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Dance forms in Musical Theatre by Michael Moor

Classical Ballet    

Most often used to portray pantomime, ‘melodrama’ or the ‘fairy tale’

Ballet d’ Action

Was an 18^th century form in which all elements of dance, choreography and design was subordinate to plot and

theme.

Jean-Georges Noverre 1727-1810 was a leading exponent

•     Wrote in 1760 Lettres sur la danse et sur les ballets.

•     Stressing the importance of dramatic motivation which he called ‘ballet d’action’

•     He denounced the overemphasis on ‘technical virtuosity’.

•     His work was presented in London in 1755 by the actor-manager David Garrick

The tradition of story telling is a long one

Ranging from ballet d’action to the early 19^th century Romantic ballets such as Giselle to the mid to late Russian classics of Petipa

Classical ballet crosses the developmental path of musical theatre in a number of ways.

Some of the great names in classical ballet performed in Vaudeville, and in Revue’s in the mid to late 19^th century

Anna Pavlova, Adeline Genee and Fanny Elssler

The Black Crook see Mates, J 

Ballet’s influence on the development of the Musical is more about Choreographers than Dancers

George Ballanchine

On Your Toes

Agnes De Mille

Oklahoma!

Jerome Robbins

On the Town & West Side Story

 Choreographers have become

Influential Directors

De Mille and Robbins in particular…

Were instrumental in integrating dance into the plot of ‘the musical’ thus creating or developing the convention.

Ballets have even become Musicals

Robbins’s ballet Fancy Free became On The Town for example!

Classical Ballet continues to influence the musical theatre in terms of performance as it remains a fundamental technique in the training of a musical theatre performer.

Jazz Dance:  is most often used to reflect either an inner life or as ensemble work, it's overwhelming impression is sexiness, it is rarely used to develop plot.

we can suggest the first jazz dance or black vernacular dance/social dance to hit the stage was the 'Cake Walk' introduced by the black vaudeville team of Williams and Walker.  This dance has both slave origins and minstrel origins, it was popularised in the 1903 production of In Dahomey . Purists might argue that it could be considered more a Rag time dance than an actual jazz dance, however it was a significant black dance craze that was adopted by whites and is certainly to be taken into consideration when tracing the development of Jazz Dance forms.

The 1921 production of  Eubie Blake's all black musical  Shuffle Along   was a major turning point for mainstream acceptance of jazz music and jazz dance.  Leading producers of the day were so surprised and unprepared for its success that they had to hire the girls from the chorus of Shuffle Along to teach this new form and incorporate the phenomenon into their own shows.  This was 1921 and Broadway was not actually ready to hire black dancers into the chorus ...but they were hired as teachers! However it was white dance teachers who codified Jazz dance for the stage and training studio, men like Jack Cole, Matt Mattox and Luigi

Influential choreographers include:

Jack Cole

Gower Champion

Busby Berkley

Bob fosse

Contemporary Dance for the musical stage: Modern Dance as such is really quite rare on the Musical Stage, however as a dance form it has been highly influential and has in fact informed dance practice to such a large degree that not to include its influence would be highly negligent. It would also be fair to say that Modern Dance has borrowed from and reflected on a number of sources including the musical show dance. Alvin Ailey and Twyla Tharp are two choreogaphers that come to mind as having a fascination with the 'glitzy number'.

Contemporary Dance has two major points of origin with reference to the American Musical. Firstly the personal impact of Isadora Duncan who toured the USA during the early years of the 20th century and secondly the School of Denishawn.

Influential choreographers include;

Doris Humphrey

Katherine Dunham

Recommended Further Reading for this Lecture:

Mates, J(87) Scene 3. p97-122 for ballet and modern dance in particular! Use the index of the book to browse particular names of jazz choreographers or shows associated with them.

...also try looking up some of the influential jazz choreographers in Stearns, Jazz Dance. I would also suggest a look at my essays 'A Trip to Coon Town' and 'The Minstrel Tradition and its Influence on the Musical Theatre' for background information.

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