Jazz Blog – 1st Year 2019/20 School Year

Bob Fosse (1927-1987) was a talented dancer from an early age and was therefore enrolled into formal training at the Frederick Weaver Ballet School. In his early teens he began working in the vaudeville scene in night clubs where he was exposed to the art of burlesque, a provocative and comedic variety show.

In 1945, at the age of 18, Fosse enrolled into the Navy however the war had come to an end whilst he was still in his military training therefore, he fulfilled his military requirements in the special services entertainment division (Davis, 2020). Following this, Fosse began working in Broadway choruses and appeared in the film ‘Kiss Me Kate’ in 1953. One year on ‘Pyjama Game’ was choreographed by Fosse which he claimed a Tony for ‘Best Choreography’ (Editors, 2017).

The ‘Fosse Style’ was not always the most popular as some directors found it too suggestive so Fosse began to work as both the choreographer and director on projects so that he could be free in his creative decisions. Some of the unique qualities of the Fosse style are the sexual and suggestive movements that were not as common in this era outside of vaudeville. The posture of the Fosse style shows rounded shoulders and turned in knees which shows how Fosse adapted his style around his limitations. He was pigeon toed and had naturally hunched shoulders which are not ideal in styles such as ballet, therefore he made this the correct form for his own style. Another unique quality to his works is the use of the broken wrist ‘Jazz Hands’ which are an iconic part of the jazz style. This came about to blend his shaking hands into a formalised move, another clever way Fosse has turned his limitations into art (Nicolaou, 2019).

In our ‘Juggernaut’ assessment routine, there are many Fosse moves and references, for example the use of Fosse walks where the knees are bend and the weight is back and behind the body the arms sway side to side in coordination with the stepping of the legs. The challenge of this move is keeping the top of the arms tight to the body with only the lower arms moving. There is also always a break in the wrist with ever arm extension that creates the dramatic Fosse line an and an example can be seen when we slowly raise each arm alternatively sharply stopping at the top, breaking the wrist.

Jack Cole (1911-1974) began his training at Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts where he was exposed to many cultural teachings including Indian. Cole mastered India’s Bharata Natyam during his training which among other styles which greatly influenced his style. During his career he had many great opportunities such as choreographing for Marilyn Munroe’s ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend’ and for others such as Rita Hayworth, Gwen Verdon and Betty Greble (Dowd, 2019)

However, he did not grow to the same fame as Fosse due to his reference of night clubs as his venues where critics visited less, and he did not have a successful Broadway show that often kicked off the career of choreographers. His style also played a part in this as it was not as structured as other styles such as ballet so therefore could not be easily notated and reproduced without his input. He decided to begin working in commercial dance in night clubs as it would pay him better than modern dance would. He came to create his own company ‘The Jack Cole Dancers’ who toured across America and Cuba (miss Davis).

 His style is unique and entertaining with qualities that show the influence of his multi-cultural training. This includes the use of plié and a low centre of gravity using second position and a turned in forth which we use often in Jazz class. He also used a lot of isolated movements with different parts of the body and lots of sharp changes of direction. Knee slides were often a part of Cole’s work coming from his acrobatic training (Davis, 2020).

In the ‘Bad Guy’ technical piece for our assessment there are elements of his style shown throughout. During the verses are isolated movements like Cole would use that require a powerful stop at the end of each movement to make them strong. This has a dynamic feel and allows for the facial performance to shine through as the movements are simple and stationary. We also perform all the turns with a low centre of gravity in the Cole style as it helps to keep the movements compact which allows us to travel more with better balance. His use of change of direction can be seen in our commercial piece as well as the technical piece and is very effective when performed with a sharp quality (Davis, 2020).

Jerome Robbins (1918-1998) began studying Chemistry at New York University before deciding to follow a career in dance after only a year. He studied many dance styles and performed in the chorus of many Broadway shows before joining what is now known as American Ballet Theatre in 1940 where he performed some bigger roles. His first successful choreography was a ballet named ‘Fancy Free’ which he later expanded to a Broadway musical which he named ‘On the Town’. Following these successes, he spent some time working on both ballets and musicals and in 1948 he joined New York City Ballet which was new founded at the time as a dancer and a choreographer. Some of his most famous musicals he choreographed are ‘West Side Story’ which the Broadway version won him a Tony for best choreography and ‘Fiddler on the Roof’. He continued to create work up to a year before his death and set up a charity in his name, ‘The Jerome Robbins Foundation’ to help fund dance and theatre projects and also gives financial support to projects that are supporting the fight against the AIDS crisis (Pallardy, 2019).

Robbins’s work was always expressive of the era and he liked to move with the times. However, there are elements to his choreography that remain consistent throughout his work. Some examples are, the sense of community such as the gangs in West Side Story and many scenes in other works of friends coming together, which may have strung from confusion he felt in many aspects of his life such as romance and family that he wanted to combat. He also showed a whole new world to the audience with fully realised ideas that the dancers portrayed through performance to fully set the scene. His performers were always engaged but pushed to create an effortless look that makes the dancing even more enjoyable to watch (Davis, 2020).

In our musical theatre routine ‘Juggernaut’ we set the scene by gathering as friends would in a speakeasy of the 20s before dancing together as a unit. Here we demonstrate Robbins’s ideals of community and of storytelling. And in our commercial routine we have to be completely engaged within our core, but it has a relaxed and grounded feel to the movements to give the appearance that it is easy although it being difficult to accomplish.

Davis, C. (2020). 1st Year - Bob Fosse. [Blog] School Year 2019/20!. Available at: https://missdavisbtuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/1st-year-bob-fosse.html [Accessed 2 Mar. 2020].

Davis, C. (2020). 1st Year - Jack Cole. [Blog] School Year 2019/20!. Available at: https://missdavisbtuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/1st-year-jack-cole.html [Accessed 2 Mar. 2020].

Dowd, V. (2019). How Marilyn's Diamonds routine sparkled. [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-47814968 [Accessed 2 Mar. 2020].

Davis, C. (2020). 1st Year - Jerome Robbins. [Blog] School Year 2019/20. Available at: https://missdavisbtuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/1st-year-jerome-robbins.html [Accessed 3 Mar. 2020].

Editors, B. (2017). Bob Fosse. [online] Biography. Available at: https://www.biography.com/performer/bob-fosse [Accessed 2 Mar. 2020].

Nicolaou, E. (2019). You Can Thank Bob Fosse For Your Jazz Hands. [online] Refinery29.com. Available at: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/04/229334/what-is-bob-fosse-dance-style-jazz-moves [Accessed 2 Mar. 2020].

Pallardy, R. (2019). Jerome Robbins | American choreographer. [online] Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jerome-Robbins [Accessed 3 Mar. 2020].