Dance in Musical Theatre

From Oklahoma! and West Side Story, to Spring Awakening and Hamilton, dance remains one of the most important and key factors in musical theatre. Through the integration of song and dance in the 'dream ballets' of choreographers like Agnes De Mille; the triple threat performances of Jerome Robbins' dancers; the signature style creation by choreographers like Bob Fosse with dancers like Gwen Verdon; and the contemporary, identity-driven work of choreographers like Camille A. Brown, the history of the body in movement is one that begs study and appreciation. Dance in Musical Theatre offers guidelines in how to read this movement by analyzing it in terms of composition and movement vocabulary whilst simultaneously situating it both historically and critically. This collection provides the tools, terms, history, and movement theory for reading, interpreting, and centralizing a discussion of dance in musical theatre, importantly, with added emphasis on women and artists of color. Bringing together musical theatre and dance scholars, choreographers and practitioners, this edited collection highlights musical theatre case studies that employ dance in a dramaturgically essential manner, tracking the emergence of the dancer as a key figure in the genre, and connecting the contributions to past and present choreographers. This collection foregrounds the work of the ensemble, incorporating firsthand and autoethnographic accounts that intersect with historical and cultural contexts. Through a selection of essays, this volume conceptualizes the function of dance in musical: how it functions diegetically as a part of the story or non-diegetically as an amplification of emotion, as well as how the dancing body works to reveal character psychology by expressing an unspoken aspect of the libretto, embodying emotions or ideas through metaphor or abstraction. Dance in Musical Theatre makes dance language accessible for instructors, students, and musical theatre enthusiasts, providing the tools to critically engage with the work of important choreographers and dancers from the beginning of the 20th century to today.

Dustyn Martincich, Phoebe Rumsey, Benae Beamon, Bud Coleman, Tome' Cousin, Joanna Dee Das, Ramón Flowers, Mijiang "M-Jay" He, Michael D. Jablonski, Nathan James, Ariel Nereson, Adrienne Gibbons Oehlers, Amanda Olmstead, Kim Varhola, Alexandra Joye Warren, Kevin Winkler

Table of Contents Image List List of Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction: Dustyn Martincich and Phoebe Rumsey Section I: Choreography and Function Chapter 1: Reading Dance: The Body in Motion Onstage Phoebe Rumsey Chapter 2: Dancing Genre: Influences on Dance in Musical Theatre Nathan James Chapter 3: Musical Theatre Dance Training: Approaches in the United States and China Mijiang He and Dustyn Martincich Chapter 4: Ensembles in Motion: Formations, Spectacle, and Unison Adrienne Gibbons Oehlers Chapter 5: Dancing Narrative: Storytelling through the Ensemble Body Amanda Olmstead Chapter 6: Storytelling through Dance: The Rise of the Dream Ballet Bud Coleman Chapter 7: Making Space, Keeping Time: Musical Theatre Dance and Temporality in the United States Joanna Dee Das Section II: Approaches to Choreography and the Body Chapter 8: Take Off with Us: Expressing Gender and Sexuality in Golden Age Broadway Choreography Kevin Winkler Chapter 9: Asian Faces, American Bodies: Reading Asian/American Movement on the Broadway Stage Kim Varhola Chapter 10: Tap and the Broadway Musical: Subversion and Subjectivity through Historical Consciousness Benae Beamon Chapter 11: Ballet, Race, and the Great White Way Ramon Flowers Chapter 12: Conversations, Creators & Storytellers in Contact: An Interview with Tomé Cousin Phoebe Rumsey Chapter 13: Postmodern Dance's Legacies on the Contemporary Musical Theatre Stage Ariel Nereson Chapter 14: Movement Direction in Musical Theatre: Physical Actions and Gestural Storytelling Michael D. Jablonski and Dustyn Martincich Chapter 15: Everybody Cancan: Contemporary Musical Theatre Dance Dustyn Martincich and Alexandra Joye Warren