Bob Fosse’s Cultural influences and how they effected ‘Percussion 4’
The following is drawn from work contributed by Luke Deluka - Star of the Sea and Mary-Lou Neilsen - Salesian College
Cultural Influence
Bob Fosse choreographed and wrote ‘Chicago’ in 1975 but
America was celebrating and patriotic at this time and ‘Chicago’
was to dark. Another Show called ‘A Chorus Line’ was much more
popular as it’s it had lighter themes. As a response to ‘A Chorus
Line’ Bob Fosse then choreographed ‘Dancin’ – ‘Percussion 4’ was
part of the show ‘Dancin’.
Son of a Vaudevillian – Bob Fosse would have watched his father
perform amongst a variety of Vaudeville and Burlesque shows style
shows. Bob Fosse learnt to dance in the 1930’s-40’s Vaudeville and
Burlesque scene.
Expressive Intention
Movement Vocabulary
Bob Fosse grew up watching Fred Astaire who was his idol.
Astaire performed Vaudeville and Broadway and was an excellent
tap, jazz and Broadway dancer and had an all round ‘showbiz feel’
Movement Vocabulary
Bob Fosse appeared in several Hollywood films including ‘Kiss Me
Kate’ in 1954 and was allowed to choreograph a sequence in ‘From
this moment on’ a song in ‘Kiss Me Kate’. His style was already
obvious at this time with a ‘showbiz feel’ hips, shoulders and
isolations.
Curvature in Bob Fosse’s spine led to exaggerated shoulder drops.
Bob Fosse had poor turnout and very little ballet training so he
often worked in parallel or with exaggerated turn out.
Movement Vocabulary
Served in the military and toured naval bases from 1945 to 1947.
Being part of the armed forces ment Bob Fosse would have been
around a lot of military men displaying many of the stereotypical
masculine traits such as muscle building, fighting and other
displays of strength and power.
Movement Vocabulary
Movement Vocabulary
Effect on Percussion 4
One of the major Expressive Intention’s for ‘Dancin’ and Percussion 4’
is a display of physical and technical skills – Pure dance with no story
line unlike ‘A Chorus Line’.
An example of how this affected the Movement vocabulary of
‘Percussion 4’ is the use burlesque style movements that Bob Fosse
Choreographed-just before all the turns and turning leaps the dancer
performs a sexual gesture with his hands and pelvis this is in the
burlesque style. Also in the very opening sequence we see pelvis
thrusts and isolations in the true Fosse style that arose from is
burlesque influences.
An example of how the ‘showbiz’ feel perfected by Fred Astaire
effected the movement Vocabulary in Percussion 4 is the final kneeling
gesture at the end of the choreography when the dancer throws out his
arms and says ‘ that’s all folks’
This earlier piece of choreography is an example of how Bob Fosse’s
Movement Vocabulary is identifiable even from very early in his
career and this has continued to influence his later work ‘Percussion 4’
and example is the shoulder isolations when the dancer is on his knees
after the cartwheel- there are many more.
In ‘Percussion 4’ we can see how Bob Fosse’s body shape and his
strengths and limitations affected his choreography. An example is the
shape the dancer takes at the very start after he has brushed his hair
back with his hand he is in parallel and turns is left leg in accentuating
the parallel and turned in position. This use of parallel and turned in
feet/legs can also be seen in Bob Fosse’s ‘Steam Heat’ from ‘Pajama
Game’.
In Percussion 4 we see the influence Bob Fosse’s time in the armed
forces through the movement vocabulary including ultra masculine
movements. For example in section A when the dancer does the Body
Action of Stillness and kneels down with his arms in a ‘muscle
displaying pose’ or towards the end of the dance when he shuffles to
the prompt side of the stage with both arms outstretched and flexes his
muscles and throws his head back.
In Ballet when the male dancer does a solo it is often called –The
Formal Structure
balletic male bravado solo. In this solo the dancer builds the dance
to end with a display of amazing and very hard physical and
technical skills. A good example of this is in the ballet ‘Don
Quixote’.
Bob Fosse has made the decision to feature a male in this dance and
has drawn inspiration for the formal structure from the formal
structures of male solos in ballets- In that the degree of difficulty
builds. At the start of percussion 4 the dancer does a lot of isolations
with arms and legs with a percussive energy but the degree of
difficulty of the technical and physical skills is comparatively low. In
the middle section, locomotive rolls, cartwheels and elevations up the
degree of difficulty of the movement. Then come turns and turning
elevations and fouettés that are the climax of the dance work and
demonstrate the highest degree of difficulty.
Bob Fosse lived and worked in big cities like Chicago and New
York. Both were high crime areas where emergency vehicles were
often seen.
Lighting
In a response to ‘A chorus Line’ Bob Fosse wanted to focus just on
the dancer and their movement. To achieve this he used minimalist
lighting directing the lights to dancers to highlight them.
Lighting
Bob Fosse wanted to create a dance work that was about
manipulation of time and the exploration of male physical and
technical skills. To achieve this, the music and sound effects he
used isolated sounds of lots of different percussion instruments.
Sound effects
Bob Fosse’s favourite costume colour was black- we can see the
use of black costumes in ‘Cabaret’ which he choreographed and
directed in 1972
Costume
The lights used are a blue wash with a gobo creating a dappled effect, a
blue spot light with a gobo creating a spotted effect and red flashing
lights either side of the stage. The use of the red flashing light up
against a blue light infers the concept of emergency vehicles. The
lighting in this dance has clearly been influenced by Bob Fosse’s time
in New York and Chicago.
There are only 4 different lighting sets – two versions of a speckled
blue spotlight are used to highlight the dancer 4 times: In the opening
pose, the low level kneeling muscle stillness pose, just before the
dancer slides forward on his knees throwing his arms and legs out, and
at the very end when the dancer yells ‘that’s all folks’. This use of
spotlights and lack of set and plain costumes highlights the dancer and
movement rather than a story or other associations.
“It had every percussion instrument in the book and the wonder of it
was how perfectly Fosse captured the sound of each in his
Choreography” „Bob Fosse‟s Broadway‟ Margery Beddow 1996 Bob
Fosse used the sound of all of the different percussion instruments to
manipulate time and energy in this performance. A good example of
this is the symbols clashing in section A. The dancer shows a
manipulation of time by accenting this sound effect with the movement
of opening his hands on left hip and then his right.
Pants and single buttoned vest are black and expose the shoulders and
torso and emphasise the masculine physic. The use of black costuming
in ‘Percussion 4’ showed the dancers lines very well promoting the
demonstration of technique.