The FtY Bob Fosse Blogathon is exactly two weeks from today — November 10, 2007. (There’s more on the Fossethon in the latter part of this post.)

And so above is my favorite of three remarkable dance sequences from Mr. Fosse’s first onscreen choreography credit, and the closest he ever got to a starring role as an actor, the underrated 1955 musical, My Sister Eileen. Musicals were already receding as a movie genre, but there’s nothing but freshness and delight to be found in the work of Fosse and director Richard Quine in this scene, featuring musical comedy stalwart Betty Garrett, Janet Leigh (near her late twenties and still a charming ingénue), dancer Tommy Rall, and Fosse himself.

Fosse was 28 at the time and he was one of the film’s romantic male leads alongside Jack Lemmon (who sort of sings one song, but never dances). Fosse’s performance as the good-natured soda jerk who worships the titular Eileen (Janet Leigh) is likable enough to have made a star of another performer (perhaps one with a larger head), but he seems to have concentrated even more on coming up with some genuinely original dance numbers. I love this number for its unembarrassed exuberance. It’s an expression of joy and pal-ship and the love of performance for its sake — and it’s just self-aware enough to keep from drowning in its own silliness.

Shades of “Hey, Big Spender”?

While the blogathon will surely focus mostly on Fosse’s honestly dark view of show business, media, and the world around it, the flip side of that was he loved it all, and saw that, in its purest form, dancing, shtick, and just plain showing off can be one of the best things there is about being a human. But that’s a thought for another day, specifically 11/10/07.