As an expressive art form, dance and movement have been intertwined within the development

of musical theatre since its late nineteenth-century beginnings. As a defined style of dance,
musical theatre movement and choreography are a complex combination of many different
influences, A theatricalized form of jazz dance would be a mainstay of dance in musicals for
much of the twentieth century and become a widely identified element within musical theatre.
This chapter gives an overview of the movement genres that had a significant influence on
musical development of dance in musical theatre from its foundations through the early 1950s,
when dance in Broadway musicals found a clearly defined physical identity. The chapter begins
with early genres of dance that combined social and formalized forms, with special attention on
influential choreographers including Ned Wayburn, Sammy Lee, Bobby Connolly, and Seymour
Felix; and early dance stars such as Marilyn Miller and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. This chapter
also gives attention to the influence of minstrelsy on the genre. From there, the discussion turns
towards the influence of classical ballet through the work of choreographers Albertina Rasch
and George Balanchine. Finally, the chapter surveys the significant influence of classical and
modern dance on the genre, and closes with the introduction of theatrical jazz dance and its
early teachings by various teachers and choreographers such as Robert Alton, Katherine
Dunham, Jack Cole, Matt Mattox, and Luigi. While the overall focus is on stage performance,
the discussion brings in examples from key Hollywood musicals as the genre of film provides an
archive of what stage dance would look like and showcases some of the main influences at the
time. In all, this chapter explores numerous branches of the history of development of musical
theatre dance that is expanded upon in upcoming chapters.

Dance in musical theatre is an amalgamation of many styles and social forms, some of which
require specialized training. In the early twentieth century, musical theatre dance was often
entwined with social dance trends, such as the Charleston, the Black Bottom, and the foxtrot.
These popular dance crazes provided theatre choreographers with a way to entice audiences,
in turn broadening the reach of social dance styles. Be that as it may, dance in musicals has
often been disregarded, relegated to the realms of low art because of its commercial nature,’
However, there Is much to be explored regarding how the development of dance in musical
theatre worked in tandem with the dominant aesthetics and soci politics of the time.

In the early musicals of the twentieth century, stage dancing, as defined by choreographer Ned
Wayburn in his 1925 manual The Art of Stage Dancing, was a form of dance that drew away
from social dance forms because it could be commercialized.” Yet, further expansion of “stage
dancing” is rather vague. Early influences saw the inclusion of comedic ang pantomime ballet,
styles that drew from the vernacular movement of other cultures, tap dance, and ballroom,
alongside the rise of the kickline and precision chorus, dances that became a staple in early
musical theatre. Dance was certainly a central element of the performance, but its main purpose
was to provide visual spectacle, making it a somewhat frivolous element in these early musical
comedies.

During the 1920s, Broadway musicals saw a rise in dancing stars, many drawn from the
vaudeville circuits, who possessed a varied range of unique and idiosyncratic performance
styles, tap dance being one of the most prominent. Of these performers, a small number— Ray
Bolger, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Charlotte Greenwood, the Nicholas Brothers and Cholly
Atkins to name a few — had their work captured on film as the emergence of the Hollywood
musical saw the studios entice performers and choreographers away from Broadway. This early
work established what musical theatre dance would be at the time. The 1980s would witness a
greater influence from classical ballet, particularly with the work of George Balanchine, which
would have a lasting effect on the shaping of dance movement on the stage.? As musical styles
evolved and performances became more cohesive, with all elements (book, lyrics, score)
working for the same purpose, choreographers such as Agnes de Mille and Jerome Robbins
significantly changed the landscape and purpose of dance, contributing to character
development through an infusion of classical and modern dance vocabularies. Dance in
musicals during the 1940s went through monumental changes, brought about in part by the
evolution of musicals by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein Il. In contrast, the work of
dancer and choreographer Jack Cole infused the musical theatre genre with “modern jazz
dance,” which seemed well suited to the type of musicals that were emerging at this time. Cole's
articulation of the body and movement composition would incorporate a wider range of cultural
Influences including South Asian and African American vernacular movement. Importantly, the
work of Katherine Dunham, drew on authentic African dance movement and broadened the
movement vocabulary that early choreographers had utilized,*

For the purpose of this chapter, “theatre dance” encompasses a fusion of dance styles in a
theatrical setting, as in a revue show or musical play. Theatre dance draws on many influences,
significantly jazz, ballet, and tap genres during the early period of its development, and has
become identifiable with the Broadway musical, particularly through theatrical jazz dance (a
term that more broadly encompasses all styles of jazz that are performed before

Early Dance Influences

Drawing on the movement and gesture of pantomime, dance as used in early theatre
productions primarily took the form of ballet divertissement between acts and served little
purpose other than providing another form of entertainment for audiences.® Classical ballet, an
art form originating in the sixteenth century, established itself in opera productions at the Paris
Opera in 1671. One of the earliest forms of dance to establish a codified technique in the
Western world, ballet would eventually find its own voice apart from operatic productions,
utilizing narrative to develop choreographic movement that could convey meaning, purpose, and
story to an audience. In London in 1734 ballet dancer and choreographer Marie Sallé would
present the story of sculptor Pygmalion.’ Her interpretation, along with several other
interpretations of the same theme, would provide a springboard from which a theatricalized art
form would find its own identity and a body could tell a story. Ballets, as a cohesive narrative
production, would proliferate in the theatrical world during the late 1800s, becoming increasingly
popular throughout the nineteenth century, which would see the creation of some of the most
influential productions of the genre, such as Giselle (1841), Swan Lake (1877), and Sleeping
Beauty (1890). Susan Leigh Foster states that ballets of this period offered “dramatic
interpretations on stage [that] came to be less based on the hierarchies of status, class, and
profession, and more on the exchanges of heartfelt emotion.” In this consideration, the balletic
movement vocabulary would rely heavily on mime and gesture that communicated with the
audience.

Much of the classical ballet canon of the nineteenth century is characterized as being in the
romantic style, perhaps reflecting the influence of the wider nineteenth-century arts and
literature movement known as Romanticism. Romantic ballet can be delineated as giving
greater prominence to the female dancing body and to pointe work, providing a more ethereal
and magical quality to the movement. The romantic tutu, with a hemline falling just below the
knee, highlighted the footwork, with more fluid use of the arms and upper body, often
emphasized by a rounder arm position and slight forward lean of the body.° The formulaic
structure of ballet from this era provided a template that worked well within musical theatre,
Another important precursor to musical theatre and its use of dance is minstrelsy.'° Fron the
mid-1800s to the early 1900s, minstrel shows were one of the most popular forms of
entertainment in America. As early as 1767, Black dances had been appropriated ang
performed by white entertainers and appeared in theatrical productions." In 1828 a white
performer named Thomas Dartmouth Rice would become synonymous with blackface
minstrelsy and the perpetuation of African American stereotypes with his alter ego, Daddy “Jim
Crow” Rice. In the years to come, as Brenda Dixon Gottschild notes, even though minstrelsy
was essentially about white power and supremacy, African Americans “had no choice but to
step into a white-constructed mirror that distorted their reflection. Yet they introduced genuine
black presence, invention, and creativity into the genre.” This resulted in Black dancers, to some
effect, reclaiming this act of cultural appropriation and offering a more culturally authentic quality
to the performances. As abhorrent as this was, to some extent the reclaiming of these minstrel
stereotypes would ultimately provided a platform in which Black performers could gain more
attention and recognition as entertainers alongside their white counterparts.

Minstrelsy's significance for dance is monumental because of its amalgamation of cultural

influences, including African vernacular dance, Irish ree! and jig, and Lancashire clog, all of
which would become part of the later jazz and tap idioms. Additionally, minstrelsy provided a
significant shift in compositional styles of music, using rhythms drawn from African American
influences and becoming a precursor to the jazz music genre. '? Minstrelsy’s painful portrayal of
African American stereotypes, through an overly caricatured performance style in blackface, is
certainly not to be celebrated: it is a tarnish on social and political history that can never be
undone. However, as a form of performance, it provided dancers both white and Black with a
rich movement vocabulary that informed both tap and jazz dance. One of the most popular
dancers of this period was the freeborn William Henry Lane, whose alter ego, Master Juba,
would compete against minstrel dancers to assert his skill and proficiency, His dance
characteristics drew from the form’s many cultural influences, with his leg movements revealing
the Irish influence, and his single and double shuffles suggesting the African American
presence. What made his dance displays stand out was his rhythmic beating of his feet on the
floor."

Even though the white-dominated minstrel shows would continue for decades, Black artists
would find ways to make a name for themselves. The cakewalk, one of the most influential
dance styles to have evolved during the mid- to late nineteenth century, provided a gateway for
Black performers to join the predominately white theatrical world. The Cakewalk was featured in
the early twentieth century performances of Aida Overton Walker, a Black dancer who starred In
all-Black musicals that evolved as a breakaway from the formulaic structure of minstrel shows.
As a form of dance, it mocked and parodied the upper class (or, originally, white plantation
owners) and consisted of a pigeon-chested posture, a strutting action with the legs sometimes
kicking up in front of the body. Although the cakewalk’s stature was diminished as white
Americans relegated it to an almost cartoonish portrayal of Black dancers in society settings, it
nonetheless gained notoriety and respect as an American national dance created by enslaved
African Americans. '® In the larger development of dance, the cakewalk also meant that Black
performers were instrumental in integrating dance as a more focused part of the overall
performance along with the song and text. Many Black performers would distance themselves
from the racial stereotyping that became associated with this dance, becoming independent
artistes with styles of dance that opposed such caricatures in movement. '®

Vaudeville and Revues

Vaudeville and revue shows, building on the format of minstrelsy and an ever-changing program
of performers, gained quickly in popularity in the early twentieth-century and gave greater
exposure and prominence to the dancer in theatrical productions. Gerald Bordman explains the
difference in forms: vaudeville, whose productions traveled across the US bringing a plethora of
talent to local audiences and presenting shows with interchangeable lineups and no cohesive
link, were one of the most popular forms of theatrical entertainment of the era; revues, cohesive
and elaborate productions that became a mainstay of Broadway theatre, were more erudite and
had less appeal to mass audiences outside of New York.'’ The king of all revue shows in New
York was the Ziegfeld Follies, an annual production of theatrical producer Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.,
which began in 1907 and made stars out of many of the performers showcased. Chief among
these were the female chorus dancers, known as Ziegfeld Girls. In one of her last interviews,
Follies dancer Doris Eaton Travis explained that Ziegfeld dancers were categorized as either
hoofers or showgirls, with the latter having more status. Travis was a hoofer, while her sister
Mary was a showgirl, and Ziegfeld was more concerned with the visual allure of his showgirls
than the hoofers. In describing the significance of a Ziegfeld revue, Travis stated, “the great
quality of the Ziegfeld Touch was elegance, refinement, radiance, and wonderful humour—it
wasn't vulgarity—it was funny. The whole theatre was a romantic interlude for anyone that
would come to see the show.”'? Travis also acknowledged the early twentieth century influence
of dance and music styles of the Harlem Renaissance. She felt that tap dance during this period
was the most significant development because it used increasingly popular syncopated
rhythms. '°

Situated in upper Manhattan, the neighborhood of Harlem was a inating Pot of talent through its
all-Black musical and revue productions. One of the most significant wag Darktown Follies of
1914, which Constance Valis Hill identifies as bringing multiple dangg forms, many of them
Black, onto the popular stage: the strut, the tango, ballin’ in the jack. traditional time steps,
acrobatics, and even Russian folk-dance steps.”° While Primarily designed as an entertainment
form for Black audiences, the production garnered the attention of white audiences, including
producers such as Ziegfeld. This would mark an, instrumental change in performative practices,
with all-white productions publicly "borrowing" from Black productions, while all-Black revues
and musicals relied less on all-white theatrica| conventions and developed their own formats.
The complexity of this appropriation is under Scrutiny in the twenty-first century as we grapple
with the clear reign of white supremacy in the entertainment world and across cultural history
more broadly. Much debt needs to be repaid to the countless Black artists whose legacies are
given scant attention due to the Cultural and political tensions of the era. In the wider dance
world, the act of “borrowing” Steps was a common practice, but the cultural theft in theatre and
dance has long marred the evolution of both popular dance and music forms.?!

It is during this era that Hill identifies a significant shift in dance practices—the rise in jazz—
influenced both by indigenous Black dance vocabularies and rhythmic structures and by the
Irish and Lancashire clog that proliferated in the all-white musicals featured on Broadway.”
Shuffle Along, a 1921 all-Black musical revue, brought this momentous change to Broadway
theatre when it was produced on Broadway rather than being relegated to the uppermost streets
in Harlem. The musical production introduced white audiences to an extensive range of Black
dance styles and forms, set to the music of composer Euble Blake and lyricist Noble Sissle.
Chief among these new forms, as jazz dance historians Marshall Winslow Stearns and Jean
Stearns state, was jazz: the syncopation and pulsating rhythms of the music and the spirited
dancers.” Female performers were prominent throughout the cast in both principal roles and the
three separate dancing ensembles; a young, pre-stardom Josephine Baker was featured. While
Shuffle Along was not given the deluxe treatment in production that the Ziegfeld revues
experienced, its success with audiences enabled it to run for 504 performances.
The vaudeville productions that toured the United States gave rise to the star dancer as seen in
ballet. Free of any narrative constraints, theatre of the early twentieth century was rich with
dancers who exhibited specialist skills and idiosyncrasies that set them apart from other
performers. While much focus was placed on the large dance ensembles in musical
productions, the freedom of the vaudeville format was generative. Solo dance and specialty
dance acts facilitated the development of a diverse range of dance styles and performances that
did not conform to the unity or precision of chorus line dancing.

Among the most successful all-Black touring revue shows were those produced by the Whitman
Sisters, which featured some of the highest paid Black performers of the era. Alice, the
youngest of the sisters, was considered by her peers to be one of the most talented and
versatile performers of the troupe. She did not conform to the chorus line formation and was
among the few leading female soloist tap dancers outside of Broadway.”° Another significant
Black dancer and choreographer from this era was Buddy Bradley, who worked on Broadway
staging dances often without credit for the major revue shows of the time, before, in 1931,
heading to London to choreograph productions there. While in London he would work with
dancer Jessie Matthews and Royal Ballet choreographer Frederick Ashton. He also ran a UK
dance studio, where he no doubt heavily influenced the style of tap dance that infused the
syncopated rhythms in the American productlons.”6

Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, considered to be one of the most influential tap dancers of the early
twentieth century, rose through the ranks of vaudeville to become a headline soloist on the most
successful and well-regarded vaudeville circuits in America. In 1918 Robinson introduced his
stair dance, a solo that revolved around small, neat footwork as he ascended and descended a
portable staircase.

With only a simple piano accompaniment, as well as heavy use of stop-time and tacet,
Robinson's articulation and clarity of beats and rhythmic patterns were showcased. Film footage
from 1932 captures the entire sequence and demonstrates a dancer with crystal- clear tap beats
that are light and precise, with clean, crisp footwork on the balls of the feet. Hill suggests that
Robinson's style, a breakaway from the more traditional flat-footed buck style, was most likely
influenced by Irish dance.?” Along with his articulated style of tap dancing, Robinson honed a
distinctive performance style that engaged audiences wherever he performed. Greater attention
to the line and hold In the upper body helped create focus in coordination with the complexities
of the footwork. Robinson would eventually dance on Broadway (beginning with the revue show
Blackbirds of 1928, when he was fifty) and then go on to Hollywood, where his tap dance style
would be captured permanently on celluloid. Although the transition to Hollywood films would
have a profound effect on the revue show format—causing it to lose popularity toward the end
of the 1930s—film enabled the immortalization of Robinson's legacy for future generations. He
received worldwide recognition for his appearances with child star Shirley Temple, creating
another stair dance with Temple in the 1935 film The Little Colonel.?

The freedom of the revue and vaudeville format nurtured a generation of “eccentric” dancers,
defined by Stearns and Stearns as dancers who have “their own non-standard movements and
sell themselves on their individual styles."22 Some of these dancers included George M. Cohan,
Jack Donahue, Hal Le Roy, Charlotte Greenwood, and Ray Bolger. Finding his feet in
vaudeville, and more remembered today for his performance as the Scarecrow In the 1939 film
The Wizard of Oz, Bolger combined elements of tap dancing, comedy, and seemingly rubber-
made legs that slid in and out of the splits with undemanding ease. Bolger’s charisma and
dance talent allowed him to break free of being typecast purely as a specialty dancer. He was
able to hone his musical skills as an actor and singer to such a degree that he was a staple of
theatrical productions and early Hollywood musicals at MGM. One of his most significant dance
roles was in the 1936 Broadway musical On Your Toes, discussed later in this chapter.

Among the plethora of dance styles that proliferated during the 1920s, one particularly
identifiable element of revue and musical productions was the precision dancing done by a
chorus of women. Established in the United Kingdom in the early 1900s, the Tiller Girls would
become synonymous with precision line dancing, kicking the legs to the same height with
military exactness. There was no place for individuality; every dancer would look similar and
dance in the same fashion. While precision dances of both Black and white choruses are
explored in detail in subsequent chapters, a brief outline helps to understand how the style
influenced dance in musical theatre.

Founded by John Tiller, the Tiller Girls would make their Broadway debut in 1918, starting a
militaristic trend in the chorus line. Albertina Rasch, whose contribution is discussed later in this
chapter, would be influenced by this formula, albeit utilizing classical and modern dance
vocabulary within her choreography. While racial tensions pervaded America, and segregation
meant many prohibitory measures for Black performers, the all-Black chorus girl line became a
staple of Black musical theatre and also attracted particular attention in 1920s European revue
shows, where it suggested sometimes primitive, sometimes sexually alluring titillation for
audiences.’ While precision lines in all-white productions evoked a sense of militant unity, the
all-Black precision lines influenced change by blending movement drawn from a rich cultural
history, demonstrating flexibility in new surroundings, and drawing from the jazz music idiom to
effect changes in rhythmic structure, The enduring legacy of dance from Black culture would
help shape a whole new generation of dance styles in the mid- twentieth century.

Ned Wayburn and His Contemporaries

As a teacher and dance director, Ned Wayburn was one of the most influential creative forces in
the development of dance in musical theatre at the start of the twentieth century, predominantly
because of his work with theatre impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. between 1916 and 1930.
Today, what Is perhaps most significant about Wayburn is his written contribution to the
understanding of dance and its inclusion in musical theatre: his 1925 manual The Art of Stage
Dancing. This manual provides the reader with an understanding of the approach to dance
training and choreography that was utilized during the early twentieth century and defines
modern stage dancing as “differ[ing] from social or ballroom dancing in that it is the kind of
dancing that one can commercialize.” Wayburn explains the following dance styles as features
of this genre of dance: musical comedy dancing, tap and step dancing, acrobatic dancing,
exhibition dancing (ballroom), and modern American ballet dancing. The first two styles were
the most prominent during the 1920s and 1930s. Musica| comedy dancing, which Waybum
defined as containing elements of tap dance incorporating kicks and turns alongside balletic
movements, was the type of dancing he taught to Freq and Adele Astaire. He identifies tap
dancing (a term some dance historians claim he coined), conversely, as an American art form
that relies on the syncopated rhythms of the footwork. Wayburn developed his own codification
of tap dancing technique by identifying the different uses of the foot and the way it can create
different sounds.** Many styles and components of Wayburn's stage dancing would become
passé as ballet technique became more influential in the overall aesthetic of the musical theatre
dancer, yet his systematic approach to training dancers at his schoo! would provide a clear
model for the period. Wayburn was involved in musical theatre at one of the most pivotal times
in its development, although he perhaps overstated his own contributions to the field in one key
area. The overview of his career that appeared in his 1925 manual claimed that he had
introduced ragtime and syncopation to audiences across the United States when he toured in
vaudeville,° an account that obscures and minimizes the significant contribution of Black
dancers in alternative touring productions such as Shuffle Along and Runnin’ Wild (1923),
Beyond this, Waybum's work, also delved into the presentation of movement from other
cultures, including Indian, Turkish, and Egyptian aesthetics, demonstrating, like other white
performing artists at the time, appropriated non-white cultural dance forms.°® Wayburn's
influence would also help give rise to the dance star, wno would be elevated from a chorus line
position and placed in a leading role. One such dance star was Marilyn Miller, a child star who
appeared as part of a family vaudeville act that would be introduced to Broadway audiences in
The Passing Show of 1914, a revue show produced by Lee Shubert. Miller attended the
Wayburn school and became conversant in a variety of dance styles, tap being one of her
specialties. She would eventually go on to appear in the revue shows of Ziegfeld and was
featured in musicals tailored around her dance talents, such as Sally (1920) and Sunny
(1925).°” Film versions of both musicals would allow audiences the opportunity to see Miller's
musical skills for themselves, albeit somewhat limited by the static filming techniques of these
early musicals. An accomplished tap dancer who exhibited

a delightful energy, she was an adept hoofer who also showed a flair for characterization and
comedy.

“Hill considers the publication of Wayburn’s techniques in 1925 to be one of the first uses of the
term tap dance in relation to musical theatre (see Tap Dancing America, 81). Sharon Park
Arslanian observes that while this may be the first time the term appeared in print as an
associated dance form, Wayburn does not acknowledge his own labeling. Even so, she writes,
the term seems to have come into popular use in the

1920s.

Two other significant tap dancers of the 1920s were Ruby Keeler and Eleanor Powell, both of
whom would become prominent film stars and influence the evolution of the dance musical as a
genre, particularly Powell, who was one of the leading dance stars of the 1930s. Keeler
established herself as a Broadway star during the mid-1920s and would feature in the Ziegfeld
show Whoopee in 1928, though she did not make it to opening night.°8 She would make her
film debut in the 1933 film 42nd Street and later feature in a series of backstage film musicals.
Her style of tap merged elements of buck and wing dance, with a lighter, more balletic influence
in her film work with dancer Paul Draper. Powell made her Broadway debut in 1929, working
with choreographer Bobby Connolly. Initially a balletic and acrobatic dancer, she would
incorporate these dance influences into her work as she rose to become one of the most
successful female tap dancers of the period. Powell's influence on the tap genre is
incomparable, merging a fluidity and graceful quality of movement with sheer athleticism and
unparalleled technique in her footwork. Significantly, despite an initial lack of training in tap
dance, Powell would choreograph all her own work and would often spend her days in an empty
theatre developing her terpsichorean skills.°°

While Wayburn was perhaps the most prominent dance director of the era,*° several of his
contemporaries (all white) also had noteworthy influence on the development of dance genres
on the Broadway stage. Key among these were Dave Bennett, George White, Bobby Connolly,
Sammy Lee, and Seymour Felix. Bennett, who worked exclusively in the theatre (rather than in
vaudeville), would substantially advance dance during the 1920s, elevating the complexity of tap
dance combinations within his chorus choreography to break away from formulaic step
combinations and thus requiring more skilled tap dancers in his dance ensembles. While
footage of musical numbers of the 1920s is scarce, Bennett, like many, would find himself in
Hollywood. His choreography for “In a Girl’s Gym" in the 1930 film Paramount on Parade with
dancer and actress Zelma O'Neal utilizes a chorus girl ensemble to foreground O'Neal's star
tum. The choreography makes use of stop-time and staccato rhythms from the ensemble while
O'Neal's rhythms are overlaid and are more complex in their phrasing. Despite tap dance being
the dominant technique, elements of legomania (use of high kicks) and acrobatics are also
present.

George White was uniquely well rounded in his contribution to musical theatre in that he worked
as a performer, director, writer, and producer, establishing George White’s Scandals as an
alternative to the Ziegfeld Follies revue productions. White is known for having popularized the
Charleston in 1924 and the Black Bottom In 1926, two dances that would become international
trends outside the musical theatre, becoming social dances danced in public settings and
forever identified with the 1920s.*' These dances both have roots in

“Nancy Marlow-Trump, Ruby Keeler: A Photographic Biography (Jefferson, NC: McFarland,

1998), 29-47. “Larry Billman, Eleanor Powell: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, CT; Greenwood
Press, 1994), 5. See “I'll Take Tallulah” from the MGM film Ship Ahoy (1942) as one of many
examples of Powell's dance style and technical virtuosity.

“For much of this early period of creating dance in musicals, the choreographer credit usually
read “dances by" or “musical numbers staged by,” and the customary title was dance director,
The phrase “choreographed by" was first used in 1936, to identify the contribution of George
Balanchine to the musical On Your Toes. The role of the choreographer/dance director in
theatre has long held more recognition than in film, and a union, the Stage Directors and
Choreographers Society, was formed in 1959.

Black vernacular dances, with the Charleston first being witnessed in the Deep South in 1905
and the Black Bottom harking back to song lyrics from 1907. Essentially African American folk
dances that had been passed on through an ever-growing cycle of dancers who traveled the
United States, they would be popularized in theatre productions as new dance crazes.*?

Dance director Bobby Connolly was particularly associated with tap dance. In his study of the
rise of the director-choreographer in musical theatre, Gregory Dennhardt describes Connolly's
style as, “rhythm tap; it emphasized a perfect union between the dancer's toe work and the
musical beats. The tapper attempted to match or supplement the orchestral percussion. ... He
was the only dance director to emphasize skill over beauty.° Several scholars emphasize
Connolly's background as a hoofer prior to becoming an established dance director, but an
assistant, dancer Dona Massin, suggests that his own dance ability might have been
overstated: “I worked mostly with Bobby Connolly . . . he was wonderful, didn't know his left foot
from the right . . . actually most of your dance directors didn’t dance very much, they knew what
they wanted but they couldn't do it themselves. They knew dancing when they saw it . . .
whatever | did he used to take and use it."* Connolly was an assistant and teacher for Wayburn
in New York, which suggests that he certainly had some dance ability (although no film footage
exists to confirm this). But rhythm tap goes beyond the basic structure of most early tap dances
of this period and requires greater musical and rhythmical comprehension. Some technical
proficiency in tap would be necessary to adapt to the syncopation and use of dropped heel
beats that are part of this style.

Sammy Lee was one of the most prolific dance directors of the 1920s due to his involvement
with several successful Broadway productions, including Lady, Be Good! (1924), No, No,
Nanette (1925), and Show Boat (1927). From 1922 until 1929 Lee would stage several
productions a year, until he received an offer from Hollywood, where he became one of the
busiest dance directors in early film musicals. A short film clip from 1932 presents Lee
seemingly auditioning and rehearsing a small group of female dancers. At one point in the
footage, he gets up to demonstrate the required steps, showcasing secure rhythmical
footwork.*° Utilizing the tap genre, his rhythmic patterns show a varied range and rarely repeat.
Lee also contributed two dances to the first all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing film, MGM's 1929
The Broadway Melody, which would mark his debut in film choreography. Though visual records
of dance in the 1920s are limited, such early films provide audiences with a snapshot of what
dance on the musical theatre stage looked like. Like all elements of these early musical films,
the capturing of dance was in its infancy, and so the filming often consisted of a stationary
camera positioned in the front. The choreography in the title

number exemplifies Lee's use of the traditional chorus line setting and basic, repetitious content.
The tap choreography follows a three-and-a-break format, where the same step and/or rhythmic
pattern is repeated three times followed by a step (the break) to change the rhythm and finish
the phrase. Interspersed are elements of musical comedy dancing, including high kicks and
some rather ungainly holding of the leg as high as the dancers can achieve (to varying levels of
success). The dancing’s only purpose is entertainment, especially evident when a dancer enters
and proceeds to tap dance en pointe, for no other reason than to showcase a virtuosic skill.
That said, the use of soloist dances in Lee's work did change the standard chorus line dance
numbers and allow for individuality in the dance routines by showcasing the skills of specific
dancers in front of the chorus line.

Choreographer Seymour Felix had an extensive grounding as a performer in the vaudeville

circuit and contributed dance numbers to many musicals during the 1920s. Felix, more than any
other dance director discussed here, choreographed with a purpose to integrate dance by
working more closely and collaboratively with the writers of the book and lyrics. At a time when
dance was mostly provided for enjoyment or a playful interlude, Felix recognized that specialty
dances bore little relevance to musicals and sought to make changes to the chorus line
structure. First, he gave more individual opportunities or identifiable traits to his chorus line, and
second, he developed dances that created a sense of atmosphere rather than just visual
spectaculars. In breaking the conventions of precision line ensembles, he allowed the audience
to make stronger connections with the performers onstage. His choreography relied on
variations of the time-step, a repetitive rhythmic structure (often in patterns of two or six bars
and then a break to signal its end) that has become a staple of the Broadway style tap dance.*”

Tap dance dominated this early period of musical theatre in part because it allowed
choreographers to create movement that was free of characterization or plot mechanism. The
dance in musicals was, up until this time, essentially for showmanship, bearing only a fleeting
connection to the plot or lyrics. With ensembles, tap in unison is exciting, providing an auditory
experience of pulsating and military precision beats, unlike any other form of dance, because
the sounds created by the dancers work in harmony with the existing musical accompaniment.
As chorus and precision lines were still very much part of the structure of a musical’s ensemble
in the 1920s and 1930s, tap as a genre fit the formula well. However, tap as a genre in musical
theatre is most often intrinsically linked to the emerging jazz rhythms. As musical styles
changed leading into the 1940s, particularly in the work of Oscar Hammerstein Il and Richard
Rodgers, the score offered little voice for tap dancers and gave a much wider opportunity for the
ballet idiom.

Classical Convergence and Integration

While classical ballet maintained its high art status, crossover dancers and choreographers
brought elements of classical technique to early musical theatre dance. The use of ballet in
musical theatre was for visual effect, rather than any serious effort to develop or integrate the art
forms. Most choreographers did require their dancers to have some formal training, butthe use
of ballet, particularly “toe” dancing, which would feature the dancer en pointe, was limited to
specialty interludes.

One of the few women choreographers in theatre at the time, Albertina Rasch was foremost
among those musical theatre choreographers whose dance works were completely molded in
the classical ballet idiom. Drawing on the codified technique of ballet, Rasch capitalized on the
commercial nature of the precision lines and utilized large ensembles executing ballet
vocabulary in exciting unison patterns. Rasch's earliest work was a crossover between concert
ballets and vaudeville that built on her European roots and dance training with modern dancers
Mary Wigman and Emile Jaques-Dalcroze. Her extensive use of the Classical ballet genre
established her apart from the tap-dancing chorus lines that dominated the theatres.*® The
utilization of ballet and modern dance presented a stark contrast to the formulas derived by her
male counterparts, and her approach to staging dance would further showcase that musical
theatre offered opportunities for a range of dance styles to be integrated into the dance work,
Rasch would follow her choreographic journey to Hollywood, where much of her choreography
captured on film is in line with the more traditional precision line dances of the 1920s, albeit
utilizing a clearly identifiable repertoire of steps drawn from the classical canon. Much of the
emphasis is on pointe work, with a focus on the feet and lower legs executing a series of relevé
passés, echappés, and grande battements. Some later work, captured by British Pathé news
while her dancers were in London in 1932, showcases experimentation with modern dance and
balletic movements, certainly contrasting with the plethora of tap choreography of the time.*®

In terms of classical influence, Russian-born choreographer George Balanchine would

significantly contribute to the integration of ballet into musical theatre during the 1930s. During
this time musical theatre went through its own metamorphosis. Leaving the frivolity of the 1920s
musicals behind, particularly with the work of Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers, and George and
Ira Gershwin, productions were starting to move toward a more serious tone. Musical theatre
now required something more substantial in its dance, and choreographers were beginning to
realize the importance of dance as a means of communication. Despite his Russian heritage
and influential career with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Balanchine would, along with
Lincoln Kirstein, establish the New York City Ballet and give classical ballet a true American
identity. Balanchine's work in musical theatre involved revue shows, musicals, and films
between the 1930s and 1950s. His erstwhile assistant Barbara Horgan claimed that
Balanchine's American education came from his involvement in musical theatre, particularly
through the rhymes of lyricist Lorenz Hart.

Balanchine is one of only a handful of choreographers whose work has been studied and
researched extensively,®'! and whilst the majority of his influence was in the evolution of
American ballet, his contribution to musical theatre was significant through his ability to
interweave Classical ballet with other American dance forms, such as tap and jazz dance.

" fOCUS narrowly here ona single ballet, “Slaughter on 10th Avenue" from the 1936 Richard
Rodgers and Lorenz Hart musical On Your Toes. A show-within-a-show ballet number that
skillfully interweaves ballet, jazz, and tap vocabulary into the overarching narrative, the ballet
serves the dramatic function of the musical. It originally featured Tamara Geva and Ray Bolger,
but no footage of their performance is available. A slightly truncated form of the original
choreography exists in the 1939 film adaptation featuring Vera Zorina and Eddie Albert, and
archival footage exists of the 1983 Broadway revival, which reconstructed the original
Balanchine choreography. In the former, Zorina displays much stronger technical training in
classical ballet than the dancers featured in footage of Rasch's choreography. Albert is not an
accomplished dancer, however, and much of his tap footwork seems to be danced by a dance
double, as the more complex steps are filmed with only legs in view. The choreography portrays
a different style and sensibility to the dance form as previously seen in musical theatre, and the
pas de deux between the two dancers has much more freedom and abandon, influenced by the
heavy brass-laden orchestrations, than expected in a classical pas de deux. The use of tap
dance is no longer limited to a specialty act; here it helps convey the mood of nervousness
following the onstage death of two characters and motivates the character to keep dancing. By
repeating rhythmic patterns at increasing speed, the character can delay the threat of the
gangsters until they are successfully captured. The purpose of the dance is twofold, providing
characterization (particularly as the original dancer, Ray Bolger, was a specialty tap dancer) and
continuing the plot. Balanchine generated anew wave of choreographic input into musical
theatre dance that was influenced by classical ballet and amalgamated with a variety of other
dance forms.

One choreographer who is seldom mentioned in dance in musical theatre is Robert “Bob” Alton,
who was a major force in the musical comedy of the 1930s prior to attaining a successful career
at MGM during the 1940s. Unlike such contemporaries as Balanchine, de Mille, and Robbins,
Alton was among the choreographers who did not seem to achieve noticeable idiosyncrasies in
their movement vocabulary and choreographic output, leaving little evidence of their
contributions to dance in theatre.. A notable exception here is the 1940 Rodgers and Hart
musical Pa/ Joey, which offers a window into Alton’s creative work and was significant for
several reasons: its topic was far more cynical and acerbic than the usual romantic
entanglements of musical comedy, it marked a personal success in Alton's choreography, and it
made a star of its dancing lead, Gene Kelly. Alton fashioned, alongside his peers such as de
Mille, an integrated form of dance for the musical, with the lead character's choreography
becoming a part of the overall dramaturgy and a physical realization of the character. Kelly had
a wide range of training In dance forms such as Classical ballet, tap and modern dance. His
technical dance training provided a platform in which to utilise his own personal dance style to
expand the unsavory attributes of the Character Joey through movement and establish him as
an antihero rather than the traditional romantic lead, Part of this characterization was developed
and enhanced throughout the musical through the means of dance and physical movement. On
his working relationship with Alton, which would continue at MGM, Kelly said,

“Bob would take a group and always stop a show cold with a chorus. But the choruses learned a
lot from him, but they learned in a quasi-balletic way. In other words, Bob never invented a new
style of dance the way [jazz dancer] Jack Cole did or the way | have always tried to do. What he
did, the fusion of the styles that remained there, was

so excellent, was so good, he should be given far more credit, | think. | think just Watching him
work has helped many, many young dancers, and | know it helped me."*2

As a choreographer, Alton utilized tap dance even when his peers had abandoned the genre for
classical and modern dance styles. His contributions on the Broadway stage iNCludeg several
Ziegfeld Follies productions, Anything Goes (1934), Hellzapoppin! (1938), and Ne and Juliet
(1953). John Martin, critic for the New York Times, observed that Alton interwove the dance
elements in Pal Joey with such skill that “the whole production is so unifieq that the dance
routines are virtually inseparable from the dramatic action.”™ In a 1952 interview about his
choreographic methods, Alton stated, “I study the script, listen to the music, and then go away
and dream about it for a while. When | have the ideas | need, | get togethe, with the designers,
begin rehearsals, and work out from there the final arrangements of both dances and music.”*>

As Alton explained, he expected his dancers to possess the highest technical caliber of ability
across a broad range of dance styles. Working with Kelly in Pal Joey, Alton haq versatility at his
fingertips. Kelly was a teacher, dancer, and choreographer in his own right, and he was well
versed in a range of dance styles thus establishing a professional persona through movement
and his own unique style.

Silent video footage exists of the original production of Pal Joey, with excerpts from several
dance numbers.** What this footage reveals is Alton’s ability to interweave the dance so that it
conveys location, time, and space: his chorus girl numbers epitomize the tawdry and lewd
performances of the nightclub setting through revealing costuming and brash and suggestive
choreography. While it is hard to separate Kelly's contribution from Alton’s, Alton fashioned a
role for the choreographer as an integral part of the creative team and enabled dance to be
seen as a conveyor of meaning through multiple genres. The integration of the upper body, jazz
and balletic influences, and the tap dance vocabulary became strongly associated with musical
theatre dance and its adoption and adaptation of multiple styles of dance.

Broadway Finds Its Choreographic Identity

During the 1940s balletic and modern dance vocabularies infused dance in musicals, as
exemplified in works such as Oklahoma! (1943) and Carousel (1945), choreographed by de
Mille, and On the Town (1944), choreographed by Robbins. Dance in musicals had found a new
identity, that would give dance a much greater focus than in the previous two decades. Newer
choreographers found a voice, often drawing on their own training and performance experience
in a field that had grown to require technically proficient dancers with formal dance training. One
such influential choreographer was Katherine Dunham, an African American dancer ‘whose
work was heavily influenced by her anthropological studies of dances and customs witnessed in
the Caribbean. With an intellectual approach, Dunham introduced audiences to an authentic
representation of various cultural dances, remaining true to their original form rather than trying
to capture the “spirit.” According to biographer Joanna Dee Das, Dunham "broadened the
horizons of her dancers and audience members, opening them up to a thriving Black world
outside the United States.”®”

Dunham's work appeared in both Broadway musicals and Hollywood films before she opened a
school in New York and codified her technique, which would influence later figures such as
dancer Alvin Ailey and performer Eartha Kitt. Dunham's technique was broad and encompassed
a variety of influences from several cultures.°2 She emphasized the use of isolations, fluidity
through the spine and torso, and a focus on the movements of the hip. While all these elements
would be integral to other methods, Dunham's focus was deeply rooted in her own
anthropological studies.°°

Whilst the development of Dunham technique is more aligned to the modern dance style, her
influence in musical theatre in productions such as Cabin in the Sky (1940) would expose
audiences to other musical and dance styles, Particularly those drawn from other cultures. New
musical styles including Latin-inspired rhythms began to proliferate in popular music and feature
in Broadway musicals. After almost forty years, the early theatre composers of the twentieth
century were becoming less active, much of the creative talent and performers had relocated to
the West Coast to work in Hollywood films, and audiences had begun to seek more from
Broadway theatre. All these elements contributed to a period of creation and exploration that
would lay the foundations for theatre dance to find an identity and, most importantly, an
audience.

One foremost contributor to theatrical dance is jazz dancer Jack Cole, whose work appeared in
nightclub acts, film, and Broadway musicals. While Cole's jazz was closely aligned with the
syncopated rhythms of jazz music, his movement vocabulary was drawn in part from the more
vernacular branch of jazz, combined with modem and East Indian dance. These influences
would contribute to a new identity for jazz dance, one that integrated seamlessly into a more
theatrical setting. While Cole failed to have any long-running musical theatre productions, his
style would influence later choreographers who worked within the jazz dance idiom, among
them Bob Fosse, whose work is instantly recognizable even today due to its continual use in
stage choreography some thirty-five years after Fosse's death. It is oft stated in dance history
that Cole is the “father of modern jazz dance,” an accolade that even he grappled with. In a
1963 interview, his disdain for being so limited by a specific label—particularly one that he
described as “Broadway Commercial"—was abundantly clear. By his own definition, jazz dance
was “anything that was danced to jazz music,” and his focus was “stylized theatre dance which
uses syncopated rhythms."

Cole established a repertory company of dancers who fully embodied his style, includin Gwen
Verdon, Buzz Miller, Alex Romero, and Carol Haney, all of whom had significant dance or
choreographic careers and would become closely associated with Fosse and his Stylistic
development. With a strong sense of exoticism and sensuality in his work, Cole often came
under scrutiny under the Hollywood Production Code. Although Cole continually Challengeg
these restraints through his creative output, he did little to fight the restrictions directly during his
Hollywood career, yet greater freedom was granted his theatre work where there Was less
restriction in terms of censorship of Cole's movement vocabulary.

Cole's work was heavily influenced by a range of dance styles, particularly Bharatanatyam and
East Indian techniques, alongside African American influences of the Lindy Hop, which would
provide the foundations for the rhythmic and dynamic isolations that would become so
associated with his style. Cole established a movement vocabulary that responded to the
rhythmic pulses in the music, using the beats within the bar to define and dictate the quality of
the movement. Within the style there is no reference to the lengthened and held posture of
ballet, and the movement is grounded, with bent knees and the body shaped to allow the music
to be expressed throughout the body as a whole (although separate parts of the body may
move rhythmically at any one time). Jazz dance often explores the rhythms of the music in more
depth, like tap dancing, by utilizing the complex note values within each bar of music. The Cole
style, Bob Boross describes, “include[s] dancing in plie, with isolated body movements, with
compressed or stored energy, and with a keen sense of Manipulating rhythm, spatial levels, and
attack.”®!

One unique example of Cole’s dance influences can be witnessed in the choreography for “Not
Since Ninevah” from the Broadway musical Kismet (1953), captured on film by MGM in 1955.
The choreography demonstrates elements of the East Indian style, with a deep plié, hold of the
torso, and rhythmic beating of the footwork. The number would become recognizable as part of
Cole's “Hindu Swing”® oeuvre, a combination of social dance forms, swing music, and dance
from Indian culture. Featuring a heavily accented and syncopated rhythmic structure, the music
displays a clear sense of jazz in its driving energy, Throughout the number the dancers have a
strong sense of depth in their movement and an articulated and angled use of the arms in
coordination with the footwork. Isolations of the head abound, and as the music builds, the
energy and size of the movement gradually increases. Repetition is evident in the stylized port
de bras and long low runs, which work in varying formations as the dancers move around their
enclosure in the performance space. Cole’s contribution is significant because he fashioned a
series of physical traits, as mentioned above, in jazz dance that are still utilised within the
teaching of the genre's technique in the twenty-first century.

Shifting Approaches in Teaching

As identified in some of the cases above, the shift in the aesthetics of the dance vocabulary
required by dancers in musical theatre paved the way for a new generation of teachers,

particularly those who specialized in the style and rhythmic demands of theatrical jazz dance.
One of the earliest teachers to deviate from the regime of the classical ballet method was
Eugene Loring, a Hollywood choreographer who integrated elements of jazz and modern dance
into his pedagogy. Matt Mattox and Eugene Louis Faccuito, the latter known professionally as
Luigi, were two of the most significant teachers in New York, both establishing a significant
following and international recognition of their individual styles and codified techniques.® Luigl
danced in several Hollywood musicals of the 1940s and 1950s and states that when he was
working as a contract dancer, his individual style was recognized by Alton. Luigi started his own
classes in 1951, with a focus on developing the musicality of the dancer. In defining jazz dance,
Luigi stated, “jazz dancing is an interpretation of sound and America’s cultural contribution to the
world of dance.”* Unlike his contemporaries, Luigi focused on the continuum of the movement
rather than the isolation of the body.® Mattox, similar to Luigi, was schooled In classical ballet
and featured in several Hollywood film musicals, notably as a dancer with Cole's repertory
company. He began teaching in New York in 1956, integrating several forms of dance and
pushing back on the label of “jazz” teacher. While his use of the upper body and arms were
more closely related to ballet technique, the use of plié and depth in the movement were more
derivative of the jazz dance style of Cole. These early teachers of the jazz dance method would
become recognized pioneers in theatre jazz technique and would provide a springboard for
aspiring Broadway dancers, many of whom were trained in classical ballet and tap, to develop
and hone their skills in preparation for the challenges thrown at them by Broadway
choreographers.

The evolution of dance genres in musical theatre dance during the early part of the twentieth
century is certainly far from linear. More than any other form of dance, the dance in musical
theatre had a development entombed in cultural, political, and artistic forces and is often
overlooked in writings about dance history. It is also inherently commercial: even in its most
theatrical and extravagant of settings, its success is wrapped up in financial viability and it is
directed at the mass audience, which often reduces its status in the wider dance sphere. Yet, in
a traditional musical that heavily relies on dance, the audiences will often celebrate and
remember their emotional and physical connection with the frenetic life force that dancers can
project across the footlights. Much of the genre’s foundations were established during the early
twentieth century, but it is during the golden age of the Broadway musical, as described in this
chapter, that musical theatre dance found its voice, drawing on the many cultural and social
influences that proliferated through the arts.

While the twenty-first century has seen a wave of new choreographers making their mark on the
theatrical stage and the interweaving of more current dance styles, theatre dance is

"Other significant teachers of jazz dance in the United States, beyond the present discussion,
include Gus Giordano, Donald McKayle, Frank Hatchett, Sue Samuels, and JoJo Smith. For
more discussion, see Boross, Comments on Jazz Dance 1996-2014. N.p.: privately published,
2014; Wendy Oliver, Carlos RA Jones, and Lindsay Guarino's Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist
Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty-first Century. University Press of Florida, 2022. For further
discussion of training methods see chapter 3 in this volume.

still Indebted to the profound developments of the start of the twentieth century, with the
influence of Black rhythms and a dance vernacular that significantly shaped jazz ang tap forms.
From the 1940s onward, when theatre dance emerged as a key contributor to the musical
theatre form, wider vocabularies of dance were utilized, creating an amalgam of influences. Like
the genre of musical theatre itself, dance in theatre maintains its relevance and appeal, not only
paying homage to Its lineage but also continuing to evolve and be influenced by the world in
which it is created.