BOB FOSSE CHOREOGRAPHY (PART 2)

Here's three more Fosse dances. That's Gwen Verdon above, from the film version of "Damn Yankees." There's a couple of classic Fosse moves here which Gwen didn't get right, but it doesn't matter because she projected tremendous appeal. Geez, being a star dancer is tough. In addition to knowing how to sing and dance and act, you have to somehow acquire charisma and a personal style.



Here's (above) "Rich Man's Frug" (pronounced like the fru in "frugal) from "Sweet Charity." It's not one of Fosse's best efforts but it's full of good ideas and it's an interesting clip to study. Watch it and try to answer the question, "Exactly what went wrong?" I'll take a stab at an answer.

For me there's a story problem. The dance lacks context. We need to see all this weirdness through the eyes of a character we care about. Shirley McLane should have been part of the number, an innocent clumsily trying to pass as a big city sophisticate.

Camera placement was also a problem. Fosse was a master at staging and photographing big ensemble numbers for the camera, but even he didn't pull them off 100% of the time.  Nobody does...it's the nature of the business. There's a youTube interview where Fosse talks candidly about the problem and you can see that the very mention of the subject gave him the shivers. What do you do when the public demands a home run every time you're at bat?



Here's when Fosse got it right...a big ensemble number that works flawlessly.

CHOREOGRAPHY BY BOB FOSSE (REVISED) (PART I)

NOTE: I've revised this post, and now it's in two parts. The second part follows this one).

Geez, I wanted to talk about choreography and the terms musical comedy choreographers use for dances and dance moves...terms like "the Foxy Trio" and "the Tea for Two," and words like "Terpsichore" and "Violanda." I just couldn't self-educate, even in a small way, in the short time I had. Oh, well...I'll still write about it soon, even if everything I say requires correction.

I still have choreography on my mind, though. I thought about posting about Jack Cole, an early jazz choreographer. While watching his videos I got sidetracked into watching Bob Fosse numbers again, and seeing him at his best wiped everything else from my mind. Here's three of the ones I watched. You've probably seen them before. I have, dozens of times. I'm obsessed, I know. I'm to be pitted.




Fosse was a musical comedy guy. Watch numbers he worked on like "A Secretary is Not A Toy," "Whatever Lola Wants",  "Brotherhood of Man" and the money song from Caberet to get a feeling for how he handles humor. He's great at it. It's surprising then, that he's so good at dramatic dances like the one above. Of course he sneaks humor into them.




Here's the death finale from "All That Jazz." The dark humor in it makes everything seem doubly tragic. I can't watch this without tears flowing. It's amazing that the most moving depiction of death on film was done by a dancer.

THE ART OF ANIMATION DANCING

That's (above) the old Chouinard art school in the 30's, the school that later morphed into Cal Arts. It was Walt Disney's idea to combine the Chouinard Art Institute and the LA Conservatory of Music so that different artistic disciplines would be taught under the same roof. It was an interesting idea...cross pollination and all that...but did it work?

One problem was that formal modern dance got very serious more than half a century ago...too serious... and dancers committed to that might not have been the best people to inspire comedic animators.

You have to wonder what would have happened if a showbiz dancer like Bob Fosse had supervised the Cal Arts dance program. Imagine the young Fosse lecturing to an animation class.

He would have shown them things like the Astaire tilted hat, the Jolson extended arms, face-open palms like a minstrel, clowning pantomimes, hiccuping joints, locking arms and legs that take a pose then suddenly drop it, tiny stepping like Jimmy Durante with knees bent and arms dangling behind...it would have been quite a show.

Fosse believed in keeping the actors moving, in establishing a stylized, confident flow that's never contradicted by a wrong gesture. He was influenced by what vaudevillians used to call "eccentric dancing," and he combined that with ballet.

Wow! What a teacher he would have made! What an influence such a teacher might have had on subsequent animation styles. Hmmmm....if any Cal Arts students are reading this will you write to Theory Corner to let us know how the dance/music/ animation synthesis is working out these days?