More of the astounding Gwen Verdon
Once you watch a YouTube video on a certain topic, YouTube keeps suggesting more.
And more.
And sometimes I follow their lead—such as recently, with videos of Gwen Verdon that kept coming up following my writing this post about her. What an amazing dancer she was!
This is one of Verdon’s most famous movie dances. You’ve seen it already if you ever saw the movie “Damn Yankees.” In it she dances with husband-to-be Bob Fosse, performing a jointly-choreographed number (ignore the silly song; not important). Fosse was a good dancer, but to me Gwen outshines him utterly in this piece:
There’s not a moment there that Gwen isn’t perfect. Her dancing is witty and fun-filled, with incredible energy and precision as well (two things you might think would be contradictory). One of the things Verdon specialized in was what’s called “isolation” in the dance world. That is, she could take each muscle and use it independently and carefully, which made her seem to have even more muscles and joints that most people posses. Her hip action (featured quite prominently in that video) wasn’t just bumping and grinding; it was very complex, for want of a better word.
She gave every single moment 110%. And the whole time—and I think this was best of all, really—she had remarkable carriage, grace and ease throughout. There is never any tension to be seen in her body, other than the tension of muscles working exactly as she wanted them to work. And all done with a sunny smile.
Speaking of hips, feast your eyes on this. It’s not my favorite type of dancing, but Gwen is unsurpassed here and you can also see her isolation technique (as well as her control of cigarette smoking). This was done in 1968, when Gwen was about 43:
I’m not a big dance fan.
I like Astaire.
I think of Danny Kaye’s Modern Dance routine in White Christmas when I think of Bob Fosse.
I’m glad you featured the Damn Yankees routine. I watched it with no audio.
That was fun and even joyful.
The exact opposite of the Cool Hand Luke routine, which reminded me of Danny Kaye again. 🙂
You forgot to mention the seemingly effortlessness of her sexual allure.
parker:
Oh, for sure. She never tries too hard. And it’s not overtly, crassly sexual.
neo,
Her allure is not overt. It seems inate, a natural part of her physicality. Wow!
She looks like a better dancer than the guys because the kind of dancing they are doing looks better done by gals than by guys.
I like Astaire and Rogers.
https://eu.startpage.com/do/search?a=1&cat=web&query=wikileaks+unused+moon+landing&pl=opensearch
Haha, it wasnt just Trum wall on May 5th with trade wars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ2aEqXyCz0
Snort. Dinah Shore beats Gwen Verdon.
I had the pleasure of seeing Gwen and Chita Rivera in “Chicago” back in ’74 or ’75. Wow.
Fine dancing, and cat-like grace with sensuous movements by Gwen.
Still, there’s something about watching dance numbers, even the great ones, that leaves me a bit cold, somehow. Even Astaire and M. Jackson. And I love to dance. I don’t love to watch.
Gwen does look like she’s having fun, and that’s important.
Definitely amazing, sensuous and beautiful.
Verdon is dancing in a different league from the guys. I do get the sense she has trained long and hard for very fine control of her muscles. Though I’m not sure a guy could move his hips like that however much he trained.
But “Cool Hand Luke”? Is that in the movie? I assumed it was some Tijuana Brass song I had heard a lot on the radio.
Bob Fosse, Verdon’s daughter and other students are passing on the legacy:
The Verdon Fosse Legacy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8OpCoOIn0Y
I don’t know enough to follow, but I can see the intricacy and care involved. I get a vicarious thrill to watch pros who are excited about what they are doing.
I would up watching the two men. They both echoed Verdon’s moves. Verdon was clearly very feminine as a dancer. Unfortunately, the shark on the right (stage left) is, too. But the shark on the left (stage right) managed to both echo Verdon’s moves and still come across as masculine. I’d say, he was a pretty good dancer. Wonder who he was…
Fosse was great at dancing, movement, and coming across as masculine.
Lee: I give the two guys credit. They were game. But they were stepping into her world to match her techniques which she had been honing for years.
I doubt there were more than a dozen dancers in the world, if that, who could have parachuted in to equal Verdon’s chops.
That was the point of the Legacy video I mentioned. The synthesis Fosse and Verdon came up with was unique and subtle — not part of the standard repertoire. One either learns it from someone who knows or is brilliant enough to recreate it.