Grease: Daniel Levins, the green shirt dancer

I whipped out this copy of the Grease soundtrack a few days ago to give the evergreen tunes another listen. (More about this long-playing record later in this story.) It was a bit nostalgic filling my ears with the music again and memories brought me back to 1979 when I watched the film on the big screen. True, the film was released in 1978 but it only arrived in Malaysia in 1979, such was the distribution in the distant past. Unlike now, we didn't get to see new releases until weeks or even months later. We were hardly up-to-date in those days.

I can't remember how many times I've watched this show in the past. Maybe five or six, maybe more. But no matter how many times I've watched Grease, I've never failed to be mesmerised by the dance hall and carnival scenes in the show. Certainly felt like a free-for-all where the principal and back-up actors were allowed free reign to fool around.

In my opinion, the carnival scene stood out mainly because of one particular back-up dancer: Daniel Levans, known as the guy in the green shirt. He was amazing and extremely talented, which must have come from his training as a classical ballet dancer. His dance movements in the film conveyed a lot of energy and I agree with some observations that he could have even outshone all of the main cast. Anyone watching Grease again should look out for Levans in this carnival sequence.

As the back-up dancer, he was also the scene-stealer in the dance hall sequence. Who could not have noticed him strutting boldly in front of the camera during the dance contest? There were so many instances of Levans popping up in the background, as if the producer had purposely positioned him there.

By the way, Daniel Levins was his real name; and Levans was what he was known as professionally in Grease and his other films in the 1970s - The Turning Point, The Goodbye Girl and Godspell - but they were all minor roles.

Levins was the principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater in the 1970s. As an actor, he never made it big on the silver screen and was mostly teaching in ballet and dance academies in the United States. He died on 14 Sep 2015, four years ago today, aged 62.

Side One: Grease (Frankie Valli), Summer nights (John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John and Cast), Hopelessly devoted to you (Olivia Newton-John), You're the one that I want (John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John), Sandy (John Travolta)
Side Two: Beauty school drop-out (Frankie Avalon), Look at me I'm Sandra Dee (Stockard Channing), Greased lightnin' (John Travolta and Jeff Conaway), It's raining on Prom Night (Cindy Bullens), Alone at a drive-in movie (Instrumental), Blue moon (Sha Na Na)
Side Three: Rock n' roll is here to stay (Sha Na Na), Those magic changes (Sha Na Na), Hound dog (Sha Na Na), Born to hand-jive (Sha Na Na), Tears on my pillow (Sha Na Na), Mooning (Louis St Louis and Cindy Bullens)
Side Four: Freddy my love (Cindy Bullens), Rock n' roll party queen (Louis St Louis), There are worse things I could do (Stockard Channing), Look at me I'm Sandra Dee (Reprise) (Olivia Newton-John), We go together (John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John and Cast), Love is a many splendoured thing (Instrumental), Grease (Reprise) (Frankie Valli)