The History of Broadway & Stage Dance
Dance on the Broadway stage dates back to the influences of traveling showmen of the 1840s and continues to develop today with a broad range of styles including hip-hop, ballet, jazz, tap and punk. Dance has advanced from nearly naked, untrained women frolicking on stage to choreographed extravaganzas that mesmerize modern audiences.
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Early Minstrel Influences
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As early as 1843 in New York, white performers donned cork-blackened faces and performed songs and skits. Co-opting dances from African-Americans, they popularized the hardshoe and shuffle dance steps that evolved into tap and other stage dance techniques including the soft shoe, cakewalk and the buck and wing.
Women on Display
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The melodrama, "The Black Crook," used a scantily clad Parisian ballet troupe to attract large audiences to Broadway in 1866. Using extravagant sets, members of the trouple dressed as fairies and provocatively danced in a moonlit grotto. Enterprising stage managers used the least amount of costuming to attract audiences until productions of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas debuted in the late 1800s. Shows like "The Mikado" interwove dancing with the plot.
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Training Schools
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U.S. dance training programs followed when a British businessman, John Tiller, invested in schools in London and began featuring his dance troupes in vaudeville and on Broadway. The vaudeville reviews of 1910 shaped dance and fashion trends, influencing the audience's interest in dancing. Tap, the fox trot and the tango became the rage.
Men Dance on Broadway
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George M. Cohan grew up in vaudeville. When he premiered his grand song and dance shows featuring the memorable hits, "Give My Regards to Broadway" and "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy," in 1904, he ushered in the concept that men could also dance on the Broadway stage.
Extravagant Musicals
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The Ziegfeld Follies, from 1907 to 1931, redefined dance with novelty kick lines and formations. George Balanchine heightened the levels with choreographed ballet numbers woven throughout the plot line. Rogers and Hammerstein premiered "Oklahoma" in 1943. Its choreographer, Agnes DeMille, invented a "dream ballet" style which elevated the choreographer's role in dance theater.
Concept and Dance Musicals
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"Company," "Follies" and "A Chorus Line" of the 1970s ushered in the concept musical that carried more characters into the plot and used dance as a storytelling device in every scene. "Chicago" and "Cats" followed in the mid-1980s. Recycling show and pop tunes, dance musicals were popular on Broadway in the late 1980s and '90s. "Jerome Robbin's Broadway," "Fosse" and "Contact" are best-known, each winning a Tony Award for Best Musical. In these shows, modern dance was the central theme, overshadowing the plot line. In 2002, choreographer Twyla Tharpe pulled together Billy Joel's songs to stage "Movin' Out." She used dance as a universal medium, transcending language.
The New Millennium
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Dance continues to drive many of Broadway's stage shows. The 2010 Tony Award nominations included four musicals incorporating song and dance from Green Day's punk to 1950s rock 'n' roll: "American Idiot," "Fela," "Memphis" and "Million Dollar Quartet." Musical revivals like the jazz dance hit "Ragtime" were also on the list for Tony nominations.
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