“He’d look out from under his eyebrows, his cigarette a smoke screen between him and the rest of the world, and nobody knew what he was thinking” (Beddow xi). This is how Margery Beddow describes Bob Fosse in her book, Bob Fosse's Broadway. There is no question about whether or not Fosse was extremely innovative in the world of theatrical dance. His technique, style, personality, and achievements throughout his career speak for themselves. You may have seen him in movies such as Kiss Me Kate, My Sister Eileen, Damn Yankees, The Little Prince, and Thieves, however, he also helped direct and choreograph several of other films such as Sweet Charity, Lenny, All That Jazz, Star 80, and more. Although Fosse did contribute a lot to the film industry, …show more content…
This preparation greatly contributed to his unique style of choreography. Some of Fosse’s stylistic choices that you may recognize from Fosse technique include jazz hands, rolled in shoulders, and “the rake” — leaning back while keeping the pelvis forward with one hand on the dancer’s hat while the other hand limps hangs at the waist. In addition, Fosse was also very inventive in adding humor to his choreography. Being able to achieve comedy in dance is one of the hardest things to do as a choreographer. However, Fosse managed to to create comedy within his choreography it would never fail to continuously make the audience roar in laughter. Not only was Fosse's choreography unique, he was also an expert on creating structure for each number, allowing for seamless transitions. Gene Foote noted that he felt as though, “Fosse's show stopping capability came from his knowledge of how to build a number to a climax— to give it a beginning, in middle, and an end…” (Beddow …show more content…
Beddow repeatedly stated that Fosse had a certain quality about him that made his dancers feel as though they would do anything for him. Fosse showed his dancers that they could push past their limits and do more than they thought they could ever do before. People were also amazed by Fosse's ability to create characters. Fosse was one of the first choreographers/directors to give ensemble dancers each a different character to drop movement quality from. In addition to building characters, he would also have a subtext for everything in his choreography. When trying to describe the quality Fosse wanted in a certain step, he would create an image for the dancers to job from executing that step. Because Fosse was so particular about the way his movement was done, his choreography was a lot more difficult than it appeared. Margery Beddow also raised that Fosse's audition process was the most fair and organized auditions that she had ever been to. She explained that Fosse would teach three different combinations to the dancers then would grade each dancer on each combination on a scale of A to E. Then whichever dancers had the best grades would be the ones that Fosse would hire. It didn't matter how well a person knew Fosse. If you didn't receive the best grades, you weren't
Unlike most of his contemporaries, Grossman’s dance movements vary from one production to another. In the 1975 production ‘Higher’ the dance movements were mainly using the whole body. The piece went for 15 minutes and was explicit in its design so that the audience could clearly see and understand the intended message/s. This piece received many awards and is what got Grossman noticed and brought into the dancing world.
Mark Morris was born and raised in Seattle, Washington; a location very receptive to fine art and free expression. Unlike the stereotypic rise through adversity with unaccepting parents Morris’ parents were actually incredibly supportive of his dreams. Morris’ decided early on that he wanted to be a performer, and not say an accountant. Being born in 1956 he was very heavily influenced by his intensely amateur musical family, instilling in him a great appreciation for opera and classical music; this would later show up in his choreography. He danced for the Koleda Balkan Dance Ensemble dance company early on, establishing himself in 1973.He managed to garner enough respect to choreograph his first major performance in 1978 at the age of 22.
Bob Fosse was born June 23, 1927, and died September 23, 1987. Born in Chicago USA. (Wikipedia, 2016, para.1) He grew up he had six siblings and had Norwegian and Irish parents. He was an American choreographer in musical theatre as well as a director, film director, screen writer, and actor. He has won the most Tonys ever for his choreography with eight Tony awards. Fosse's choreography changed how society saw dancing on film and stage with his style being nothing like anything anyone had ever seen before. His style was unique and edgy with unusual arm movements, poses, and gesture. "I thank god that I wasn't born perfect." Said Fosse. (Brainy Quote,
Stage, film, and television dancer, director, and choreographer, was born Robert Louis Fosse in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Cyril Kingsley Fosse, a vaudeville entertainer turned salesman, and Sarah Alice Stanton (Grubb). At nine years of age, Fosse began classes in jazz, tap, and ballet at Chicago’s Academy of the Arts. Small and asthmatic, with a speech impediment that caused him to slur words, he later remarked that his early dance training stemmed from a need to overcompensate for his perceived “handicaps” (Gottfried). He was still a child when he headlined his own act—Bobby Fosse’s Le Petit Cabaret—tap dancing and telling jokes in local nightclubs.
Analyzing each personal dancer I am detailing the differences of each artist dance styles first starting with, Maud Allen, dance style used impressionism emotions through her movement at the time of her performance telling the story based on her movements and own emotions (Aloff). Based on feelings within that depicted the way she moved within the performance and displayed to the audience watching. Maud Allen was famous for the dance of Salome a story told in biblical text about the beheading of john the Baptist a prophet, captured by Herod because he denounced the right to marry his wife’s name Herodias due to being his half-brothers
When modern day people think about “The Theater”, most people think about going to the movies. In earlier times, people thought about one family, The Burbages. The Burbage family was very well known because of their success in the theaters. The purpose of this paper is to give facts about Richard Burbage’s life and to tell the influence he had on the theater.
Throughout the years, America has pursued the performing arts in a large variety of ways. Theatre plays a dramatic and major role in the arts of our society today, and it takes great effort in all aspects. Musical Theatre, specifically, involves a concentration and strength in dance, acting, and singing. This is the base that Musical Theatre is built upon. For my Senior Project, I helped choreograph multiple scenes in a community musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie”. Choreography is a way of expressing oneself, but it has not always been thought of for that purpose. Agnes de Mille’s expressive talent has drastically affected how people see choreography today. Agnes de Mille’s influence in the world of dance has left a lasting impact in the Performing Arts Department, and her revolutionary works are still known today for their wit, lyricism, emotion, and charm.
People have dreams of what they want to do or accomplish in life, but usually musical theatre is just pushed into the non-realistic void. It isn’t a dream for me. In the past four years, musical theatre has been clarified as my reality. Musical theatre has been the only thing I have seen myself wanting to do. My first love was The Phantom of the Opera, seeing how I watched it almost every day and it was one of the first shows I saw. Of course, I started doing all of those cute shows in middle school and making a huge deal about it to my family and friends, but I have never felt so passionate about something. The minute I get up on that stage I throw away Riley for two and a half hours and it’s the most amazing feeling! Being able to tell a story
It allowed the audience to view the body of a dancer or person in ways never portrayed before onstage as well as using movement to show larger ideas of social change. Fosse took his movement in his work to a more fantasized state through his perfectionist techniques, whereas Robbins created a heightened realism in his movement. Fosse, inspired by vaudeville, incorporates derbies and gloves as an allusion to hiding from the society we currently live in. Robbins takes society as it is and tries to find solutions to society's problems in the given moment they take place in. Both use emotions as actions as a commonality to approach their work. The core of Robbin’s work is shown in the descriptions of the action in each ballet. One can picture exactly what the dancers are doing and what makes this action unique. Fosse did this by making every movement so intense in detail that the dancer was forced into the sharpness of Fosse’s choreography. Robbins made actions and emotional intentions, his main goal for his performers as he believed in the actions in storytelling above all else. Robbin’s training at Stella Adler allowed him to see the perspective of the actor’s intentions more clearly than that of Fosse and also gained inspiration of bold and expressive movements from the teachings of Martha Graham. Stella Adler taught that “growth as an actor and
...costume design. Bakst was aware that the actors and dances had to perform very drastically on stage and knew that the costumes could not interrupt the choreography. Bakst was praised for his consciousness of the movements the body had to perform while in costume, and knowing how to design to make the dancer feel comfortable keeping the actor in mind. Bakst was still able to create very extravagant and highly decorated designs without feeling like he had any limitations. When Bakst designed a costume he viewed it more as creating a movement rather than clothes for a model to wear. This idea is evident in his sketches due to the fact that he never drew the models in a static pose they were always portrayed dancing. “A marvelously decorative artist with great taste, infinite imagination, extraordinarily refined and aristocratic.” Book leon bakst Russian inspiration
Learning about Dance: Dance as an Art Form and Entertainment provides visions into the many features of dance and inspires scholars to keep an open mind and think critically about the stimulating, bold, ever-changing and active world of dance. Learning about Dance is particularly useful for those who do not have a wide and diverse dance contextual, such as students in a preliminary level or survey dance course. This book consists of twelve chapters. Chapter one dance as an art form focuses on the basic structures of dance. Dance is displayed through the human body, it has the control to communicate and induce reactions. Dance can be found in many different places, it enables the participants and seekers to touch and knowledge the joy of movement. Dance is discovered as being one of the oldest art forms worldwide. Dance existed in early cultures was recognized in a sequence of rock paintings portrayed dance. Since this discovery of rock paintings, several other forms of art have been found that depict dance. People used rituals in order to worship the gods and believed that the rituals held magical and spiritual powers. During the ancient period civilizations sentient decisions began to be made with regard to dance. Other periods that had an impact on dance were the medieval period, the renaissance period, and the contemporary period. Chapter two the choreographer, the choreographer is a person who comes up with the movements created into a dance routine. The choreographer expresses themselves through choreography because this is their way of communicating with the audience. In order to be a choreographer you must have a passion for dance. Each choreographer has their own approaches and ways of making up a routine. Choreographers ...
During the early 20th century, dance underwent a major revolution. Previously, dance, specifically ballet, was very rigid and structured. With the turn of the century though, many choreographers began experimenting with techniques and styles that transcended the traditional norms of dance at the time such as the legendary Merce Cunningham. Known for works such as Variations and Nearly Ninety, Merce Cunningham left his impact on the modern dance world with his use of chance operations, his collaboration with various artist and musicians, and later in his life, technology. An apprentice of Martha Graham, Merce went on to teach famous dancers, such as Paul Taylor, who would go on to leave their own footprint in the history of dance.
The 2000s/ 2010s brought in a wave of movie musicals- adapted from the stage shows. These brought new audiences into the theatre world, and for the first time in 20 years, brought a love to some of the timeless musicals. With slightly altered songs to appeal to a newer audience, these films brought in much needed money into the industry, with films including: Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Hairspray, Mamma Mia, Fame- and many more. Together with this, musicals began to push the concept of the songs in them, with a wave of new styles being written. Rap musicals such as ‘Hamilton’ and ‘In The Heights’, Pop musicals including ‘Waitress’ and ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ and Rock musicals of ‘American Idiot’ and ‘Spring Awakening’. Together they pushed boundaries of a ‘traditional’ musical theatre sound, and brought in something never before seen. Due to the influence of ‘Rent’, controversial issues and themes began to be explored more, such as Teen suicide, Murder, Ethnic barriers and everything else, which brought with them, a world of opportunities. It was clear that musical theatre was once again showing for a promising
...downfalls. Fagan in his own hope want the audience to look at dance without going through boredom or thinking dance as a medicine (Bramley 24:1997). The musical has allowed this particular component to make differences to such challenges from one dance to the next. This was possible due to Fagan’s approach to choreography that are different compared to another choreography that was designed to other Disney films turned musicals i.e. Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid. These two notable musicals have taken the stages of Broadway by storm. However, there is an ingredient missing to those shows that Taymor was able to capture from beginning to end with the Lion King. It was a risky challenge that Fagan radically took out of the negative into the positive with the use of vocabulary to approach the use of dance and movement as part of a highly successful musical.
In this paper, I will be focusing briefly on my knowledge and understanding of the concept of Applied theatre and one of its theatre form, which is Theatre in Education. The term Applied Theatre is a broad range of dramatic activity carried out by a crowd of diverse bodies and groups.