Bridging the Gap - Fred Astaire

• Insisted on his dancing being filmed showing the whole body, and with limited editing  - just to get a better angle. Thought cutting quick and only showing body parts made the dancing less impressive  - let it speak for himself. 
• His sets were often plain with little decoration, all to make the audience focus just on the dancing. What little decoration there was was for film continuity.
• Mix and matched styles, not restrained to any rules in order to make the most impressive dance possible.
• (Possibly) his proactive approach to the whole process of creating a product meant

Fred Astaire changed the way dancing was perceived by an audience across America and beyond, while also impacting the ways in which it was produced and displayed in Hollywood. He revolutionised dancing through his seamless performances and skill, making it a more popular genre of film for others to pursue in the future.

The 'Outlaw' style of dancing which became synonymous with Astaire altered how popular culture saw dance. Instead of solely using one medium, ie ballroom or tap, he combined many different types of dancing in order to create the most visually impressive and expressive movement possible - drilling and practising until exactly what he wanted to be displayed was. This differed to the norm at the time, where performers would often specialise in and only perform one type of dance, which was less effective at creating an expressive performance although the films were easier and quicker to create. Also, combining the best/most effective parts of each medium meant that it was more entertaining for the audience (especially given his skill, making the moves appear even more impressive), raising the popularity of the genre. And building on this, he inspired a newer generation of dancers, and paved the way for later, younger performers such as Gene Kelly and  Donald O'Connor, to further explore and expand on the Hollywood dancing genre. It was said that his partnership with Hermes Pan, the writer of most of his music and a friend he worked very closely with, made dancing not just a part of Hollywood musicals, but brung it to the forefront, making it almost if not as important as singing (which can be attested by Astaire's successful singing performances, although his voice was not as good as others he still used it to form a successful career).

From a technical standpoint Astaire also changed the way Hollywood approached dancing. The norm of the time was to use editing and clever camera angles (close-ups of feet/faces/hands, low and high angle shots etc) to make the dancing appear faster and more impressive as the whole screen is filled with movement. While audience pleasing, it didn't show off the complexity and impressiveness of the movement, especially in Astaire's case where he perfected every movement. Because of this, Fred Astaire insisted that his dancing was only to be filmed with a wide shot, fully showing his body and as a result all movements. So while individual elements weren't highlighted, the overall dance was, which showed the audience and made them appreciate the difficulty of the dance and the skill of the dancer. And in fact it made the dancing appear more impressive as the seamlessness of it could be shown. He also insisted that the editing of his films followed a similar vein, only allowing cuts and editing to be used to allow the audience to gain a better perspective of the dancing, not to 'enhance' via clever angles and fast cutting as was the norm. And regardless the shots always showed the whole body in movement.
Similarly, Astaire also made demands regarding the set of his performances, which was considered and followed in other productions post his work. Regardless of setting, the stage had to be simple, with few to no obstacles or objects to limit movement unless they were expressly used in the piece (a concept used often in his solo work). This made the production more akin to the theatre, with which he'd had a lot of previous experience, which enhanced his filming choices, listed previously, further, creating a template followed in the years to come (seen in such films as Singin' in the Rain etc.).

In conclusion, Fred Astaire was instrumental in not only increasing the audience of the genre and making it more popular and viable for other performers in the future, he also altered the way in which dancing was shown in Hollywood, making it more accommodating to dance instead of just the cinematic aspect of the films.