Jazz Blog- 1st year 2019/20 School Year
Jack Cole (1911-1974) was born in New York and is remembered as the prime innovator of theatrical jazz dance. He also gained the title of ‘The father of Jazz dance’. Further, Cole was a very successful dancer and choreographer in his time. Today, I will be talking about what qualities make his choreography so unique, and I will also be discussing how the qualities are shown through the Jason Derulo routine that we are working on in class.
Jack Cole developed a very personal mode of dancing that combined, modern, lindy hop, swing, ethnic, acrobatics, and ballet. The ‘Cole style’ is still being used in many aspects of Jazz dancing, lots of his ways are very recognisable in the Jazz dance industry. His unique style greatly emphasised; isolations, deep plies, angled foot placements, quick directional changes and long knee slides, which are all very commonly used now. For instance, the use of isolation plays a huge part in today’s jazz dancing, which has been widely influenced by Cole himself, as he borrowed and refined the isolation for his East Indian dance training, and focused on the neck, shoulders, ribs and hips. Furthermore, the use of the deep plie is extremely important as it gives jazz a sense of power and explosiveness, he especially made use of the wide, low second position and fourth position. He also used "jagged poses resembling the graphic slashes of modern art" (The New Yorker). According to Dance Teacher (2013), "Much of his work features a dynamic soloist (often female), backed by an all-male corps of dancers. This formula popularized the femme fatale vision—female strength, rooted in sexuality".
After researching into Jack Coles choreographic style, I now have a much greater understanding of where certain movements in Jason Derulo routine come from and the inspiration behind the dance. For instance, there are constant directional changes throughout the routine, which makes it very exciting and gives a sense of suspense- which is also a choreographic technique Cole uses in his own work. Also, I noticed that the use of isolations is commonly used in the routine which is typical of the commercial style. Additionally, deep plies are shown throughout the routine as commercial is very grounded.
Jerome Robbins (1918-1998) was one of Broadways and Hollywood’s greatest choreographer, he had a big impact on changing the face of modern dance with his amazing ballets and musical stage productions. He was ‘one of the most popular and imaginative American choreographers’ during the 20thcentury (Bitannica 1998). Today I will be discussing what qualities makes his choreography so unique and how the qualities are reflected in the Billie Ellish routine.
Jerome Robbins was very talented as he created well known choreography pieces in the style of both ballet and musical theatre. His choreographic style was a blend of ballet, modern, jazz and dance idioms. His work often included humour and showed issues and characters familiar to his target audience (Arts alive). Furthermore, Robbins moved ‘away from the tradition of set dance pieces and instead integrating his choreography seamlessly with storylines and using it to express the relationships between characters. Furthermore, he thad the "tendency to choose subjects that addressed the lives and concerns of ordinary Americans won over audiences and critics alike" (Royal Opera House 2014). His choreography was also very abstract and different. From my research I can see the qualities that make Jerome Robbins choreography so unique, firstly is that he choreographed both ballet and musical theatre pieces and also that his choreography often had a storyline which expressed sensitive topics.
The Bille Eilish routine that we have been working on in class, is inspired by Jerome Robbins choreography. Now that I have taken some research into him, I can see the relation. For example, Robbins created movement with inspiration from the music, making sure he didn’t miss a note. Similarly, in the Billie Ellish routine the movements are very fast pace and there is also something on every beat. Additionally, he liked his dancers to have a certain character, and in our routine, we have to maintain our serious character throughout. Furthermore, I looked at images of movements Jerome Robbins included in his own work, many of which are featured in the Billie Eillish routine.
Bob Fosse (1927-1987) was born in Chicago. He was a dancer, choreographer, and director who revolutionised musicals with his distinct style of dance(Britannica 1998). He also forever changed the way audiences around the world viewed dance on the stage and in film. Today, I will be talking about the qualities that make his choreography so unique, and how the qualities are reflected in the wild party- Jugganaught routine.
Bob Fosse was very successful, during his career he won many awards for his Broadway musicals. Further, “he revolutionized the look of musical theatre in the 1950s–’80s”and “his work continues to influence choreographers and filmmakers today” (Dance Teacher 2013). Fosse’s unique choreography shows a flair for the provocative, it contains dark humour and sharp wit, which is influenced by his early experiences in Vaudeville and Burlesque. Furthermore, his choreography was sexual and physically demanding and also very technical. Fosse’s style was very distinctive, it included: “curved shoulders, turned-in knees, bowler hats, punctuated hand movements, finger snaps, sideways shuffling” and jazz hands (Refinery29 2019). Although Bob Fosse didn’t invent ‘Jazz hands’ himself, he bought the move to the mainstream (Refinery29 2019). Additionally, Bob Fosse invented ‘Fosse walks’ which are featured in almost all of his choreography pieces. According to Dance Love to know, the typical fosse style included a turned in knee or a jutting hip and isolated movements. Further, dancers might just move a hand then a shoulder, which are small movements, but can be very effective. The rolling of the hips and shoulders created, and overall ‘strutting’ feel to his work.
The wild party- Jugganaught routine that we’ve been working on in class has been inspired by Bob Fosse's unique choreographic style. Now that I have conducted some research into Bob Fosse, I can identify the movements in the routine that he included in his own work. For example, the overall style of the dance is rather seductive and secretive, which Bob Fosse also expressed in his own choreography. Additionally, in the routine we often have turned in knees, punctuated/broken hand movements, jutting hips which are all very typical of the Fosse style. As well as doing fosse walks at different movements throughout. Now that I have researched into the choreographer Bobe Fosse, I now have a much greater understanding of the style and where it comes from.
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Jack Cole References
Dance Teacher (2013)
History Lesson Plan: Jack Cole [online]
Rachel Rizzuto
https://www.dance-teacher.com/history-lesson-plan-jack-cole-2392429308.html [Accessed February 28th2020)
New Yorker (2016)
Jack Coles iconic choreography [online]
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/25/this-week-jack-coles-iconic-choreography[Accessed February 28th 2020]
Jerome Robbins References
Arts Alive (2004)
Jerome Robbins [online]
[Accessed 29thFebruary 2020]
Britannica (1998)
Jerome Robbins [online]
The editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jerome-Robbins[Accessed 29th February 2020]
Royal Opera House (2014)
Jerome Robbins: A master of both ballet and musical choreography [online]
Rachel Thomas
https://www.roh.org.uk/news/jerome-robbins-a-master-of-both-ballet-and-musical-choreography [Accessed 29thFebruary 2020]
San Francisco Ballet (2018)
Jerome Robbins: In his own words [online]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ChbvQGSedw[Accessed 29thFebruary 2020]
Bob Fosse References
Britannica (2014)
Bob Fosse[online]
Michael Barson
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bob-Fosse[Accessed March 1st 2020]
Dance Spirit (2011)
Legendary Moves[online]
[Accessed March 1st2020]
Love to know
Choreographer Bob Fosse[online]
Lorie Witkop
https://dance.lovetoknow.com/Choreographer_Bob_Fosse[Accessed 1stMarch 2020]
Refinery29 (2019)
You can thank Bob Fosse for your jazz hands [online]
Elena Nicolaou
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/04/229334/what-is-bob-fosse-dance-style-jazz-moves[Accessed March 1st 2020]
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