The 1954 classic directed by Michael Curtiz and choreographed by Bob Fosse, starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen.

Two World War II buddies create a top song-and-dance routine that really wows the crowds. They cross paths with two beautiful sisters who also perform a song-and-dance act. Bob is smitten with one of the sisters, so Phil “accidentally” buys tickets on the same train as the girls, following them to their show at a Vermont inn that happens to be owned by their former  commanding officer. The boys realize the inn’s business cannot support the general’s livelihood, so the four performers to put on an unforgettable show to save the struggling inn.

Produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures, the film is notable for being the first to be released in VistaVistion , a wide-screen process developed by Paramount that was used to yield finer-grained 35 mm film prints. An instant hit with audiences, White Christmas was far and away the financial blockbuster of 1954.

Run time: 120 min..

The Dance on Film series is presented by the Bud Werner Memorial Library, Perry-Mansfield and Steamboat Dance Theatre.

The free screening includes an introduction by dance history professor and Perry-Mansfield Executive Director Joan Lazarus.

About the film's commentator

Joan Lazarus served as Executive Director of Oakland Ballet, General Manger of Cowell Theater at Fort Mason Center, and Executive Director of WestWave Dance, an annual festival of new choreography presented in San Francisco. Joan has performed with or in the works of Alonzo King, Cliff Keuter, Ellen Bromberg, Victoria Morgan, Krissy Keefer, Frank Shawl, Bill DeYoung, Toni Pimble, Richard Colton and Alan Ptashek. She taught at the University of Oregon, Mills College, San Francisco Ballet, Dance Circle of Boston, The Princeton Ballet, RoCo Dance & Fitness, and Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, and co-authored the Dance Curriculum Guide adopted by the San Francisco Unified School District. She received Bay Area National Dance Week’s Contribution to the Field of Dance Award in 2006, and in 2012 she received an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Sustained Achievement. Lazarus was named 2011 Dance MVP by the San Francisco Chronicle. Joan joined the staff at Perry-Mansfield in June 2012.

About Dance On Film

This Dance On Film series is presented by Bud Werner Memorial Library, Perry-Mansfield and Steamboat Dance Theatre. Perry-Mansfield celebrates its 101st anniversary as the oldest continuously operating arts camp in the United States this year. Steamboat Dance Theatre is a community dance organization presents its 43nd annual concert Feb. 26-28, 2015, in addition to year-round dance scholarships and education programs in Yampa Valley schools and throughout the community. This collaborative and educational dance film series features free screenings of the hottest new dance documentaries along with the finest classic dance films from a variety of genres filmed throughout the ages.