A few of you have been wanting to clarify the criteria of the Steam Heat SAC.
Here goes;
At least 3 phrases (1 in each section) to answer body actions, physical skills and links to exp int.
At least 1 extra phrase that you can analyse in terms of safe dance.
Cultural Influences on Movement Vocabulary, of which there is a great deal of information below. Don't get bogged down by it, make bullet points of Social, Historical, Artistic and fill in the relevant information as you collect it.
I have looked over most of your work and I'm pretty happy with the way its going regarding physical skills and body actions. Lets concentrate on Cultural Influences on Movement Vocabulary.
I'll just repost the dance so we dont have to flick back and forth between pages...hang on
5
Cultural Influences on Movement Vocab
The style of Steam Heat is theatrical jazz, performed as an "act" as would be seen in the vaudeville and variety shows in America.
Can you find the cultural influences lurking in these paragraphs? Write down headings including Historical, Social, Artistic etc and fill in the info you think fits under each heading.
Acknowledged by critics and audiences alike as one of the musical theatre's greatest choreographers and directors, Bob Fosse captured nine Tony Awards and created a signature choreographic language that has not only endured but been widely imitated. Taking inspiration from Fred Astaire, Jack Cole (a pioneer contemporary dancer turned nightclub and Hollywood choreographer of the 1930 - 50's). George Balanchine*, Jerome Robbins and vaudeville, he developed a distinctive, immediately recognisable, populist style that was urban and sexual and irrepressibly rooted in jazz.
The silouette of the Fosse dancer is unmistakeable: sharply bent elbows away from the body, tilted pelvis supported on one leg crooked to the side, a hand to the rim of a hat tipped jauntily off the top of the head. The vocabulary itself was surprisingly simple, but it was the attention to detail and attitude in synchronising his undulating corp that made Fosse the unchallenged king of razzle-dazzle. The style also translated well to the screen, enabling him in 1973 to become the first director to win the triple crown: Oscar (Cabaret 1972), Tony (Pippin '72) and Emmy (Liza With a Z, NBC 1972)
"The son of a vaudeville entertainer, Fosse began his career as a hoofer in vaudeville and by the age of 13 he was a seasoned veteran of many burlesque shows in his native Chicago. As a sailor during World War II, performed in variety shows put together by Joseph Papp. Moving to New York City he acted and danced on stage before becoming and MGM contract player in musical films of the early 50's. He rose through the studio's ranks and though Hermes Pan allowed him to create his own dance sequence ('From This Moment On') opposite Carol Haney in Kiss Me Kate (1953) , My Sister Eileen (1955) brought him his first chance to choreograph a film. In between he crafted dances for his first Broadway show, The Pajama Game (1954), earning a Tony Award and introducing in its Steam Heat number his trademark sinuous, sharp angled and tightly wound style."
*lots of info on George Balanchine as a cultural influence on Fosse's movement vocab on the home page, scroll down the page a bit and have a read)
Jack Cole >>>
Go to Kiandra's page and watch the video about Jack Cole, its fantastic and he is an artistic cultural influence on Bob Fosse. Make notes while you watch, its packed full of great information. Thanks Kiandra!!
Some info on Vaudeville, incase you're unsure about what it is. Dont get too caught up in these notes for your SAC, they're more so you can gain a greater understanding. By all means use information if you think its relevant. There's some good info here for cultural influences on expressive intention but we're not doing that for this SAC.
Vaudeville
Vaudeville is a historical influence on Bob Fosse's movement vocabulary for Steam Heat.
These gals were successful vaudeville performers and although they performed in a few Hollywood movies, they couldn't successfully make the transition from stage to screen. Check em out!
...From Broadway Rhythm 1944. Presenting the Ross Sisters...
By the 1880’s, the Industrial Revolution had changed the once rural face of America. Half of the population was now concentrated in towns and cities, working at regulated jobs that left most of them with two things they never had back on the farm – a little spare cash and weekly leisure time. These people wanted affordable entertainment on a regular basis. Most variety shows were too coarse for women or children to attend, and minstrel shows were already declining in popularity. In a world where phonographs, film, radio and television did not yet exist, something new was needed to fill the gap.
Vaudeville also tried to bridge a social gap that had divided American audiences ever since the upper and lower classes clashed in a deadly 1849 riot.
After the Astor Place Riot of 1849 entertainment in New York City was divided along class lines: opera was chiefly for the upper middle and upper classes, minstrel shows and melodramas for the middle class, variety shows in concert saloons for men of the working class and the slumming middle class. Vaudeville was developed by entrepreneurs seeking higher profits from a wider audience.
Tony Pastor was the first manager to present commercially successful "clean" variety. He earned fame as a variety vocalist, songwriter and manager on New York's Bowery. But his ambitions reached far beyond the bawdy standards that marked Bowery entertainments. A devout Catholic and attentive father, Pastor wanted to provide family-friendly entertainment. When he started presenting a clean variety show at New York's Fourteenth Street Theatre on Oct. 24, 1881, the location said a great deal about his intentions.
As an early center for public transportation, Manhattan's Union Square district included most of New York City's top theatres, restaurants and shops. Respectable theatergoers had no objection to attending performances there. Each week Pastor offered a different line-up of quality acts, with reserved seats going for fifty cents. He often appeared in the star spot himself, singing such sentimental favorites as "The Band Played On" –
Casey would waltz
With the strawberry blonde
And the band played on.
He’d waltz round the floor
With the girl he adored
And the band played on.
But his brain was so loaded
He nearly exploded,
The poor girl would shake with alarm.
He married the girl
With the strawberry curl
And the band played on.
Pastor's "clean" variety show was an instant success, drawing an enthusiastic audience from all age groups and classes – including some of the most influential people in New York.
Appearing in vaudeville was no vacation. A successful act toured for forty or more weeks a year, doing "one nighters," split-weeks or weekly stands depending on a theatre’s size. Performers put up with these demanding schedules because even those who did not reach the level of headliner could make good money. In 1919, when the average factory worker earned less than $1,300, a small time Keith circuit performer playing a forty-two week season at $75 per week earned $3,150 a year. Women, uneducated immigrants, the poor – anyone with determination and a talent to entertain could earn a solid, respectable living. Few other fields could claim to offer the disadvantaged such accessible rewards in the early 20th Century.
Many of these theatres were poorly heated in winter and became oversized ovens in summer. Dressing rooms were small and filthy, with little if any ventilation. Musical accompaniment could be anything from a full orchestra to a lone pianist, and the quality of these musicians varied.
"I worked to all kinds of music – from bad to awful. Some bands were really great. For instance, there was the band at the RKO Palace in New Orleans. That band was so good it used to stop the show. Louis Prima was in that band. And when they played an overture – wow! On the other hand, there was the band at the New York Palace. Owen Jones was the leader. They had some women in the band, and they were so polite they used to let the women finish first – that's how the music sounded. Every act that went on had to stop in the middle and ask Owen Jones to take the tempo over again. Everybody out front knew what was happening. This bas*d was giving every act trouble. He was a musician but he couldn't cut a show."
- Billy Glason as quoted by editor Bill Smith in The Vaudevillians (New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1976), p. 43.**
Prior to the Civil War, American audiences boisterously voiced their approval or disapproval at theatrical performances by screaming, hollering, stomping, throwing vegetables and other missiles, or in certain instances even rushing the stage to attack performers or plead for encores. As the century drew to a close, and the process of incorporation discussed by Alan Trachtenberg accelerated along with its related processes of industrialization and the formation of stricter cultural hierarchies, entertainment and audiences were forced to change. In creating and maintaining the air of refinement associated with his theatres, Keith successfully developed a form of variety amusements well-suited for the new middle class and their urban lifestyles. The sheer abundance, variety, and spectacle offered at Keith's theatres helped to educate and transform American audiences in their new roles as passive spectators and consumers of experience and sensation.
This clip is from Me and My Gal starring Judy Garland and actually Gene Kelly's movie debut. It was dedicated to the Vaudevillians who helped shape America and its vibrant culture of performing arts.
The shift of New York City's Palace Theatre, vaudeville's epicenter, to an exclusively cinema presentation on 16 November 1932 is often considered to have been the death knell of vaudeville.[6] No single event is more than reflective of its gradual withering. The line is blurred further by the number of vaudeville entrepreneurs who made more or less successful forays into the movie business. For example,Alexander Pantages quickly realized the importance of motion pictures as a form of entertainment. He incorporated them in his shows as early as 1902. Later, he entered into partnership with the motion picture distributor Famous Players, a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. There was no abrupt end to vaudeville, though the form was clearly staggering by the late 1920s.
Ok Unit 1's.
New Info!!!
A few of you have been wanting to clarify the criteria of the Steam Heat SAC.
Here goes;
At least 3 phrases (1 in each section) to answer body actions, physical skills and links to exp int.
At least 1 extra phrase that you can analyse in terms of safe dance.
Cultural Influences on Movement Vocabulary, of which there is a great deal of information below. Don't get bogged down by it, make bullet points of Social, Historical, Artistic and fill in the relevant information as you collect it.
I have looked over most of your work and I'm pretty happy with the way its going regarding physical skills and body actions. Lets concentrate on Cultural Influences on Movement Vocabulary.
I'll just repost the dance so we dont have to flick back and forth between pages...hang on
5Cultural Influences on Movement Vocab
The style of Steam Heat is theatrical jazz, performed as an "act" as would be seen in the vaudeville and variety shows in America.
Can you find the cultural influences lurking in these paragraphs? Write down headings including Historical, Social, Artistic etc and fill in the info you think fits under each heading.
Acknowledged by critics and audiences alike as one of the musical theatre's greatest choreographers and directors, Bob Fosse captured nine Tony Awards and created a signature choreographic language that has not only endured but been widely imitated. Taking inspiration from Fred Astaire, Jack Cole (a pioneer contemporary dancer turned nightclub and Hollywood choreographer of the 1930 - 50's). George Balanchine*, Jerome Robbins and vaudeville, he developed a distinctive, immediately recognisable, populist style that was urban and sexual and irrepressibly rooted in jazz.
The silouette of the Fosse dancer is unmistakeable: sharply bent elbows away from the body, tilted pelvis supported on one leg crooked to the side, a hand to the rim of a hat tipped jauntily off the top of the head. The vocabulary itself was surprisingly simple, but it was the attention to detail and attitude in synchronising his undulating corp that made Fosse the unchallenged king of razzle-dazzle. The style also translated well to the screen, enabling him in 1973 to become the first director to win the triple crown: Oscar (Cabaret 1972), Tony (Pippin '72) and Emmy (Liza With a Z, NBC 1972)
"The son of a vaudeville entertainer, Fosse began his career as a hoofer in vaudeville and by the age of 13 he was a seasoned veteran of many burlesque shows in his native Chicago. As a sailor during World War II, performed in variety shows put together by Joseph Papp. Moving to New York City he acted and danced on stage before becoming and MGM contract player in musical films of the early 50's. He rose through the studio's ranks and though Hermes Pan allowed him to create his own dance sequence ('From This Moment On') opposite Carol Haney in Kiss Me Kate (1953) , My Sister Eileen (1955) brought him his first chance to choreograph a film. In between he crafted dances for his first Broadway show, The Pajama Game (1954), earning a Tony Award and introducing in its Steam Heat number his trademark sinuous, sharp angled and tightly wound style."
*lots of info on George Balanchine as a cultural influence on Fosse's movement vocab on the home page, scroll down the page a bit and have a read)
Jack Cole >>>
Go to Kiandra's page and watch the video about Jack Cole, its fantastic and he is an artistic cultural influence on Bob Fosse. Make notes while you watch, its packed full of great information. Thanks Kiandra!!
Some info on Vaudeville, incase you're unsure about what it is. Dont get too caught up in these notes for your SAC, they're more so you can gain a greater understanding. By all means use information if you think its relevant. There's some good info here for cultural influences on expressive intention but we're not doing that for this SAC.
Vaudeville
Vaudeville is a historical influence on Bob Fosse's movement vocabulary for Steam Heat.
These gals were successful vaudeville performers and although they performed in a few Hollywood movies, they couldn't successfully make the transition from stage to screen. Check em out!
...From Broadway Rhythm 1944. Presenting the Ross Sisters...
By the 1880’s, the Industrial Revolution had changed the once rural face of America. Half of the population was now concentrated in towns and cities, working at regulated jobs that left most of them with two things they never had back on the farm – a little spare cash and weekly leisure time. These people wanted affordable entertainment on a regular basis. Most variety shows were too coarse for women or children to attend, and minstrel shows were already declining in popularity. In a world where phonographs, film, radio and television did not yet exist, something new was needed to fill the gap.
Vaudeville also tried to bridge a social gap that had divided American audiences ever since the upper and lower classes clashed in a deadly 1849 riot.After the Astor Place Riot of 1849 entertainment in New York City was divided along class lines: opera was chiefly for the upper middle and upper classes, minstrel shows and melodramas for the middle class, variety shows in concert saloons for men of the working class and the slumming middle class. Vaudeville was developed by entrepreneurs seeking higher profits from a wider audience.
Tony Pastor was the first manager to present commercially successful "clean" variety. He earned fame as a variety vocalist, songwriter and manager on New York's Bowery. But his ambitions reached far beyond the bawdy standards that marked Bowery entertainments. A devout Catholic and attentive father, Pastor wanted to provide family-friendly entertainment. When he started presenting a clean variety show at New York's Fourteenth Street Theatre on Oct. 24, 1881, the location said a great deal about his intentions.
As an early center for public transportation, Manhattan's Union Square district included most of New York City's top theatres, restaurants and shops. Respectable theatergoers had no objection to attending performances there. Each week Pastor offered a different line-up of quality acts, with reserved seats going for fifty cents. He often appeared in the star spot himself, singing such sentimental favorites as "The Band Played On" –
Casey would waltz
With the strawberry blonde
And the band played on.
He’d waltz round the floor
With the girl he adored
And the band played on.
But his brain was so loaded
He nearly exploded,
The poor girl would shake with alarm.
He married the girl
With the strawberry curl
And the band played on.
Pastor's "clean" variety show was an instant success, drawing an enthusiastic audience from all age groups and classes – including some of the most influential people in New York.
Appearing in vaudeville was no vacation. A successful act toured for forty or more weeks a year, doing "one nighters," split-weeks or weekly stands depending on a theatre’s size. Performers put up with these demanding schedules because even those who did not reach the level of headliner could make good money. In 1919, when the average factory worker earned less than $1,300, a small time Keith circuit performer playing a forty-two week season at $75 per week earned $3,150 a year. Women, uneducated immigrants, the poor – anyone with determination and a talent to entertain could earn a solid, respectable living. Few other fields could claim to offer the disadvantaged such accessible rewards in the early 20th Century.
Many of these theatres were poorly heated in winter and became oversized ovens in summer. Dressing rooms were small and filthy, with little if any ventilation. Musical accompaniment could be anything from a full orchestra to a lone pianist, and the quality of these musicians varied.
"I worked to all kinds of music – from bad to awful. Some bands were really great. For instance, there was the band at the RKO Palace in New Orleans. That band was so good it used to stop the show. Louis Prima was in that band. And when they played an overture – wow! On the other hand, there was the band at the New York Palace. Owen Jones was the leader. They had some women in the band, and they were so polite they used to let the women finish first – that's how the music sounded. Every act that went on had to stop in the middle and ask Owen Jones to take the tempo over again. Everybody out front knew what was happening. This bas*d was giving every act trouble. He was a musician but he couldn't cut a show."
- Billy Glason as quoted by editor Bill Smith in The Vaudevillians (New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1976), p. 43.**
Prior to the Civil War, American audiences boisterously voiced their approval or disapproval at theatrical performances by screaming, hollering, stomping, throwing vegetables and other missiles, or in certain instances even rushing the stage to attack performers or plead for encores. As the century drew to a close, and the process of incorporation discussed by Alan Trachtenberg accelerated along with its related processes of industrialization and the formation of stricter cultural hierarchies, entertainment and audiences were forced to change. In creating and maintaining the air of refinement associated with his theatres, Keith successfully developed a form of variety amusements well-suited for the new middle class and their urban lifestyles. The sheer abundance, variety, and spectacle offered at Keith's theatres helped to educate and transform American audiences in their new roles as passive spectators and consumers of experience and sensation.
This clip is from Me and My Gal starring Judy Garland and actually Gene Kelly's movie debut. It was dedicated to the Vaudevillians who helped shape America and its vibrant culture of performing arts.
The shift of New York City's Palace Theatre, vaudeville's epicenter, to an exclusively cinema presentation on 16 November 1932 is often considered to have been the death knell of vaudeville.[6] No single event is more than reflective of its gradual withering. The line is blurred further by the number of vaudeville entrepreneurs who made more or less successful forays into the movie business. For example,Alexander Pantages quickly realized the importance of motion pictures as a form of entertainment. He incorporated them in his shows as early as 1902. Later, he entered into partnership with the motion picture distributor Famous Players, a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. There was no abrupt end to vaudeville, though the form was clearly staggering by the late 1920s.