The entertaining Invitation to the Dance is an ambitious project that ultimately falls somewhat short of its promise; interestingly, Invitation's biggest flaw is that there is not as much dance in it as there should be. There's always movement, mind you, and more than a little bit of mime; but a film that wants to be a total celebration of dance needs to employ genuine, legitimate dance throughout. Too many portions of Dance settle for acting without words -- as in a silent movie, in other words -- instead of finding a way to use dance to convey story, character, or emotion. That said, there are a number of sequences in which dance is used properly, and these show how good the film could have been. The first section, the "Circus" segment, is very uneven; the "show" dancing and the romantic pas de deux are lovely, but the +Pagliacci-like story is unconvincingly told and comes across as too melodramatic. The second "Ring Around the Rosy" sequence is a re-telling of +La Ronde, but done without sufficient imagination and development, and with a tacked-on happy ending that is laughable. Yet there's a tempestuously sensual duet between Gene Kelly and Tamara Toumanova that is achingly sad, torrid, and exciting. (Kelly's choreographed movement for the partygoers, while simple, is quite effective and deserves applause.) The final "Sinbad the Sailor" segment is the most successful and is totally charming, due in large part to the fact that dance is employed to a greater extent. Kelly's decision to make the genie a child is inspired, and the use of animation adds to the appeal. The serpent dance is perhaps the most well-known, and is quite good, but Kelly's knife dance and trio with the two guards are its equal. Invitation to the Dance sometimes misses the mark, but it's still a delightful little curiosity.