Bob Fosse Percussion Instruments

Bob Fosse was born in Chicago, Illinois, on June 23, 1927 and lived till September 23, 1987, passing away in Washington D.C due to a fatal heart attack. At a young age he was recognised as a child prodigy by many, partaking in many children’s variety shows and would play on his talent to stand out amongst his 5 siblings “as a preschooler, found he could win the attention of this family by staging little dances in the living room” (Grubb, 1996)
Being born in the aftermath of the roaring 1920’s which saw a restless culture, fronted by America's youth rebelling against the moral restrictions of past generations, challenging traditional notions of proper behaviour, (LLC, 2011) there is no surprise that Fosse too would go on to push boundaries and

challenge conventions.

Noticing his clear ability Fosse’s started attending lessons through the support of his parents, which focused mainly on hoofing style tap. Although suffering from health problems as a child which included asthma and epilepsy (Seymour, 2013), Bob Fosse was so dedicated that by the time he reached high school, he was already dancing professionally in area nightclubs as part of their vaudeville and burlesque shows, the 1930’s-40’s Vaudeville and Burlesque scene heavily influence Fosse’s work thereafter, the sexually free atmosphere of these clubs and the strippers that Fosse was in constant contact along with his fascination with vaudeville’s dark humour and teasing sexual tones, developed themes in his adult work, such as Chicago, Sweet Charity, All That Jazz and many more (where sexuality, and promiscuity are at the forefront throughout).
A particularly iconic movement of Fosse’s work stemming from his burlesque and vaudeville exposure would be thrusts and strong hand gesture to sexual regions, this can be seen heavily throughout his work, a particular example being ‘percussion 4’ a male solo choreographed by Fosse from his show Dancin’. Prior to the athletic turns, jumps and leaps the dancer performs sexual gestures with his hands and pelvis as well as pelvic thrusts and isolations during the opening section, undoubtable mirroring burlesque during the era of 1930s-40s and confirming its influence on Fosse’s style.

Being restricted himself as a dancer effected his dance career but led him to success in choreography/production/directing, and particular within his choreography his restrictions can be seen, his curvature of the spine led to exaggerated shoulder drops, isolations and contorted angles whereas his poor turnout and minimal ballet training influenced stylised parallel or turned in characteristic of movement in walks and positions.
In ‘Percussion 4’ we can see how Bob Fosse’s body shape, limitations but also strength affected his choreography. The initial position the dancer takes, is in parallel, with a turned in left leg accentuating Fosse’s quirky positions. This use of parallel and turned in feet/legs also appears in the majority of Bob Fosse’s work including that of ‘Steam Heat’ from ‘Pajama Game’.

Bob Fosse used the sound of all of the different percussion instruments as well as playing around with accents within music to manipulate time and energy in his performance (giving his choreography the clean crispy yet easy, effortless feel).

An example would be his classic clicks during the opening section of Blackbird from Fosse, the simplistic choreography, slight sexual current and impeccably timing, brings together the ensembles gesturing clicks with the percussive clicks of the music and creates a captivating opening to the number.
“It had every percussion instrument in the book and the wonder of it was how perfectly Fosse captured the sound of each in his Choreography” „Bob Fosse‟s Broadway‟ Margery Beddow 1996

Bob Fosse changed the way audiences around the world viewed dance on the stage and in the film industry during his life. “Visionary, intense, and unbelievably driven, Fosse was an artist whose work was always provocative, entertaining, and quite unlike anything ever before seen.” dancehttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/stars/bob-fosse/
Likely due to his own personal struggles his work often swayed between humour and cynicism, nevertheless reaching out to all audiences due to the vast range of human emotions involved and delivering a spectacle which was and forever will be

celebrated.