Gwen Verdon was among the best and too often not mentioned. Plus she endured marriage to Bob Fosse. One of my favorite MASH episodes is the one with her.. Sherm.
Never seen the MASH episode but for some reason I was never a big fan. She was and will always be amazing. I LOVED her on the episode of FAME dancing with Debbie Allen!
@@kmm2442 Yes. Professionally he was an absolute perfectionist. Privately he was a womanizer. Anne Reinking ( another talented dancer IMO) was his longtime mistress and there were others besides her. Basically watch ALL THAT JAZZ. Roy Scheider's character is based off of Bob Fosse down to the ginger haired wife who was a former dancer and Anne Reinking herself starring as the mistress.
I agree. I think swimming lessons are a top priority, because that can save a child's life. But dance classes are a close second. Dance is a life skill!
None of the male dancers here commented on had Gwen's sylphine feminine body, early ballet training, nor exquisite grace. Every dancer is a unique terpsichorean instrument.
She did that barefoot in tights on a glossy surface. I used to fence, in shoes, on a floor like that, a basketball court. It took years not to slip around. She’s way more amazing than you think.
@@originalredneckgirl the last Relaxin would be leaving her body after six months so this dance should be done with extreme care. For an elite athlete this is acceptable, for an average, healthy, fit woman, not yet. There is a huge amount of background knowledge and experience necessary to make this possible, never mind safe. These days hernias, piles, prolapses of more than just discs are much less common, because we know what all the processes are.
Thank you so much for the chance to see more artistry from this marvelous woman. They really had some great stuff on TV back then. (There's some good stuff now too, but different.)
In its youth TV knew it could never compete with the cast-of-thousands spectacle, fancy settings and costumes of Broadway or Hollywood, and why try on small b&w screens? Economics and aesthetics both conduced to the unadorned chiaroscuro of studio floors such as this. It was the right environment in which to mainstream modern dance as interpreted by Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham, as well as the world-music fusions of Jack Cole. Back to basics: focus on the figures, not their trappings. The big Middle American audience ate up the likes of Fonteyn and Nureyev on Sullivan. Why not introduce them to post-classical movement? And so, courtesy of Fosse and Verdon, another phase in the eternal melding of the avant garde and sssshowtime! was achieved, to their mutual benefit. Some folks wanted high and low culture to keep their distance, and today many would like the artistic inheritances of different races to dwell under separate bell jars. But naughty old traditions keep escaping and mating. Promiscuity breeds novelty.
@@elizabethmurphy9384Gwen was a talented choreographer in her own right- and handed the credit off to Fosse a lot of the time. I guarantee you nobody’s shortchanging Fosse by crediting the other two.
Someone, ANYONE.... please HURRY and tell BEYONCE to WATCH this VIDEO....will TOTALLY go GREAT with her "country" (as real as her blonde hair) "music".....🤥🤥🤥....🤠
I always wonder who the miserable, disenchanted people are who don't like this? ...and everything else that is about joy, happiness and love....who are they in their miserable lives of nothingness? Frankly, who cares?
Remember, we all become more or less of who we are. More? then happier, fulfilled, joyous, etc etc...Less? Sadder, angry, unfulfilled, etc etc. We become the way we are by choice. Regardless of what takes place, we choose how we will react, respond, respect, process and conclude and then carry-on. Our life is based on our choices. Choose the life you want. Live the results.
Ya know.. watching these three figures in black against a spare background reminds of Beyonce and All the Single Ladies. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4m1EFMoRFvY.html
@@maryshaffer8474 how true . That’s why I enjoy British films . All the good bad and ugly of them , normal . In fact often I can’t tell the difference between some actors in American films because certain types seen to be preferred by the casting person , so duplicate people appear in the same film . I shouldn’t have mentioned the nose , but it did give me a shock because somehow I didn’t know he had such a prominent one .
@@lindacarruthers3423 Those old tv cameras were notorious for distorting the image slightly. If you have ever heard someone say that the camera adds ten pounds, that is the camera being talked about.
Gwen Verdon was a woman of talent. However, she was unkind and known for her racism. A dear Latino friend of mine, who was a brilliant dancer, auditioned several times for a Bob Fosse Broadway musical but Gwen turned him down because there was already a Black dancer in the show. My friend wasn't or looked Black. He clearly looked Latino. At that time (1980s) one minority cast member was enough in a majority white cast show. During his last audition Bob Fosse showed up to everyone's surprise and when Gwen told my friend again that there was already a black dancer in the show, Bob intervened and say that my friend was one of the most talented young men that he had ever seen. It turns out, that on my friend's first evening performance, the principal dancer got sick and there was no one to replace him. Gwen asked if anyone would volunteer. But no one volunteered because they hadn't memorized his routine. Hesitantly my friend raised his hand, but Gwen ignored him. The cast started shouting give him a chance. Visibly annoyed; she turned to my friend and said: I hope you are not going to waste my time and embarrass yourself. He took to center stage and performed the routine flawlessly. Besides being an extraordinary talented dancer, he was also gifted with an incredible photographic memory. He had auditioned so many times that he had memorized all the step variations of the show. The whole cast stood up screaming and showering him with applauses. Gwen was forced to move him from the last row to front row, elevating him to principal dancer. But she never acknowledged his presence with a simple hello during the entire season. His was preparing to be the next Raul Júlia. He could dance, act and sing. But he left us too soon. My unforgettable friend was among the enormous number of super talented people that we lost to AIDS.
