Making Broadway Dance

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About Making Broadway Dance

Product Description Through in-depth analysis of musical theatre choreography and choreographers, Making Broadway Dance challenges long-held perceptions of Broadway dance as kitsch, disposable, a dance form created without artistic process. Setting out to demonstrate that musical theatre dance is not a monolith but rather multi-varied in terms of dance styles, aesthetics and methodologies, author Liza Gennaro provides insights into how Broadway dance is made. By examining choreography for musical theatre through the lens of dance studies, script analysis, movement research and dramaturgical inquiry, she treads in uncharted territory by offering a close examination of a dance form that has heretofore received only the most superficial interrogation. She also explores how musical theatre choreographers create within the parameters of librettos, enhance character development and build dance languages that inform and propel narrative. By considering influences from ballet, modern, postmodern, Jazz, social and global dance, she reveals a rich understanding of musical theatre dance. This book exposes the choreographic systems of some of Broadway's most influential dance-makers including George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, Jerome Robbins, Katherine Dunham, Bob Fosse, Savion Glover, Sergio Trujillo, Steven Hoggett and Camille Brown, and is essential reading for theatre and dance scholars, students, practitioners, and Broadway fans. Review "I have always believed that it is up to each one of us to carry the torch and pass on our stories, experiences and knowledge to the next generation to ensure that Musical Theatre History pervades. Liza Gennaro has beautifully crafted a book that not only inspired me but taught me so much about our History, She is a passionate and gifted storyteller, who has always been enamored by Musical Theatre and the gatekeeper of all truths. Thank-you for giving all of us and future generations this enlightening book." ―Sergio Trujillo "Precise and lively, admiring and analytical, critical and joyful, and deeply informed by Gennaro's years in the archives, the rehearsal hall, and the theatre, this book brings Broadway musical theatre dance to life and more than that: it makes readers into dancers. Through meticulous and evocative dance reconstructions and brilliant and perceptive dramaturgy, Gennaro recovers, recuperates, and reinterprets choreographers' influences and legacies. Making Broadway Dance is a masterful and groundbreaking demonstration of the importance of Broadway musical theatre dance." ―Stacy Wolf, author of Beyond Broadway: The Pleasure and Promise of Musical Theatre Across America and Changed for Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical "One of my favorite aspects of Making Broadway Dance illustrates the simultaneous development of Theatre Dance and Jazz Dance. Author Liza Gennaro does this via both robust research and oral history. This book informs you on the how, when, and why many of our iconic dance scenes were staged, often, by way of intimate details from those of direct lineage to the Broadway Titans that populate the book. I especially appreciate, being a lover of early jazz dance, that Liza chose to interweave and not marginalize the stories of the important roles that early Black pioneering choreographers played in the making of Broadway dance." ―Kenneth L. Roberson; Broadway dancer and choreographer, and former Professor of Practice at Indiana University's department of Theatre, Drama and Contemporary Dance About the Author Liza Gennaro is Associate Dean and Director of Musical Theatre at The Manhattan School of Music. Ms. Gennaro is an accomplished choreographer, elected member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society Executive Board, a Tony Voter, and in 2015 she completed a three-year term on the Tony Award Nominating Committee.