Young Chang
Bob Fosse's dance moves changed the rules. They go against everything
you're taught in classic ballet training, where all the muscles are
supposed to turn out.
"Mr. Fosse's work turns in the knees, the back. The hips get way
turned in," said Lynn Sterling, a dancer with "Fosse," now at the Orange
County Performing Arts Center. "That's all because Mr. Fosse was never
really happy with the body he was given -- he had bowed legs, so he did
everything turned in, which looks really great."
Sterling should know. She learned from the late dance legend before he
passed away in 1987. She remembers he was going a bit bald and wore hats
all the time. He wasn't so fond of his hands and, for that reason, wore
gloves.
These two props -- the hat and the gloves -- are prominent in the
lexicon of Fosse dance steps that first got cultural circles buzzing in
1954 when he choreographed "The Pajama Game." After that, the
dancer-choreographer's name and career soared.
"No-one had seen anything like that before," Sterling said. "He was
received brilliantly."
"Fosse," a revue of dance and musical numbers from Fosse's opus of
life works, will be staged at the Orange County Performing Arts Center
through April 29. Numbers include "Steam Heat," "Big Spender," "Bye Bye
Blackbird," "I Wanna Be a Dancin' Man" and "Sing, Sing, Sing."
Directed by Richard Maltby Jr. and Ann Reinking, the show's touring
company began performing in 1999 in Chicago.
"The thing about his choreography is it's so different from any other
choreography, and that's why I'm celebrating his show again," said dancer
and dance captain Vincent Sandoval. "It's so simple, yet so difficult."
He adds that Fosse's style is sensual and "kinda sexy at the same time
but it doesn't come off that way."
Sterling says that's because of the way Fosse taught.
"He required you to be very aware of your sexuality," she said. "So we
would say, 'OK think and be sexy,' and he'd say, 'No, you are sexy, and
they will see it. Don't show them that."'
Sandoval appreciates the details.
"He had so many different things -- his hat tricks and different props
that he'd use would just be amazing, and the way he would work with
detail with his hand all the way to his fingertips," he said.
Sterling, who still sometimes uses the dance boots she wore when she
first auditioned for Fosse more than a decade ago, remembers how humble
he was. He would give advice that meant as much to Sterling as precious
rubies, diamonds and pearls. Fosse would ask, in the end, "Does that make
sense?"
"We would all think, 'Hello! Of course it does!' We figuratively and
literally sat at his feet," she said. "I can say that every minute he was
in the room, you knew a genius was there. And if he directed that beam of
genius toward you, you just wanted to receive, receive, receive."
FYI
WHAT: "Fosse"
WHEN: 2 and 8 p.m. today, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, 8 p.m.
Tuesday-Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. April 28, and 2 and 7:30 p.m. April 29.
WHERE: Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive,
Costa Mesa
COST: $29.75-$63.75
CALL: (714) 556-ARTS
