HOBroadway Dance Written Response

Copyright © 2010

Helpful Hint:

This week, begin keeping a list of Dance Influences that you will add to each week. In the content, we discuss many dancers, choreographers, dance styles and shows that profoundly impacted the Broadway dances that followed. So, when you view a dance, you will likely see hints or blatant examples of past dances. Here is our list so far:

· Vaudeville

· Minstrelsy influences: Cakewalk, George Walker, In Dahomey, Darktown Follies

· William Henry Lane/"Master Juba"

· John Durang

· African American dancing

· Ballet

"On June 28, 1914, the shots fired in Sarajevo woke up Europe, but smug isolationist America continued to snooze” (Jones, 2003, p. 36). Until 1917, when America joined what would later be known as World War I, Americans took little notice of the events in Europe. Officially, the U.S. was neutral. But “neutral” implies knowledge of both sides of an issue and an active decision to remain impartial in action. In reality, the war did not much affect the day to day lives—or thoughts—of most Americans. When the war continued to escalate, America was forced to respond. On April 6, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson signed a declaration of war.

Broadway was quick to react. “Within twenty-four hours, George M. Cohan had written ‘Over There,’ the war years’ most popular song” (Jones, 2003, p. 7).

Musicals of the 1910s reflected the shift from apathy to empathy. Broadway continued to incorporate and capitalize on social issues and political events. Anti-German sentiment caused by the sinking of the Lusitania turned audiences against European style operettas. [The Lusitania was a passenger oceanliner. When a German U-boat sank it in May, 1915, over two thirds of the 1,959 passengers drowned.] "By winter 1917, Broadway entirely banished European operetta from its musical stages until nearly a year after the Armistice" (Jones, 1987, p. 48). Diversionary musicals and revues became the preferred forms of Broadway entertainment.

One producer, in particular, had an amazing ability to produce entertainment that moved to the beat of America’s heart.

“Everyone who writes about Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., feels compelled to portray the man with superlatives. Broadway’s greatest showman. Impresario extraordinaire. Perfectionist. Eccentric. Glorifier of the American girl. Heartless womanizer. Talent scout supreme. Compulsive gambler. These descriptions, each accurate in its context, have been repeated countless times, but taken individually or even in aggregate, the list misses the crucial point. Above all else, Ziegfeld was an artist” (Ziegfeld and Ziegfeld, 1983, p. 12).

Ziegfeld could arguably be called the most famous contributor to the world of musical theatre. Since Ziegfeld's reign on Broadway--he produced shows on Broadway from 1896 to 1932!--many musicals on stage and screen have emulated the extravagant, sparkling, spectacles that Ziegfeld produced year after year. Musicals such as Will Rogers Follies and Follies paid direct tribute to the artistry of the Ziegfeld Follies. Ziegfeld bestowed glitter and glamour to the Broadway stage, elevating dancing girls from their unified role as background scenery to moving works of art. Ziegfeld also spotlighted and nurtured some of the biggest song and dance stars of his time. He had a keen, innovative commercial instinct. In addition to showcasing bold, new artistic and production elements, Ziegfeld’s shows were a moving newspaper, incorporating each year's events and inventions.

Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. was born in Chicago in March of 1867. His ability to creatively publicize entertainment was apparent at an early age. “He went a bit too far when he sold kids tickets to see a school of ‘invisible fish’ that turned out to be nothing more than a glass bowl filled with water. The resulting fuss taught him a valuable lesson. In his adult career, he always tried to build his publicity around the best talent he could find” (Kenrick, 2002-4, "Florenz Ziegfeld: A Biography").

Play media comment.

(Dupre, et al., 2004)

Ziegfeld produced several Broadway musicals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the 1900s, during a slow time in his career, Ziegfeld was hired at $200 per week to produce vaudeville acts at the New York Theatre Roof’s Jardin de Paris. Anna Held, Ziegfeld’s star dancer, suggested he produce a revue. Inspired by revues he saw at the Folies Bergere club in Paris, and seeing nothing like them on Broadway, Ziegfeld opened the Follies of 1907 on July 8th of that year.

Said Ziegfeld, Jr: “The stage of the New York Roof being so shallow and so placed that you could not see the side of the stage upon which you were sitting, no elaborate scenery could possibly be used…Because of this cramped condition in the early shows, we spilled our attraction a good deal over the theater. This was something of an innovation then and was much commented upon” (Ziegfeld & Ziegfeld, 1983, p. 41). The first Follies starred Anna Held and the Anna Held Girls, a chorus of girls who danced behind her. Ziegfeld took credit for bringing the musical revue to Broadway, but this was not the case. His instinct for picking and showcasing talent just got his revues more attention than most. He had no qualms about getting rid of acts and replacing them with others when he found new talent. And he knew how to create a public buzz.

During the run of one of Ziegfeld’s early musicals, "…the newspapers reported that on October 9, 1896, a milkman named Wallace filed suit against Held for not paying a $64 tab on forty gallons of milk. Ziegfeld, the story said, refused to pay because the milk was sour. Reporters jumped on the item when they heard Held’s reasons for wanting the milk: ‘Ett eez for to take zee beauty bath.’ Before long, beauty-conscious women across the country were bathing in milk. Only later did the press learn that Ziegfeld had taken it for a ride" (Ziegfeld & Ziegfeld, 1983, p. 30).

The Follies ran from 1907 to 1936.

When the dance craze hit America in the early 1900s, Ziegfeld was quick to capitalize on the trend. He opened a nightclub on top of the Amsterdam Theatre called the Danse de Follies. There audiences could go to dance and drink after seeing the Follies in the theater downstairs. The club was a success. Ziegfeld created the Midnight Frolic to entertain patrons. A bandleader played ballroom music for dancing before and after the show. The roof was small with no stage. Entertainers performed on the dance floor in the middle of the tables. Later, innovative stage pieces were added, including a narrow platform fitted against one wall with a flat arch over it and steps to walk down to the main floor. Ned Wayburn--the dance director for eleven editions of the Frolics, including the first--commissioned a telescopic stage that could be pulled out onto the dance floor, raising up the all-female chorus and featured entertainers so that the audience could see them.

Behind the extravagance of Ziegfeld’s vision lay a keen perception of popular culture. A look through the progression of Ziegfeld’s shows reveals a theatrical chronicle of current inventions and events.

The article below was published under Ziegfeld's byline in 1925 by The Morning Telegraph, a now-defunct New York City newspaper. While there is no way of knowing if he actually wrote the piece, it is not unreasonable to assume that he at least approved the text.

Beauty, of course, is the most important requirement and the paramount asset of the applicant. When I say that, I mean beauty of face, form, charm and manner, personal magnetism, individuality, grace and poise. These are details that must always be settled before the applicant has demonstrated her ability either to sing or dance. It is not easy to pass the test that qualifies a girl for membership in a Ziegfeld production, but I am frank to say that once she has done so, much of the element of doubt is removed so far as the future success of her career before the footlights is concerned.

There is a prevalent impression that once a girl is enlisted under the Ziegfeld standard, her troubles are over and her hard work is ended. What a mistake! Let us hope that for many it does mean the end of trouble so far as earning a livelihood is concerned, that it means happy and comfortable home living honestly earned. But there are other troubles ahead for her, and plenty of hard work.

A Ziegfeld production is no place for a drone or an idler. Often are the times when you who read these words are just opening your eyes in the morning or are enjoying your breakfast and the early news of the day, that the girls of a Ziegfeld production are busy as bees on the stage of an empty theatre, if indeed they have not already put in an hour or more in striving to come nearer to perfection in that which is expected of them before the footlights. Yes, there is plenty of hard work for them in addition to that which they do when they appear, smiling and happy, when the curtain goes up. Giving a performance is the least of their worries.

How little the public realizes what a girl must go through before she finally appears before the spotlight that is thrown upon the stage. How few there are who succeed from the many who seek this method of earning a livelihood. And, I may add, from what totally unexpected sources come many of those who from the comparatively modest beginning in the chorus rise to the heights of really great achievement in the theatrical profession. I venture the assertion that there is not one honest, wholesome walk of life from which they have not come to some one of the numerous Ziegfeld productions. The society girl, tired of that life, the school teacher wearied with the duties of her daily grind, the one whose life has heretofore been devoid of purpose, the stenographer, cashier or even the waitress. Maybe she is a chambermaid, but if she has the necessary talent and qualities a place awaits her in the Ziegfeld ranks.

Let us grant that a girl qualifies for one of my productions. It is interesting to note what follows. First, it is clearly outlined to her what she is expected to do. She may be impressed at the outset that the impossible is required, but honest application and heroic perseverance on her part plus skillful and encouraging direction by experts very seldom fail to achieve the desired results. But it is only through constant, faithful endeavor by the girl herself that the goal eventually is reached.

It is not the work of a fortnight, a month or several months to train these girls for the work expected of them. It is the task of several months and it is a fact that a girl, either while rehearsing or actually playing, may be training for some character or feature in some future production not yet definitely fixed even in my own mind. Of course, she is also doing this without knowledge herself of the fact. To illustrate what I mean, an apt dancer may be in thorough unison with the others in that particular group, and at the same time reveal a difference in dancing temperament, rhythm or technique; she may phrase, accentuate or actually interpret differently. Not only may she unconsciously register a favorable impression with my associates and me, but she may also suggest something by her work that will lead to some new and novel feature in a forthcoming production. (Kenrick, 2002-4, "Ziegfeld Defines the Ziegfeld Girl")

Ziegfeld loved women. As seen above, he had a well-defined vision of the “perfect” girl. He also had an eye for strong, provocative dancer-performers. At least three times, he was so struck by a woman that he worked tirelessly to fulfill two great desires – he made her into a star and he made her fall in love with him. Though they were famous in their time, the complex association of these stars with Ziegfeld binds their names with his in every documentation of their careers.

Born in Warsaw, Held insisted that she was a native of Paris. She was performing at the London’s Palace Music Hall in 1896 when Ziegfeld first saw her. He was so enamored of her beauty and talent, that he immediately invited her to come to New York. He bought her out of her contract at the theatre. Ziegfeld produced eight musicals to showcase Held, and it was she who eventually gave him the idea for the Follies. Ziegfeld and Held never married officially, though they were considered married by common law.

Held was known for her seductive sweetness when singing a song. The combination of her flirtatious lyrics, beautiful face and curved figure made her a star attraction in New York and on tour.

Ziegfeld’s relationship with Held suffered difficulties when she discovered that he was having an affair with Lillian Lorraine—another dancer—and had set Lorraine up in an apartment in Held and Ziegfeld’s building. Held gave Ziegfeld an ultimatum, and he used the opportunity to leave her.

Lorraine was quickly replaced. At the end of a fight at a party, she marched out of the room just in time for Ziegfeld to notice Billie Burke—an actress and singer—coming down a staircase.

Both Burke and Ziegfeld felt a spark, and they were married in 1914. Burke and Ziegfeld had one daughter, Patricia. Burke stayed with Ziegfeld through the rest of his life, consulting on the movie The Great Ziegfeld as a tribute to Ziegfeld after he died in 1932. She also co-produced two posthumous editions of the Ziegfeld Follies on the stage (1934, 1936), in the hopes that she could pay off some of Ziegfeld’s debts.

Billie Burke is best known for her role as Glinda in the film The Wizard of Oz (1939).

Billie Burke discovered Miller when she was performing at the Winter Garden Theater. Out of the group of women with whom Ziegfeld had love affairs, Marilyn Miller was the greatest star dancer. Her personality delighted audiences and she could do all styles. Miller danced in both the Midnight Frolic and the Follies of 1918. She starred in three Ziegfeld musicals: Sally (1920), which ran for three years, Rosalie (1928) and Smiles (1930).

Florenz Ziegfeld dominated the Broadway scene for two decades. With his knack for finding, nurturing and displaying the very best talent of the times, Ziegfeld dazzled audiences with his Follies and titillated them with his Midnight Frolics. Ziegfeld's antics--both on and off the stage--were the talk of the town. Ziegfeld forced his cast and his audience to address social and political issues such as war and racial division. One could argue, however, that commercial hunger, rather than racial expansiveness, influenced his decisions about hiring controversial minority performers.

In 1910, Ziegfeld hired Fanny Brice and Bert Williams for his Follies of 1910. Both created controversy--Williams because he was black, and Brice because she was Jewish and did not fit the usual Ziegfeld beauty criteria.

Brice's looks and background were soon overlooked by the cast. Her comic timing, facial expressions and strong voice stopped the show. The Follies cast was not as understanding about Williams.

Video: Bert Williams "Nothin' to Nobody"

Play media comment.

(Dupre, et al., 2004)

In the Follies of 1911, Bert Williams broke through a substantial racial boundary when he appeared onstage with white male performers.

Ziegfeld also hired Eddie (Israel Iskowitz) Cantor for the Midnight Frolic in 1916. Cantor was a blackface song and dance man. In 1917, Cantor joined the Follies, performing with Bert Williams, also in blackface.

In addition to Frolics and Follies, Ziegfeld produced many musicals. In 1927, Show Boat opened. With its compelling story, moving music and lavish scenery, Show Boat is widely recognized as the show that changed American musical history. The storyline was the master of the musical numbers and script, making the show the innovator of the integrated musical. Ziegfeld, known to force his cast and his audience to address social and political issues such as war and racial division, pushed the boundaries of American society when he presented this show about miscegenation [interracial relationship that includes "mating"]. A married couple—a white man and a woman who is discovered to be part black—struggle to overcome their society’s prejudice. Even with this laudable theme to his credit, Ziegfeld's motives have been questioned.

In a musical of otherwise scrupulously authentic mixed-race casting, the original Queenie--the main female African-American character--was played not by a black woman but by white Tess Gardella, a popular blackface entertainer who performed so consistently as “Aunt Jemima” that Ziegfeld's programs credited Aunt Jemima, not Gardella, as playing Queenie. Ziegfeld was obviously going for some measure of star power rather than racial authenticity. (Jones, 2003, p. 77)

Ziegfeld used dance directors to stage his shows. "Generally, producers hired the dance director to audition and train the chorus dancers, devise novel and exciting dance backgrounds to enhance the stars, and dream up the elaborate costumes, sets, and special effects that distinguished the dance routine from others like it. No art here” (Kislan, 1987, p. 42).

This opinion, stated by 1940s choreographer Jack Cole in a Dance Magazine article from April 1949, was very common. But nothing was further from the truth. It may be true that Broadway dance was largely “eye candy” during this era, and dance numbers were very loosely tied to the plot of musical. However, dance directors were tasked with the responsibility of creating dynamic, innovative visual spectacles that would stop the show and send audience members home buzzing with excitement. The dance directors of the 1910s and 1920s significantly impacted Broadway dance for decades, and their legacies also influenced dance in Hollywood musicals

The term “dance director” was used for many years on Broadway. “Choreographer” was reserved for the world of concert dance. Opinion is divided on the identity of the first named Broadway “choreographer.”

Star performers danced daring and athletic numbers for many years, but groups of girls [common usage term]—male chorus dancers were extremely rare—had been used largely for live scenery. Chorus girls formed lovely artistic tableaux or paraded around the stage in elaborate costumes. In the 1900s, chorus girls began to move! Precision dancing in geometric formations became a star attraction. In addition to physical beauty, dancers were now required to have technical prowess and a wide variety of dance skills. These new criteria sent many girls running to dance schools. To ensure a supply of dancers that reflected the qualities deemed essential for their shows, dance directors often opened their own training schools and brought their own lines of chorus girls from show to show.

Julian Mitchell was a dancer before he became the first dance director of Ziegfeld’s Follies. He is credited as being the first important dance director on Broadway. Mitchell choreographed energetic dances and demanded professional behavior from his dancers.

At the age of 25, Ned Wayburn was hired as dance director for a tour of The Governor's Son starring the Four Cohans.

“Wayburn counted his work on The Governor's Son among the earliest of the 150 featured acts, musical comedies, reviews, and prologs [sic] that he would stage between 1899 and 1932 as a dance director and choreographer who developed the tap dance routine structure for solo, team, and chorus performance” (Hill, 2010, p. 32).

With a background in math, music and vaudeville, Wayburn was particularly interested in incorporating syncopation into his dances. Around 1910, Wayburn put metal taps onto the soles of dance shoes for the first time. Until the mid-1910s, Wayburn used his hybrid of tapping, stepping, and clog dancing only for solo or duo specialty acts because it was difficult to get a clear tap sound from many simultaneously tapping feet. His development of techniques for chorus tap dancing began…

…to take form during the “soldier” numbers that appeared in reviews during World War I (1914-1918). He recognized the advantage of integrating tap and stepping sounds into the actual marching of the dancers, instead of just adding it conventionally through the percussion section of the band or orchestra…He set about to devise a technique in which the footwork in tap dance would be further articulated, eventually spelling out six different ways the shoe made contact with the floor. Wayburn also incorporated “tap” steps into other dance idioms, such as modern Americanized ballet, character dance, eccentric dance, ballroom dance, and legomania, thus codifying tap dance. (Hill, 2010, p. 33)

Wayburn ran his own dance studio and employment agency. “At one time he had the names, addresses, and measurements of 8,300 chorus girls” (Ziegfeld & Ziegfeld, 1993, p. 316). According to Richard Kislan,

He divided his girls according to height and function and gave each category a name. For “showgirls” he chose tall, willowy girls of exceptional facial beauty. Although he expected them to know how to dance, he preferred in them an ability to sing and to wear the fabulous costumes he designed for them only. The shortest girls were known to everyone in the business as “ponies.” “Ponies” danced, often and well. Sandwiched between the extremes were categories of dancers he called “chickens” and “peaches.” Whatever the category, Wayburn insisted that his dancers possess an inherent sense of rhythm abetted by professional training—preferably his. (1987, p. 53)

Wayburn “staged” eleven editions of Ziegfeld’s Frolics and seven of the Follies beginning in 1915. He also staged editions of The Passing Show, another revue series that ran for several years.

The act I finale, “Capital Steps,” in Passing Show of 1913…as staged by Wayburn, featured specialty and chorus dancers performing ballet and tap steps up, down, and across flights of stairs…The finale, “Inauguration Day,” involved the scene’s entire cast of seven soloists and forty-eight female dancers tapping in rows, down the staircase, in lines and V-formations, stretching from the stage floor to the level of the balustrades and covering the entire staircase. (Hill, 2010, pp. 51-2)

John Tiller and his “Tiller Girls” were famous before they arrived in New York. In England, Tiller was known for his military-style precision dances. His school produced girls that were hired out in groups for London revues and musicals. Tiller is widely recognized as the “artistic godfather” of the chorus line. He imported several lines of girls to the United States, beginning in 1910. “The Tiller Girls were the original model for the Rockette-type chorus line in which each girl’s movement is exactly matched with each other’s in geometrical precision” (Grant, 2004, p. 217). Tiller was also known for the high expectations of professional behavior that he held for his dancers.

The Black Crook and The White Fawn—with dances choreographed by ballet director David Costa—were credited with introducing the iconic dance chorus to musicals. However, the high kicks and precision drill team dancing often associated with chorus lines came later, and both were imported from Europe. The Folies Bergere, which opened in Paris in 1870, tantalized audiences with its now famous chorus of barely-clad dancers energetically frolicking and displaying their synchronized high kicks. The geometric beauty of "precision dancing" traveled to America from England in the 1910.

John Tiller contributed precision dance lines of chorus girls. Ziegfeld standardized beauty and sensuality in the chorus. And Ned Wayburn put taps on the bottoms of shoes and categorized girls by height and function.

After seeing The Tiller Girls, Russell Markert claimed, "If I ever got a chance to get a group of American girls who would be taller and have longer legs and could do really complicated tap routines and eye-high kicks... they'd knock your socks off!" (Radio City Rockettes, n.d.). Markert later founded the “Missouri Rockets."

All of these men expanded the characteristics of the ideal chorus girl.

History was made--and the evolution of the chorus line culminated in a commercial treasure--when Samuel Roxy Rothafel brought the Missouri Rockets to New York City. He showcased the chorus line as the main attraction in each of his shows, rather than as a side or back-up act.

The Rockettes were installed at Radio City Music Hall on 6th Avenue between 50th and 51st street in New York City—a block and a half east of Broadway. The Rockettes are included in this discussion of Broadway dance due both to the type of dancing that they perform and the historical significance they hold in the evolution of Broadway dance and the life of the Broadway dancer. To this day, audiences fill the 3,000 seat theater to see the Rockettes.