Rosabella Murphy Jazz blog 2020

Bob Fosse

Bob Fosse is a hugely successful and influential choreographer who changed the world of dance through the creation of his spectacular unique style. His work was extremely enjoyable and popular among the public in which many described as unlike anything seen before, with his style consisting of jazz hands, turned in knees, curved shoulders, and sharp hand gestures (Nicolaou, 2019).


Within lots of Fosse’s choreography, there are many small isolated movements making the choreography complex and technical for the dancers (Nicolaou,2019). When watching “All That Jazz” from the musical “Chicago” the dancers execute minimalistic isolated movements such as swift head turns and jazz hands, due to these strong and fast actions the dancers have to be precise and in unison in order for the choreography to look effective, so although the choreography within this piece isn’t overly challenging it is mentally difficult for the dancers as they have to make sure they are hitting every action with isolation but also in time with the rest of the dancers (Chicago the Musical “All that Jazz, 2012). This quality within Fosse’s work reflects in our “Wild Party” Jugganaught routine as we perform sharp individual movements such as strong arm and hand gestures, quick spins and isolated leg actions in unison. We must make sure that we are precise and in time as a group for the piece to come across successful.


 Fosse has created some iconic choreography that is typical of his jazzy and burlesque like style. One of his significant positions is turned in knees and bent legs, (Eschner, 2017).  I feel this is one of the factors that make his work so unique as this is not a typical dance movement which makes his sense of style so different and abstract to many others. Within our Jugganaught piece we use the idea of bent knees and turned in legs a number of times, for example at one point within our dance we sharply bring our leg to a parallel Retire with a bent underneath supporting leg in which we repeat multiple times. Within our piece, we also perform with bent knees and turned in extended legs which are very typical of the fosse style.


Fosse also demonstrates a real sense of performance within his work focusing on facial expressions and the way in which dancers perform his choreography portraying his intense and sensual style.  When watching snippets of Fosse’s work from his musicals Cabaret (Cabaret- Mein Herr- 1972, 2011). and Chicago (Chicago The Musical “All That Jazz”, 2012”). the dancers use suggestive and secretive facial expressions which really portrays Fosse’s seductive sense of style. Similarly, in our piece Jugganaught, we use facial expressions such as secretive smirks and lowered eyeline for our choreographic intention and style to come across.


Jack Cole

Jack Cole is known as the father of American jazz dancing who had an extremely successful career creating a variety of films and musicals. Cole had a very personal and individual style combining a mixture of genres (Street swing, na).  His choreography usually consisted of isolations, deep plies, sharp direction changes and big leaps (Rizzuto, 2013). Broadway star Rivera (na) who had performed alongside Cole in the past even quoted him as “Extraordinary” and described his style as “nothing else you’d seen.”.


Cole incorporates his unique style within a lot of his choreography and some of the movements he created consisted of bumps and grinds as well as fast isolated actions (Street Swing, na). Within our Jason Derulo routine, we perform a commercial style which involves being grounded and powerful with our movements. Similar to Cole’s choreography we execute strong hand and arm gestures whilst being low to the ground with bent knees and a relaxed upper body, this is shown within the beginning section where we step to the side in a grounded manner whilst fiercely swinging our arm back in a circle to jab our elbow out to the side with our hand in a fist, in order for this to look effective we have to perform it with real isolation and of the commercial style.


 Cole also focuses on spacing and patterns when creating his choreography and he is known for incorporating quick diagonal changes within his work (Street Swing, na). We can reflect upon this in our Jason Derulo piece as within the dance there are moments where we have to quickly turn or walk in different directions, for example in one section we have to create a box formation with our partners gliding from corner to corning facing different directions. When performing this we must shift quickly from space to space. There are also other moments within the piece where we walk to different corners within our group and perform certain actions facing opposite directions.


Some of Coles work was performed in a grounded manner, where the dancers would perform his movements such as deep plies (Rizzuto, 2013). This is clearly shown within his choreography from the “Ninevah Dance” from Kismet where the dancers perform deep plies and actions such as simple walks with bent knees, within this piece the dancers smoothly transition from movement to movement staying low to the ground (Jack Cole choreography- “Ninevah Dance” from Kismet 1999, 2013). This can be linked to our Jason Derulo routine as throughout we stay low and grounded performing all actions with weight which is typical of the commercial style. To add to this when dancing we must keep our weight forward and low as well as bending our knees to create this effect of all our movements looking earthy for the movements to flow.





Jerome Robbins

Jerome Robbins is one of Broadway and Hollywood’s greatest choreographers creating top musicals such as West Side Story, Fiddler on the roof and Billion-dollar baby. He is one of the most popular choreographers and has an extremely imaginative style which is a fusion of Modern, ballet and jazz. His work also contained humour and the dancers would perform characters that were familiar with the audience (Dance National Arts centre, na). Robbins wanted his dancers to perform his choreography with a sense of freedom and ease (Rizzuto, 2015).


Within a lot of Robbins work, he deeply focused on showing a clear storyline throughout his choreography by having strong characters to lead the piece (Dance National Arts centre, na). Even within his most abstract work, the audience is still able to depict different characters through the dancer’s facial expressions and body language (Roy, 2005). Within our Billie Eilish routine we portray an intense and powerful expression through our sense of performance performing low and grounded movements with strong facial expressions to reflect upon the eerie mood of the piece relating to the dramatic music.


Jerome Robbins often matched many of his movements to his music making sure all actions seamlessly blended with the song his choreography was performed to (Roy, 2005). This is a similar characteristic in our Billie Ellish routine as most of our actions complement the heavy and strong beats within the music. A clear example of this is at the beginning of our piece where we perform sharp and isolated clicks with strong arm lines pointing in different directions in time with the syncopated beat in the music.


Finally, Robbins also used everyday movements within his choreography, hinting this idea of normality (Roy, 2005). This links to our Billie Eilish routine as we also perform simple movements that may be used within everyday life such as sharp head turns, walks and isolated clicks. These small movements come across as being simple however we must make sure they are performed with precision and sharpness.




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REFERENCES:


Chicago The Musical “All that Jazz”, 2012, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va8VDBGcKS4  (accessed 2nd march 2020)



Cabaret- Mein Herr- 1972, 2011, YouTube video,  https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=caberet+mine+herr&&view=detail&mid=D6732F0FB3D26794C132D6732F0FB3D26794C132&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dcaberet%2Bmine%2Bherr%26FORM%3DHDRSC3 (accessed 2nd March 2020)



Dance national arts centre, Biography- Jerome Robbins [online], http://www.artsalive.ca/en/dan/meet/bios/artistDetail.asp?artistID=59 (accessed 1st march 2020)



Elena Nicolaou, 2019, You can thank Bob Fosse for your jazz hands, [online], https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/04/229334/what-is-bob-fosse-dance-style-jazz-moves , (accessed 28th February 2020)



Jack Cole choreography- “Ninevah Dance” from Kismet (1999), 2013, You Tube video , https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=jack+cole+choreography+ninevah+dance+from+kismet&&view=detail&mid=9795333CB77125542C5E9795333CB77125542C5E&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Djack%2520cole%2520choreography%2520ninevah%2520dance%2520from%2520kismet%26qs%3Dn%26form%3DQBVR%26sp%3D-1%26pq%3Djack%2520cole%2520choreography%2520ninevah%2520dance%2520from%2520kismet%26sc%3D0-48%26sk%3D%26cvid%3D19502F6AF1024EC1AF0BEF492DB94E5B (accessed 2nd March 2020)





Kat Eschner, 2017, Choreographer Bob Fosse is the forgotten author of Modern musicals, [online], https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/choreographer-bob-fosse-forgotten-author-modern-musicals-180963746/ (accessed 28th February 2020)



Michael Barson, 2019, Bob Fosse [online], https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bob-Fosse (accessed 1st March 2020)





Michael Kantor , Bob Fosse, [online], https://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/stars/bob-fosse/ (accessed 28th February)



Rachel Rizzuto, 2015, Ballet and Broadway Genius 1918-1998: Jerome Robbins, [online] https://www.dance-teacher.com/jerome-robbins-2-2392628682.html ( accessed 1st March 2020)



Rachel Rizzuto, 2013, History Lesson Plan: Jack Cole, [online] https://www.dance-teacher.com/history-lesson-plan-jack-cole-2392429308.html (accessed 2nd March 2020)





Vincent Dowd, 2019, Jack Cole: The “scary” dancer who made Marilyn sparkle [online], https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-47814968 (accessed 28th February 2020)





Street swing, [online],  https://www.streetswing.com/histmai2/d2jcole1.htm (accessed 28th February)





Sanjoy Roy, 2005, Step by Step guide to Dance: Jerome Robbins, [online] https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/jul/07/guide-dance-jerome-robbins (accessed 1st march 2020)



Vincent Dowd, 2019, Jack Cole: The “scary” dancer who made Marilyn sparkle [online], https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-47814968 (accessed 28th February 2020)