Jazz practitioners essay

Jerome Robbins is a multi-award-winning choreographer whose works feature in many professional ballet companies’ repertoire. His works are unique for a number of reasons, most immediately noticeably to me is the sense of community in his pieces. The dancers are not necessarily always moving in perfect synchronization, some step out of line to hit an accent, but no matter what the group always dance as though they are very close with one another. Jerome Robbins seems to choreograph pieces that feel very human. I feel that the use of relatable characters such as sailors or young men on the street makes his work quite human but even the formation of the movement feels natural. 
This takes me onto the second attribute of Robbins’ choreography which makes him unique. His ability to tell a story using movement is like no other. When all dancers are moving as one they interact with one another while still maintaining their individual characters. When dancers are not executing dance steps they still persist with the same level of performance and presence on stage. And the very natural, human feel his works help drastically in portraying the stories to the general public, who may know very little about technical dance.
The third aspect of his choreography that makes him unique is the massive range of styles he has choreographed in. he has choreographed many musicals and ballets but his genres extend further, to contemporary, jazz, ballroom and even slapstick. It is rare that a choreographer is able to produce work in so many different styles and maintain the aforementioned storytelling and sense of community. 
In our Billy Eilish routine, all three of these attributes can be seen to influence my dancing and the choreography. The sense of community can be seen in the coming together at the end to accent the final breath. And throughout the piece where we each tell our own stories but dance the same steps.  The storytelling comes down to each of our interpretations of the music and intent behind the choreography. Details in the music and contributions from the dancers are things Robbins relied on to create his works, according to Jerome Robbins: In His Own Words 2018. Finally, our piece is predominantly jazz technique but there are some movements that appear more contemporary. Moves such as contractions, off balances, and jumps landing on all fours.
Jack Cole, born John Ewing Richter is the man accredited with pioneering the style of jazz dancing. However, when he was perfecting his style of jazz in the fifties, jazz music of the thirties and forties was out of fashion. This meant that broadway productions were less open to his new, developing style because of the out of date choice of music. Furthermore, by his own admission was rarely credited for his choreography in broadway shows and cinematography. This meant that although he was the man to produce the technique used in almost all jazz classes today his name is not known by the masses.
Despite being the basis of all jazz technique his choreography is fantastically unique. When developing his style he drew on inspiration from many other genres of dance. Modern, lindy hop, swing, acrobatics, ballet, and Indian Bharatanatyam are genres that impacted Coles jazz.
Bharatanatyam brought the idea of isolation, particularly moving the upper body separate to the lower body. Ballet brought the use of deep plié to aid fast movement. Acrobatics brought the use of knee slides, a movement frequently used in his pieces. Swing brought the older jazz style of music and the syncopation and lindy hop further added to the complex rhythms of his movements. And modern brought the low center of gravity and quick direction changes.
A selection of these genres come together to make Cole’s work so unique can be seen in our Jason Derulo commercial piece. Modern dance has given the most contribution in my opinion. The whole piece is based around the idea of maintaining a low center of gravity. This can be seen right from the start when we step out onto a bent leg. Deep pliés from ballet aid the lowered center of gravity. Modern also brings quick direction changes. These can be seen in the fats turns and jumps changing direction as well as the walks just before the chorus. Finally, the Bharatanatyam that Cole was actually trained in, can be seen in the isolation of the arms and head in the first movement, and on the walks on “to the window, to the wall”.
Bob Fosse, arguably the most renowned, and decorated, of the three and in my opinion had one of the most unique styles of all jazz choreographers. His style was created not with influence from many other genres of dance or with the immediate aim of telling a story. But was created to accommodate for his own limitations as a dancer. From an early age, he had a slouched posture, limited turnout and struggled to extend. So a large number of his movements were slouched over, had turned in feet, and bent knees and elbows. This trend of accommodating for his limitations or even insecurities continued into his costumes on stage. He often wore hats when dancing and had his dancers do the same, this was to cover up his premature balding. The same goes for gloves as he had small hands. 

The three main features of his style, bent arms and legs, slouched posture and turned in feet can be seen all the way through our Juggernaught piece. The first movement of the dance is a knee bend with the shoulders forward of the knees. Then the small half footsteps are minimalistic moves that come across as robotic and clinical, another key part of Fosses’ style. Bent arms and splayed hands can be seen in the “one foot, one hand…” section. When the two groups of girls walk-off to either side they execute “the Fosse walk”. A walk with the upper body leaning back the legs stretching out before each step and the arms swaying behind. The turn-in can be seen after the section where the music slows down towards the end where, in cannon, we circle our right food with our knees together. It can also be seen in the section where the singers quietly hum the melody. The knee comes across the body on a releve, the upper body contracts and the arms are bent into the sides. Once again showing all the signature Fosse movements. 

references:

Miss Davis
(2020)
1st Year - Jerome Robbins
[online]

Miss Davis
(2020)
1st Year - Jack Cole
[online]
Miss Davis
(2020)
1st Year - Bob Fosse
[online]

San Fransisco Ballet
(2018)
Jerome Robbins: In His Own Words
[online]

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