French producers came to New York looking to cast an all-black musical revue in Paris. They saw Josephine performing at the Plantation club and offered her a part in their production La Revue Negré. In 1925 she went to Paris to appear in in the show. The show opened on October 2, 1925 in Paris at the Théâtre Champs-Elysées. Josephine had two numbers in La Revue Negré.
He had a screen test by M-G-M, he appeared in the film Kiss Me Kate (1953). Since Kiss Me Kate was a highly original dance number, this led him to his first job as a choreographer. It was the Broadway hit directed by Jerome Robbins, The Pajama Game (1954). A little while later he met Gwen Verdon, who was a talented dancer. The two collaborated on several hit shows such as, Damn Yankee (1955, film 1958), New Girl in Town (1957), and Redhead (1959).
At about 24 years of age, Hanya Holm saw a recital of Mary Wigman. After training in Germany, she worked at Mary Wigman’s Central Institute in Dresden as a dancer and teacher and later co director. In 1929 she danced the princess in one of the early productions of Stravinsky's The Soldier's Taleher first major solo part for which she did her own choreography. At that time she was not yet quite sure whether to become a dancer, choreographer, or teacher. In 1931 she opened a Wigman school in New York City, which became the Hanya Holm Studio in 1936.
I will focus on Ballet Folklorico de Mexico which is a folkloric ballet ensemble in Mexico City. For the past five decades folkloric dancers have performed dances in costumes that reflect the traditional culture of Mexico. The most famous dance group in Mexico is Ballet Folklorico de Amalia Hernandez, this group has been international competitions and has won many times. Folklorico is composed of Ballet steps and musical pieces reflecting various regions and folk music genres of Mexico. We should educate ourselves a little about Mexican Folklore.
Juan Blandino 3214 – 0193 November 10th, 2009 “Vaudeville Shows” Throughout the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, many forms of music and events came and went to help create the music today that soothes the soul and replenish the spirits. You may know it to be called jazz. But in order to fully appreciate the tunes of jazz, we must look at the history in which it is derived from. One of the main influences that helped jazz come to its still popular form today were vaudeville shows. Vaudeville was a popular form of theatre in the early nineteenth century that incorporated a variety of acts that ranged from acrobatics, comics and sketches and most importantly, musicians and singers.
Major Paper IPA 106 FALL 2009 Worked by: Zhilin Jin The purpose of my essay is to evaluate the musical Cabaret through the description of the primary theatrical elements of the Cabaret and their contributions. I will summarize the film’s plot and the theme of the movie. I will then analyze and interpret the style of this musical from a theatre perspective, such as how the dances used gesture and movement and how the music expressed the characters’ emotions. I will then evaluate of the theatric, dance, and musical elements that make up this musical film. Bob Fosse was the Director/choreographer who not only brought to Cabaret an interesting background and storyline, but folded the big musical numbers into the Kit Kat Club’s performances to better illustrate and emphasize the plot.
This piece depicts the struggles of different generations of black American women. It begins with a long white scarf that becomes many things during the course of the dance, a wash rag and ends with the expression of unquestioning belief and happiness danced to the late 1960’s song, “Right on, Be Free.” Ailey made use of any combination of dance techniques that best suited the theatrical movement. Valuing eclecticism, he created more of a dance style than a technique. He said that he wanted from his dancer to be long and to have unbroken leg line and deftly articulated legs and feet combined with a dramatically expressive upper torso. He like the lines and technical range that a classical ballet gives to the body, but he still wanted them to project to the audiences the expressiveness that only modern dance offers especially for the inner kinds of things.
Dance Homework – Research Task Katherine Dunham Katherine Dunham was born on June 22nd 1909. Dunham had many great talents as well as dance and choreography. She was an artist, anthropologist, author, manager, movie star, activist, producer, educator, wife and mother .She was inspired by caribbean dance and African culture which gave her the idea to bring them together. She became first interested in dance when she began studying ballet in 1928. She was then accepted to the University of Chicago in 1929 as an anthropology major in which she focused on dance.
Later, he was introduced to dance teacher Lester Horton. Horton had a dance school in Hollywood and his style was more straightforward and what Ailey was looking for. When Ailey saw a school performance of fellow Jefferson High School student and Horton protégé, Carmen de Lavallade, he signed on with Horton. Lester Horton welcomed him to his company as part of the chorus. Soon after, Alvin had choreographed his first formal concert dance, Afternoon Blues, set to music from the Broadway show, On The Town.
Poets such as Langston Hughes wrote beautiful poetry and also composed plays that were all African-American. Thanks to all this music, dance clubs became immensely popular in the 1920s. Different types of musical genres were offered at the clubs and people loved to dance to them, so much, that all across the US dance clubs offered dance contests were people would try out new moves and such. The most famous dances during the 20s were foxtrot, waltz, and American tango, mind you, that this was the first time that a man and women would hold each other while dancing, or come into any contact. Soon, more excited dances came around known as the breakaway and the famous Charleston.