Early training and background Robert Louis Fosse was born in 1927.

He began dancing as a child and was

a professional performer by the time he was 13 (Riff Brothers tap-dancing act touring burlesque halls
and strip clubs). At 15 Fosse was working as the master of ceremonies at several nightspots. This is when
he choreographed his first number in which four dancing girls manipulated strategically placed ostrich
feathers to Cole porter’s ‘That Old Black Magic.’ After a couple of years in the navy, Fosse spent two
years in drama school before joining a tour of ‘Call me Mister’ as a chorus boy. In 1950 Fosse made his
debut on Broadway in ‘Dance Me a Song.’ Then Hollywood beckoned – he secured parts in three small
films ‘I had fantasies of becoming the next Fred Astaire.’ Fosse used to watch Fred Astaire performing
whenever possible whilst he was in ‘The Band Wagon’ which was filmed in the same location. In the
third film that Fosse appeared in which was ‘Kiss me Kate’ he was able to exhibit a small but significant
piece of his own choreography. This brought him to the attention of the legendary Broadway director,
George Abbott and led to his break in New York. Abbott hired Fosse to choreograph ‘The Pajama Game’
in 1954. The show was an outstanding success (winning a Tony Award) and Fosses revolutionary staging
of ‘Steam Heat’ (a dance number within the musical) became the talk of New York and allowed Fosse to
really find his style. New Girl in Town (1957). The musical had so much drama and so little movement
that Fosse started to embellish the walks of the performers – playing prostitutes – until he had
developed a “Red Light Ballet.” It was so shocking that the police padlocked the production until it was
cleaned up. (after the show opened, the “Red Light” sequence was almost entirely restored.)
Collaborated with Abbott again on ‘Damn Yankees’ (1958) which starred Gwen Verdon. Verdon was the
leading lady in almost all of Fosse’s shows and became the definitive Fosse dancer. In order to have
complete creative freedom by 1960 fosse was directing and choreographing. Actors as well as dancers
loved taking direction from him. His name alone would sell out a show on Broadway throughout the 60’s
and 70’s. ‘Sweet Charity’, ‘Pippin’, ‘Chicago’ and ‘Dancin’ almost 5000 performances between them.
Height of Fosse’s success 1973 (two Tony awards for ‘Pippin’, an Oscar for his direction of the film version
of Cabaret and three Emmy Awards for producing, directing and choreographing Liza Minnelli’s television
special, Liza with a Z). The next year Fosse was nominated for a second academy award for his direction
of ‘Lenny’ (a film adaptation of the Broadway play about comedian Lenny Bruce). In 1975 he suffered a
heart attack. Fosse recovered to create the Broadway hits ‘Chicago’ and ‘Dancin’ and the
autobiographical movie ‘All That Jazz’ that earned 9 Oscar nominations. ‘All That Jazz’ was Fosse’s last big
critical success. Mirroring the plot of ‘All That Jazz’, Fosse died of a heart attack moments before the
curtain went up on what was to become a triumphant revival of one of his greatest hits, Sweet Charity.
He was 60 years old. Influences • Bob Fosse was the fifth of six children born to a Chicago vaudevillian.
He was regarded as a child prodigy and given tap dancing lessons; he was on the professional vaudeville
stage before reaching high school. • He received formal training from the Frederick Weaver Ballet
School. At dance school he was the only male. “I got a lot of jokes and got whistled at a lot. But I beat up
a couple of the whistlers and the rest sort of tapered off after a while.” • Undoubtedly the provocative
gestures and poses of strippers Fosse watched night after night had a direct bearing on his choreographic
style. • Influenced by the work of Jack Cole, Fred Astaire, and Jerome Robbins, Fosse was fluent in a
dizzying mix of styles: in Redhead alone he incorporated elements of the ballet, jazz, march, cancan,
gypsy dance, and the traditional English music-hall. • Fosse had he no reservations about drawing upon
the facts of his own personal life: his 1979 film All That Jazz – written, directed, and choreographed by
himself – laid it all out: his compulsive chain-smoking, drinking, drug-taking, and womanizing. subject
matter/Choreographic intention Subtext beneath the movement ‘You can’t be a good dancer, unless
you‘re a good actor. Otherwise it’s all just so much animated wallpaper.’ Bob Fosse • Fosse performers
must tell a story. “Bob never called us dancers. He called us actors, because everything he did came from
an acting standpoint—from an idea or emotion. Every move you make is infused with character and
story.” It’s crucial that you develop an ability to control your movement while still maintaining a strong
sense of intention. • Fosse dancers say that the biggest challenge is the detailed movements. For
example, “the beginning of ‘Rich Man’s Frug’ from Sweet Charity, Really, all they’re doing is walking, but
the way they’re walking [with rigid posture and their noses toward the ceiling] is telling you everything
you need to know about the characters. It relies on such tiny details. You have to get them all exactly
right.” • Cabaret (1972) set in 1930s Berlin during Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, starred Liza Minnelli, as
Sally Bowles, an ambitious nightclub performer who becomes involved with a British writer. Cabaret
features imaginative showstopping numbers and, like most of Fosse’s work, dealt with the seamier side
of show business, presenting adult themes rather than the lighthearted romantic themes typically
associated with musicals (“Mein Herr” and “The Money Song”). Fosse’s expressive, sometimes
exaggerated use of camera movement, editing, and garish colour and lighting visually accentuates the
decay and ugliness of the story. Choreographic approach • Fosse was a man who loved life and lived it to
excess this is reflected in his overtly sexual and decadent feel of his dances. • A shy man, Pidgeon-toed,
with receding hair (he almost always wore a hat). These personal elements are evident in his
choreography. • Fosse was a perfectionist, his constant mantra was ‘Una Mas’ Spanish for ‘once more.’ •
Characteristic of his style is a type of trio dance, with its forward thrust of hips, hunched shoulders,
turned-in feet and sharp, jazzy movements enhanced by sound effects. Derbies and animated hands
became trademarks of his work • Fosses show-stopping ability came from the knowledge of how to build
a number to a climax, to give it a beginning, middle and end – and his ability to do it with sex and
humour. • Fosse dancers must be able to isolate everything, right down to their eyeballs, elbows and
fingers. When a Fosse dancer learns to focus her energy in stillness, she can grab the audience with a
simple flutter of her fingers. “It should look like you’re not working at all—but you’ll come off stage
sweating,” • The best way to develop your control is to keep training in modern, jazz, tap and especially
ballet. Some of the best Fosse dancers were ballet dancers first. “I found that the same quality that was
asked of me as a ballet dancer was asked of me as a Fosse dancer: That adherence and dedication to the
line, and to making that line look good. You have to have the same clear, welltrained eye to perform
Fosse’s work

Contribution to American Jazz Fosse changed Broadway forever in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s with his
ground-breaking choreography for musicals such as Sweet Charity (1969) and Cabaret (1972). Although
he died nearly 25 years ago, Fosse’s influence is still reverberating through the dance world. A revival of
Chicago has been selling tickets on Broadway for the past 15 years, and another Fosse revival, Dancin’, is
set to open on Broadway this spring. Mastering Fosse’s style is an integral part of any young dancer’s
education, because Fosse’s influence goes way beyond Broadway. Performers from Michael Jackson to
Beyoncé have all been influenced by Fosse’s work, and classes in his style are regularly taught at studios
and conventions around the world. Bob Fosse’s style, with its pelvic thrust, razzle-dazzle hands, and
slumped over set of shoulders, is immediately recognizable. Fosse championed the vaudevillian
delinquent. He bucked the post-World War II musical theatre tradition of happy boys and girls and their
dancing feet. Fosse has had an unquestionable influence on musical theatre dance, despite this, his most
important contribution may be his film work. Fosse rejected the tradition, best exemplified by the dance
numbers in Fred Astaire films, of capturing the dancing figure from head to toe. In contrast to Astaire,
Fosse dispensed with the notion that a good dance sequence had to be continuously shot, that dancers
had to project bodily ease, and that the viewer was ready for some light entertainment. Example: In
Sweet Charity (1969) Fosse’s dancers appear as burlesque matrons. They barely move, and when they
do, they look like zombies trying to be sexy. Through his directorial and choreographic choices in the
film, Fosse makes the viewer complicit in the vulgarity of The Big Spender number. He shoots, in fast
whiplash cuts, the dancers’ bodies from the perspective of one male customer, sitting in the front row
and smoking a cigarette. By shooting their body parts in isolated shots, Fosse aggressively tenders the
idea that these gals are broken. No doubt, the Big Spender number is a brilliant use of film and dance.
Fosse’s mature dance-film style, seen in the Big Spender number. His gestural-driven (and sleaze-riddled)
dance numbers are completed by the camera’s close-ups and the subsequent multiple edits, which give
one the sense of a hungry eye, roving from one dancer to the next. This pasting and cutting approach to
filmed choreography became, after Fosse, the tradition for mass media dance film. It can be seen in
Michael Jackson dance videos, the famous Maniac (1983) dance number from Flash Dance, and in
Madonna's Vogue (1990). In each case, the choreography takes second place to the ingenious, energetic
filming and editing. Jackson’s music video Bad (1987) may be the pinnacle of the Fosse dance-film style.
The performers are shot from below (as though one is begging the gang members for mercy—
underneath their very chins). Summary American dancer, choreographer for the musical stage and
screen, writer, and director Bob Fosse was perhaps the most influential figure in the field of jazz dance in
the twentieth century. Creative, inspired, driven, strong-willed, tireless, and ruthless, Fosse forged an
uncompromising modern style – characterized by finger-snapping, tilted bowler hats, net stockings,
splayed gloved fingers, turned-in knees and toes, and shoulder rolls Forever changed the way audiences
around the world viewed dance on the stage and in the film industry in the late 20th century. Through
his films he revolutionized the presentation of dance on screen and paved the way for a whole
generation of film and video directors, showing dance through the camera lens as no one had done
before, foreshadowing the rise of the MTV-era of music video dance. Visionary, intense, and
unbelievably driven, Fosse was an artist whose work was always provocative, entertaining, and quite
unlike anything ever before seen. His dances were sexual, physically demanding of even the most highly
trained dancers, full of joyous humour as well as bleak cynicism — works that addressed the full range of
human emotions. Stylistic Features Distinctive signature style which furthered the art of dance which
features sultry hip rolls, smooth finger snaps, turned-in pigeon toes and specific, detailed movements.
Overview of key features: • Sound effects (clapping hands, stamping feet, fsss sounds) • Percussive
rhythms • Derbies and white gloves • Angular posturing • Shoulder rolling • Finger stretching • Dynamic
use of lightening effects • Percussive sounds which are a key feature of Jazz Genre. • Undercurrent of
sensuality • Element of surprise e.g. if the music states a theme three times most choreographers repeat
the step three times. But Fosse would do the same step only twice the third time he would do something
totally unexpected. Fosse Action Words and specific Examples Bob Fosse used a variety of unique
phrases to describe his signature movements, and many of these terms are still around today • Slow
burn: An intense gaze that shifts slowly from one side of the stage to the other or from back to front.
Example: in Cabaret as Liza Minnelli faces upstage, then slowly turns in her chair to look at the audience
before she sings “Mein Herr.” • Broken doll walk: A pigeon-toed walk downstage. Your elbows are glued
to your torso, jazz hands reach out to your sides and your hips swing slightly. Example: in “Bye Bye
Blackbird” in Fosse as the dancers sing “Here I go, swingin’ low.” • Crescent jump: A jump in place with
one leg in parallel coupé and the other straight. Jazz hands extend high above your head as you reach far
to one side, making a “C” with your body. Example: in “Sing Sing Sing” in Fosse—the dancers do it over
and over again during the climax of the music. • Soft-boiled-egg hand: A cupped-hand position. Imagine
that you’re holding an egg just tight enough to avoid dropping or crushing it. Example: Rich man’s Frug
‘Sweet Charity’ 1969 Female dancers plie in parallel whilst alternating their arms up and down, bent in at
the elbow, hands in a cupped position the dancers nod their heads in time with the beat in the music.
Fosse has a reputation as an inventive choreographer. His dance numbers, many of which were sensual
in nature, frequently featured props—notably chairs, canes, and bowler hats—and his signature moves
included turned-in knees, the sideways shuffle, rolled shoulders, and the splayed-finger shaking “jazz
hand.” Fosse also utilized the spotlight to guide and manipulate audience attention.

https://lfatsf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/11/Dance-Bob-Fosse-Year-13-Term-2.pdf

https://www.espritdanceacademy.com/history-of-bob-fosse/#:~:text=Born%20in%20Chicago%2C
%20Illinois%2C%20on,by%20Tony%20and%20Academy%20Awards.

whT re the four things to describe hia style

 Enormously creative, inspired, driven, strong-willed, tireless, and ruthless, Fosse forged an
uncompromising modern style – characterized by finger-snapping, tilted bowler hats, net stockings,
splayed gloved fingers, turned-in knees and toes, and shoulder rolls – that has frequently been called
“cynical.” 

Bob Fosse, choreographer of Chicago and All that Jazz, (hint hint wink wink Jazz 2/3 people), is
considered to be one of the most successful choreographers in history. While this is just a history, I
encourage dancers to view his actual choreographic works and share your favorites with me! He was an
iconic man and will always be a part of Jazz dance history as a classic for sure. Explore Fosse and other
classic jazz works, you have the time and the internet at your disposal! Go forth and…

“Don’t dance for the audience, dance for yourself” -Bob Fosse.

With love and confidence,

Ms. Caitlin xoxo

Bob Louis Fosse (June 23, 1927- September 23, 1987) is a director/choreographer who forever changed
the way audiences viewed dance on the stage and in the film industry in the late 20th century. Born in
Chicago, Illinois, on June 23, 1927, Bob Fosse is known as a choreographer and director of stage and
screen musicals. During his career, he created masterpieces such as Cabaret (1972), All That Jazz (1979)
and Lenny (1974) and was recognized by Tony and Academy Awards. On September 23, 1987, Bob died
of a heart attack in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Fosse showed strong interests in dancing in his early ages. Discovering his remarkable talents in
dancing, his parent supported his hobby by sending him to receive formal training. While Bob’s brothers
were all playing sports, he was learning ballet. Hard works paid off. When it comes to his time in high
school, Fosse was already dancing professionally in local nightclubs. It was there that he was first
exposed to the themes of vaudeville and burlesque performance.
Following high school, Bob was enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was assigned to an entertainment unit.
After his discharge in 1947, Bob decided not to go back to Chicago, rather, he went to the New York City,
where he planned to take on the next step of his career. During his time in NYC, he studied acting while
dancing as a team with his first wife, Mary Ann Niles. After several practices in the national tours, Mr.
Fosse made his way to the Broadway. In 1953 he appeared briefly in the movie musical called Kiss Me
Kate (1953), where his work caught an eye of Broadway director George Abbott and choreographer
Jerome Robbins. From here, his career started to take off.

In 1954, Fosse choreographed the show, Pajama Game, which was directed by George Abbott. In this
show, Fosse’s style, which is featured by complex moves and imagery drawn from vaudeville, received a
huge popularity. Followed by the standing ovation is his first Tony Award for the Best Choreography.

By 1960, Bob Fosse was considered to be one of the most successful choreographers in the history.
However, his career didn’t stop there. Despite his reputation, Mr. Fosse still faced oppositions from
directors and producers who criticized his work as being too suggestive. With those criticisms, Fosse
made a decision to take on the role of a director as well as a choreographer in order to maintain the
cohesion of his artistic vision in Hollywood and on Broadway. Following by his dual-role in directing and
choreographing, his subsequent musicals included Sweet Charity, Cabaret and Pippin received great
success: The 1972 film version of Cabaret won eight Academy Awards; Mr. Fosse won Tony Awards for
direction and choreography in his work on Pippin: His Life and Times (1981); He also won an Emmy for
his staging of the television variety show Liza with a Z (1972). Those stage musicals and films that Fosse
created in the 1960s to 1970s were considered to be ground-breaking because of their common theme:
the desire for sexual freedom.

In 1979, Fosse co-wrote and directed a semi-autobiographical film called All That Jazz (1979), which
portrayed the life of a womanizing, drug-addicted choreographer-director in the midst of triumph and
failure. All That Jazz won four Academy Awards, earning Fosse his third Oscar nomination for Best
Director. However, unfortunately, during the process of producing All That Jazz, Fosse was already
suffered a heart attack.
On September 23, 1987, Fosse died at George Washington University Hospital from a heart attack, while
he was on the sidewalk outside the Willard Hotel as the revival of Sweet Charity was beginning across
the street at the nearby National Theatre.

Mr. Fosse led the groundbreaking revolutions in musical shows and films. Shows that Fosse
choreographed are long lived in their time and some famous ones such as Chicago is still being
performed (Chicago is currently the longest-running musical in theater history). In addition, his films
revolutionized the presentation of dance on screen and paved the way for a whole generation of film
and video directors. Bob’s works showed dance through the camera lens as no one had done before,
foreshadowing the rise of the MTV-era of music video dance.

Fosse was undoubtedly an innovative choreographer. By reviewing his works, it is not hard for one to see
the inspirations he received from other artists. By mixing those inspirations and his own passions, Bob
established his unique style of expression. With his signature complex dance move and bold ideas of
expression, Bob Fosse made unprecedented contributions to the history of theater.