Bob Fosse

Bob Fosse is known as one of the greatest pioneers of jazz dance. He was born on June 23rd 1927. He was born in Chicago he admired the great tap dancer Fred Astaire and wanted to follow in his footsteps with the hope of becoming a great dancer himself. For this to be even attempted he moved to New York early on in his life.
He first attempted to make it as an actor but found he wasn’t offered enough roles to continue this as a career his next move was to choreograph the Pyjama game a musical that is still popular today. Perhaps his most famous musical ‘Chicago’ is what most people know Fosse for. And its in this musical his influence on the world of jazz is really shown. His evolution of jazz dance meant that routines were more stylised and specific to the story that was attempting to be told as opposed to the more improvised style of jazz previously seen. Some admirers of his work say that Fosse added ‘sex appeal’ something that hadn’t been allowed into the world of jazz before.
Fosse’s style of jazz meant a lot more people wanted to learn the dance because now it was more appealing to younger people searching for a more expressive style of dance. Some of his moves such as jazz hands have stuck around and become a massive part in jazz dance.
Fosse was drug addict and self confessed womanizer which was shown clearly in his autobiographical film ‘all that jazz’. However its his struggle though life that makes his amazing work even more admirable.

Jazz costumes

Jazz costumes
Traditional jazz costumes are black with shoes that somewhat resemble tap shoes. The general stereotype is that jazz dancers wear black hats which is true in a lot of films and routines, this makes the dance more easily identified as people will recognise this sort of costuming. Jazz costumes are about fun and should reflect the dance style well. More modern costumes consist of crop tops and baggy trousers. These outfits must allow the dancers to carry out the energetic dance style well whilst not taking away form the all important dance moves.
Depending on what the choreography is aiming to get across to the audience also effects the costume choice. Jazz, like most other dances, lets the costumes compliment the dancing and more modern costumes are very bright to add to the impact of the fun music and enjoyable dance routines.

The history of jazz

Jazz
Jazz is a dance style that has had some influence in almost all modern dance styles today. Its recognised world wide as a fun, swing-like dance that films always portray as having a full scale band behind it as a music source.

The history of jazz
Jazz dance has been around for many years however what we class as jazz dance today is nothing like what the original forms of jazz actually were. Prior to the 1920’s jazz was used to refer to the African American vernacular dance. This vernacular dance was like a folk dance used at social gatherings to bring people closer together. It was mostly improvised but had an odd twist to it and was mostly based on improvisation. This completely different dance style had to have a completely different name and the term jazz was devised. Its not the dance itself that resembles modern jazz in any way it was more the instruments that go along side it that let it lend its name to what we call jazz today. Although this was the first time the term ‘jazz’ was used its thought that the dance side of the creation of jazz began in the 1800’s with African slaves dancing as a method of keeping fit.
However it wasn’t until the 1950’s that the dance we know and recognise as jazz began to take form. Jazz music came before jazz dance and the brass instruments with a smooth sort of sound led to the creation of jazz dance. Pioneers of the dance form such as Katherine Dunham took the traditional Caribbean/African dance and transformed it into a performing art that became not just enjoyable to perform but to watch. Still at this point jazz was not a very popular dance form.
As the music at the time was the main influence in starting modern jazz when the music began to make a regular appearance in Broadway it follows suit that jazz dance also found a way to the stage. It was on Broadway that the dance continued to evolve into what is known and taught as jazz today, much smoother and more flowing than the very first origins of the style.
Today jazz has become a dance style in its own right. Its thanks to inspirational choreographers such ad Bob Fosse that so many people have become interested in the dance style. Its break into the modern world through films such as ‘Caberat’ and ‘all that jazz’ mean that younger people are constantly being drawn to the style and mean its popularity continues into the modern world.

Ghost the musical

Ghost at the Piccadilly theatre
As a birthday present I went to see ghost the musical last Friday. I’ve been in love with the film for years and was desperate to see it before Richard Fleeshman stopped playing Sam. I was mostly curious to see how they could possibly make such a classic film a musical and as to how some of the effects would be carried out.
One thing I noticed straight away was how they kept it as close to the film as possible. Id clearly watched the film to much when I noticed big parts of the script were exactly the same. I thought this was very good even the set and costumes were as close to the ones in the film as is possible on a stage. I did think the very first song felt weird though. I think this was only because so far it had been so close to the film, and because I’d seen the film way too much, it just seemed a bit cringey and out of place to start with. But once I managed to stop comparing it to the film I think the songs made it all so much more enjoyable to watch.
The effects were amazing! When Sam (Richard Fleeshman) dies the way another body is there instantly to replace his when he runs into his ghost form was flawlessly carried out. All through the performance the ‘ghosts’ all had a slight blue tinge to them which was very effective in letting the audience distinguish between what actors we were meant to be seeing as alive and dead. Also the sections of the show carried out on the train station were extraordinary. The ghost of the train appeared to have the power to make people around him float along with their processions. The first time this happened I think the whole audience had a moment of ‘wow’. Then the next time this floating people thing happened I was determine to find out how it was done. So it very cleverly turns out that people dressed in black from head to toe performed balances and lifts with the actors which in contrast were all dressed in very bright clothes. And they were simply lifting the props to give the floating effect. The darkness of the current set and the low lighting when this happens means that unless (like me) you are purposely looking around desperate to find out how this was happening you would have no idea. When I realised my mum hadn’t sussed it I was quite pleased with my detective work and then the final time this happened she noticed the odd hand shape as well.
All the actors were fantastic but Oda May made the show. She was perfect! Following in the footsteps of Whoopi Goldberg must’ve been terrifying but in my opinion this actress was funnier, I couldn’t say why but just something about her and her natural flare for this character made her stand out a lot more than any other performer. Her voice was so powerful that it was impossible not to admire her.
I would recommend this musical to anyone i'm so glad I finally got to go and watch it!

performing arts Jazz workshops

For the last few weeks in performing arts we have been looking at jazz style dancing with the intention of creating audition pieces to perform. We split into three groups and each group had to devise a short routine, each group had to modify jazz to make it either more rock and roll, lyrical or street orientated. This was so we could see how jazz influences more modern dance styles and so everyone in the group had at least one style that they would be able to pick up easily and be very strong in.
My group was doing street jazz. The way we modified it to make it more jazz like was to keep it more flowing and looser so it would seem more jazz like. We chose a song that was quite slow because it had a good back beat and meant that movements would be complimented by the music. We devised a good piece of dance that did look very effective. It had some moves it in that were trickier than others giving it a good variety. If we could do it again I think we might have picked a faster piece of music because at points we did struggle to keep the dance looking slick using such slow movements.
We then had to teach this routine to the rest of the people in our class. This went very well and everyone seemed to enjoy learning a new style of dance that they perhaps aren’t as strong in. when we performed it as a whole group and it did look very effective. We filmed this teaching process and the final performance for evidence.
We also had to learn the other dance styles that were jazz orientated. This was really good fun. I especially enjoyed learning the rock and roll style jazz because I have never tried this dance style before and I like how fast paced it is. The lyrical jazz was harder for me to pick up because it is more contemporary but I loved the dance. It was so pretty and flowing and great fun to try out.

Astley cooper's school production of 'jesus christ superstar'

On Tuesday i went to watch my friend perform in astley coopers school production of 'Jesus christ superstar', having seen a professional production of it before i thought it would be a really hard musical for a school to pull off as the whole cast has to be amazing at singing as there are no speaking parts and because its so well known.

the opening was soo clever, the dancers were climbing all over the climbing frame-like set whilst performing a simple but very effective dance that really set the scene for the first song. The three lead roles, Jesus, Judas and Mary Magdalene were all amazing singers. The boy that played Jesus gave me goosebumps everytime he opened his mouth and the acting that went on between Jesus and Mary was really beautiful.

You could tell just by watching it how much effort went into everything. The whole cast were putting in all there effort the whole way through which isnt something thats seen a lot in school productions which just shows how much they must have loved the musical and performing. Considering its a story line that some people take very seriously i think you have to be careful how you stage it and especailly how you go about the crucifiction at the end, but they honestly made it perfectly and really did this amazing musical justice. Im really glad i went to watch

Majorettes do 'Santa Clause the musical'

every other year the majorette troupe i belong to do a massive non-majorette based show at christmas time. We have done everything from Cinderella to a whole production based on world war one songs, all of which are written specaily by our teacher. This year we are putting on a show based loosely on 'Santa Clause the movie' however its been written to include a lot of songs and a lot more panto like scenes.

None of the productions we put on are ever taken completley seriously. The main aim of the shows is to let everyone do something that they want which is one of the main reasons for writing our own script and to raise a bit of money for next years majorette costumes. The massive age range of 2-19 years means writing a script is also the best way to make sure its suitable for everyone. The story line isnt anything spectacular but were all having so much fun with it in rehearsals at the moment so it doesn't really matter. The audience will only be parents and although we are going to try and make it look spectacular it is all really just a bit of fun, and its nice to do something like this where there is absolutely no pressure for it to look amazing and its just a bonus if it does. i dont think theres one person in the cast that isnt going to make a fool out of themselves at one point or another. and as i am one of the oldest ive had a lot of input into the show and have been choreogrpahing rediculously cheesy dances for some of the younger ones which will hopefully get a few 'awwr's'

this year im playing an elf called Patch and i have an hilarious Christmas edited version of 'man in the mirror' to sing. i was very glad when i realized i wasn't meant to do this song seriously as it is pretty massive and absolutely everyone knows it so the slightly odd change of lyrics was a great relief. I also have a lot of almost stupid scenes that should get a few laughs and that are amazingly fun to rehearse.

The whole show is starting to look really really good, especially considering we only rehearse for three hours a week. everyone is having such an amazing time dressing up as snowmen and giant presents whilst singing weird versions of 'low' and 'ive got a feeling' and i cant wait for my family to come and watch me and my sister in December.