Dancers and choreographers have contributed to the development of the American musical since its inception beginning with the very popular John Durang and his Hornpipe dance in the 1780s. Dance has continued to play a significant role in musical theater production by embodying the American character as romantic (Fred and Adele Astaire), as comedic (Ray Bolger), as dramatic (the Jets and Sharks in West Side Story,) as percussive artist (Gregory Hines), and as highly trained technician (the recent production of Pippin), among many others. But when recalling the hundreds of choreographers creating dances for the musical from the colonial period to today, there are only a handful that have done so in a way that has altered choreography in the musical in ways that fundamentally changed how dance was viewed, constructed, and performed. Many would easily name choreographers from Agnes de Mille to Jerome Robbins and from Jack Cole to Michael Bennett. In that rarified group, one would have to add Bob Fosse.
Soon after Bob Fosse's death in 1987, books about his life and dance appeared in print. Kevin Boyd Grubb's Razzle Dazzle: The Life and Work of Bob Fosse provided a short summary of Fosse's life and work on the Broadway stage and in film. Shortly thereafter, the more ambitious All His Jazz: The Life and Death of Bob Fosse by long time New York theater critic and historian Martin Gottfried was published. Based on scholarship that extended over thirty years, including a twenty-year personal relationship with Mr. Fosse, it seemed Gottfried would set out to write a biography contextualizing Fosse's work as a dancer, choreographer, and director based on multiple sources. Unfortunately, Gottfried spends little time writing about Fosse's dances. Since then, other writers, such as Margery Beddow (Bob Fosse's Broadway), Debra McWaters (The Fosse Style), and Sam Wasson (Fosse) have filled in some of the gaps in trying to understand the dancing that was at the heart of Fosse's contribution to musical theater and filmmaking. However, a reader looking for serious scholarship describing and analyzing the dance of Bob Fosse would have to wait until the recent publication of Kevin Winkler's Big Deal: Bob Fosse and Dance in the American Musical.
This book places its emphasis on Fosse as a dancer and how that was expressed in his life as performer, choreographer, director, and writer. Fosse's medium for dance moved back and forth from the stage to film to television production. While he placed his dancers at the center of his creativity, he extended that same choreographic sensibility to the cinematography and editing of his films and to the collaboration he enjoyed with designers for his stage productions. For Fosse, dance was visual and visceral. By his own admission, he was never happier than when he was in rehearsal with his dancers. The symbiotic process of challenging his dancers to stretch beyond their own perceived limits, to his own demands on himself to create and grow as a choreographer, were at the heart of his approach to dance.
Winkler not only presents a thoroughly researched biographical history of Fosse as a dancer and choreographer, but also takes the time to highlight the specific contributions of selected dances to how we have come to appreciate the development of musical theater dance. Beginning with Fosse's choreography and performance of “From this Moment On” in the movie Kiss Me, Kate, Winkler documents his early development in terms of style. With partner Carol Haney, “his one minute dance alchemy draws from recognizable elements from Fosse's performing past. The Riff Brothers banter, the Fosse and Niles rhythmic changes, the burlesque bumps, and the Jack Cole slither all coalesce in sixty seconds to lay the foundation for the Fosse style” (33). Soon afterward, he choreographed what has now come to be recognized as the iconic Fosse dance “Steam Heat” from The Pajama Game. In this dance, performed by Carol Haney along with Buzz Miller and Peter Gennaro, we find all of the essential elements we have come to recognize as essential to the Fosse style: the broken wrists, the helter skelter angularity of movement, the simple black costume with a hat as prop, and the combination of the Charlie Chaplinesque carriage and walk with the deep lunges and knee work associated with Jack Cole.
Following a brief seven-page historical overview of the rise of the director-choreographer (from Julian Mitchell and Ned Wayburn to Agnes de Mille and Jerome Robbins), the author elaborates on Fosse, his shows, and the contributions of his peers. What emerges is an important discussion of Jack Cole's lifelong influence on Fosse's styling, the incorporation of figures such as Michael Kidd into his choreographic choices, and a description of the competitive, highly antagonist relationships he had with the likes of Michael Bennett. Winkler then goes beyond 1987 and reminds the reader of the continuing Fosse influence on the work of contemporary director choreographers like Rob Marshall and Andy Blankenbuehler. As in literature and art, Winkler sees an ongoing conversation going on between different generations of dance makers— challenging each other, contradicting aesthetic choices, and extending a vocabulary that not only broadens the palette of movement choices available to choreographers but also deepens their own investigations into how dance can inform musical theater and film production. Fosse benefitted from those who preceded him, responded and learned from his contemporaries, and forged a style that is still valued and appreciated today, all the while extending his choreographic exploration of staged musical theater to his career in filmmaking.
Winkler takes us through the early mentorship Fosse enjoyed with George Abbott and Jerome Robbins on shows like The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees. Beginning with Redhead, he carefully documents the transition Fosse made to taking on the responsibility to direct and choreograph, and he examines and contextualizes the structural changes made to replace straight book narrative in musical theater production with dance and other visual elements, as in his stage production of Sweet Charity and his film direction for Cabaret. The pinnacle of his career is highlighted in his analysis of Fosse's 1973 contributions to the musicals Pippin (Tony Award), Liza with a Z (Emmy Award), and Cabaret (Oscar Award).
In addition to looking at Fosse's career as choreographer, Winkler writes about Fosse's increasing and overarching interest in writing. Some saw his domination of his collaborators (including composers, librettists, and screenwriters) as an egotistical power grab. But Winkler points out that it is subtler than that. Telling stories in words, movement, design, and sound was the primary impetus that motivated Fosse as he moved from the conventional book musical to stage and film and permitted him to explore imagery, theme, and unusual juxtapositions of ideas and content. This occurred as the concept musical was replacing conventional book writing for musical theater composition; in film, he looked to the work of directors John Houston and Federico Fellini. Not simply objects of desire, women were important to Fosse, both mentoring and inspiring him to extend his vision of dance's possibilities. Marion Niles, Joan McCracken, Gwen Verdon, and Ann Reinking all challenged Fosse and recognized in him a choreographic eye that combined interesting and varied use of space with subtle attention to detail that suggested the combination of sensuality with a joy of moving. Winkler demonstrates that this shift is manifested in “The Manson Trio” in the musical Pippin, performed by Ben Vereen and two other dancers.
Winkler addresses his subject both from the inside out and the outside in: he provides detailed description and analysis of selected dances in stage productions and films that Fosse choreographed and complements that with an approach that both historicizes the work of Fosse with his contemporaries and with those who preceded him. When appropriate, he notes Fosse's influence on subsequent style in theater, film, and television (MTV, Michael Jackson, Beyoncé). In addition, he thoughtfully connects Fosse's personal obsessions and interests to his approach to directing and choreographing.
Winkler is uniquely qualified to write this book on Fosse. Before working as a curator and archivist at the New York Public Library, he was a professional dancer. He brings to his writing a kinesthetic understanding of the body paired with an intellectual curiosity about form, structure, and context. Many biographies of dancers, particularly of those in musical theater, seem to sink into unabashed adulation of their principle subject or a superficial retelling of what we the reader already knew from seeing the shows, reading the reviews, and watching interviews with the subject. There are a few, like Glenn Loney's Unsung Genius: The Passion of Dancer-Choreographer Jack Cole or Deborah Jowitt's Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theater, His Dance, that get below the surface and connect biography with artistic expression.
When writing a book on dance for a general reading public, it can be challenging to describe the movement in a way that does not bore those trained in dance or confuse neophytes. Winkler addresses this by providing a glossary of dance terms at the front of the book and by carefully describing the dances in just enough detail. The only criticism I have (which seems to occur in many biographies of dancers) is that many of the photographs have been reproduced in other books on Fosse, and some of them are poorly rendered. Given Fosse's attention to detail regarding design, particularly in terms of costume and lighting, the book would have benefited greatly by having color plates in the center of the book.
Overall, this book represents exceptional scholarship. Many writers on dance in musical theater are finding opportunities to publish chapters in books or essays in journals like the Studies in Musical Theatre. Yet, there are still too few writing book-length investigations in this field of study. Big Deal: Bob Fosse and Dance in the American Musical fills an important gap in dance scholarship.
