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SESSIONS Bob Fosse's Choreographic Screen Debut: 48 Seconds That Set a Course by Pat Debenham and Kathie Debenham, USA Paper This presentation will focus on the core characteristics and lexicon that are evident in the 48 second duet that Bob Fosse created for Kiss Me Kate (1953), his choreographic film debut. The presentation will also contextualize Fosse within the field of Music Theatre and entertainment. The presenters will examine and foreground, through the use of LMA, how clearly the KMK duet established both a style and a vocabulary that served Fosse throughout his choreographic career. The musicals that Fosse choreographed are a sub category of what we might call "theatrical works." Theatrical works such as dance, theatre, performance art, etc. enliven the viewer through Spell, Passion and Vision drives where Time, Weight and Space inter-change and shift to awaken us to what is happening on the stage. Fosse engages the audience in a specific kind of theatrical moment which has an expressed intent to entertain and Fosse was a master entertainer. From an LMA perspective his use of Planes, his Phrasing, his investment in various aspects of Spatial Tension and the presence of an Effort life where Rhythm State, Action Drive and Mobile State reign invite the viewer to join the performers in their theatrical world. It is not difficult to identify what is "Fossesque". Most untrained observers, after having seen some of his choreography, would most likely be able to recognize a Fosse dance if they were to encounter another. He is stylistically, perhaps the most distinctive of any of the major Music Theatre choreographers of his generation. This presentation moves beyond the ability to just recognize something that is "Fossesque." Through description and analysis his style will be identified and from this analysis the presenters will establish a basis from with to understand why his dances have such tremendous appeal even decades after his most productive period. Pat Debenham (MA, UCLA) is a CLMA and is a Professor of Modern Dance and Music Theatre at Brigham Young University. His choreography, workshops, presentations and published papers demonstrate how Laban principles can be woven into and through dance curriculums that focus on teaching, performing, composition and research. He has presented nationally and internationally on a variety of subjects and he has published in BYU Studies, Research in Dance Education, The Journal of the Utah Academy and most recently in the NAHE Interdisciplinary Journal. Most recently he, his wife Kathie, their three dancing daughters, two grand children and three sons-in-law produced a lively and artistically satisfying concert entitled "Debenham Dance." Kathie Debenham is presently Associate Dean for Humanities Arts & Social Sciences at Utah Valley State College. She received her C.L.M.A from the University of Utah Integrated Movement Studies Program in 1997 and has found seemingly endless applications in her teaching, choreography, writing, performance, administrative duties, and life work. She teaches it on an ongoing basis as part of the Dance major at her institution and is fascinated with human movement in all its expressive possibilities. Kathie has presented the Laban/Bartenieff work at numerous regional, national, and international conferences in dance and the humanities.
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