Book dance choreography? Yes, it exists. Admit it, you’ve been known to dance around, a book in-hand with sheer joy. But I think we’d all be in agreement that the best book-choreographed dance scene is surely from “The Music Man” when Harold Hill (Robert Preston) sings to ”Marian the Librarian” played by a young Shirley Jones. The scene begins when Harold visits the library, but Marian ignores him and tries to perform her duties as librarian to the local Iowa library. At this point Harold proclaims his unrequited love for Marian. He coos during the number “for the civilized world accepts as unforgivable sin/ Any talking out loud with any librarian” and proceeds to get a whole library filled with youngsters to dance in hopes of catching her eye. How cool is the character of Marian in this film being both a librarian and piano teacher? This film was not filmed in an actual library but on a sound stage at the Warner Brother Burbank Studios in California.
This clip from the 1962 film will make you want to head on down to River City!!