Bob Fosse Essay
The Glue Holding Two Worlds Together: Bob Fosse
Dancers dedicate immense amounts of their time trying to preserve dance history. They are constantly studying the past and educating themselves on the greats, till names such as Leonide Massine, Rudolf Laban, and Pina Bausch become a part of their everyday vocabulary. Although the previously mentioned names may not mean much to the traditional ‘non-dancer’, there are dancers and choreographers that have become everyday household names. Bob Fosse is one of those names, “He became a brand. There are few dance figures who attained this one-name status among the general public: Astaire, Balanchine, Baryshnikov, Robbins, perhaps Graham.” (Billman).He was born Robert Louis Fosse on June 23, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois. Today he is best known for his success as a dancer, choreographer, and director. Fosse’s parents possessed a passion for music even though they both took different career paths in order to support a large family. Fosse shared his parents’ love for the arts and he decided from a young age that he wanted to go further into the field. It did not …show more content…
The Fosse brand is highly based on the nightlife and social dances of the time. Some people compared Fosse’s style to other great’s including Astaire, Kelly, and Cole; however, Fosse’s style was specific to his body and his movement, which it is often difficult to compare to anyone else. He branded a specific style that even the untrained eye could pick out, “His stylized, from-the-hip, hat-over-one-eye work is distinguished by its economy (the power of a single gesture)” (Billman). Fosse was inspired by the natural sexuality of the human body and more specifically how dance can express a human’s sensuality. Fosse worked hard to create a staple for his choreography and he made sure his dancers worked equally as hard to embody
Dancers dedicate immense amounts of their time trying to preserve dance history. They are constantly studying the past and educating themselves on the greats, till names such as Leonide Massine, Rudolf Laban, and Pina Bausch become a part of their everyday vocabulary. Although the previously mentioned names may not mean much to the traditional ‘non-dancer’, there are dancers and choreographers that have become everyday household names. Bob Fosse is one of those names, “He became a brand. There are few dance figures who attained this one-name status among the general public: Astaire, Balanchine, Baryshnikov, Robbins, perhaps Graham.” (Billman).He was born Robert Louis Fosse on June 23, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois. Today he is best known for his success as a dancer, choreographer, and director. Fosse’s parents possessed a passion for music even though they both took different career paths in order to support a large family. Fosse shared his parents’ love for the arts and he decided from a young age that he wanted to go further into the field. It did not …show more content…
The Fosse brand is highly based on the nightlife and social dances of the time. Some people compared Fosse’s style to other great’s including Astaire, Kelly, and Cole; however, Fosse’s style was specific to his body and his movement, which it is often difficult to compare to anyone else. He branded a specific style that even the untrained eye could pick out, “His stylized, from-the-hip, hat-over-one-eye work is distinguished by its economy (the power of a single gesture)” (Billman). Fosse was inspired by the natural sexuality of the human body and more specifically how dance can express a human’s sensuality. Fosse worked hard to create a staple for his choreography and he made sure his dancers worked equally as hard to embody