me, the magic can happen with a solo dancer as easily as with a couple, and, happily, General Hospital provides some of the most exciting solo dance moments on daytime. I think of Laura, twirling on the dock for Stefan's pleasure and shattering Luke's peace in the process. Reginald once did a quick time-step ushering Katherine Bell out the door. Elizabeth sometimes grieves for Lucky by retracing steps she did with him, alone. When the medium is dancing, one is not always the loneliest number, but rather the most expressive.
Dancing, soap dancing, was recently highlighted in a magazine with a feature on Robert S. Woods, one of the most charming and accomplished dancers on daytime television. The writer went so far as to call Woods, who portrays Llanview Police Commissioner Bo Buchanan on One Life to Live, the best dancer in soaps today. I beg to differ. In film, there was room for two bests, and I see no difference in our medium. Woodsy is great, but obviously that writer forgot Anthony Geary when he was tossing superlatives around. To many, Tony Geary is not only a great soap dancer, he is simply a great dancer. I have to agree. Woods and Geary (good friends in real life) are very different in style and content. It would be easy to compare and contrast them using Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly as models, but neither is that easily pigeonholed.
Woods, ballroom trained and a former dance instructor, almost never dances alone, which both Kelly and Astaire did with great effect. He is equally at home with fast and slow tempi, does a mean jitterbug and an elegant tango, but his forte is a deceptively simple form of close, slow dance. He can dance romantically, but prefers, even when partnered with his on-screen soul mate, to keep passion at bay or, at the most, suggested. Light and easy, that's Woodsy's style, and it charms the figurative pants off women onscreen and off. It certainly charms me.
In contrast, General Hospital's Geary is comfortable doing both Astaire and Kelly-type numbers, but more closely evokes comparison with another dancer whose inclusion may surprise readers who only remember him as Jed Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies, Buddy Ebsen. Ebsen was, in his dancing days, what used to be known as an eccentric dancer, not in the sense of off-the-wall but rather in the character-dancer sense. Ray Bolger, the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, was an eccentric dancer, and so were James Cagney and British music hall great Jack Buchanan. What Geary shares with Ebsen is the ability to bring a loose-limbed unpredictability to the steps. Attitude, both physical and interpretive.
Tony Geary made his debut on GH with some of the best disco dancing I've ever seen outside the 70s club scene. When he reprised it for a Nurses' Ball number with Jackie Zeman a few years back ("Last Dance"), he used his favorite self-accusation in claiming that he single handedly killed Disco; it may be true, but in his hands, what a lovely death that must have been. Famous as his boogie is, of course, the image we forever associate with Luke Spencer is at the heart of the Luke&Laura mystique: "Fascination," in white tie and tails: the full Fred Astaire treatment. Geary did it beautifully, but there is a whole catalog of Luke&Laura dances that their fans hold dear. What sets him apart from other couples dancers, however, is his ability to take dance to places soap dancers rarely venture: solo dancing (and, of course, flights of fancy such as the "Pips" act with Lucky and Joseph Phillips' Justus Ward). When Luke dances by himself Geary tells me more about his character than straight dialog or talky exposition ever could. He speaks with his spine, his hands, his hips, legs and feet. Eloquently.
I started this column speaking of couples, and I will end with one. Bob Woods and Tony Geary are a great couple of dancers, period. No "soap" need be applied to modify the noun. They dance. We, lucky people, get to watch.
Good deal.
