Jack Cole () was the most influential choreographer you&#;ve never heard of. As a dancer, choreographer and director, Cole&#;s relative obscurity today belies the major influence he had on stage and cinema musicals of the ss and s. Considered the father of modern jazz dance, his many disciples became much more famous than their muse &#; Gwen Verdon, Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Tommy Tune, Matt Mattox, and Alvin Ailey, among others. According to Agnes de Mille, &#;They all stole from Cole,&#; a sentiment shared by his greatest interpreter, the sassy redhead Gwen Verdon &#; Cole&#;s protégée.
A New Jersey native, Cole ventured far beyond his modern-dance roots. Entranced by the Asian influences of the Denishawn Dance Company, he studied bharata nātyam with master instructor Uday Shankar (Ravi's uncle). As a dynamic, powerhouse solo dancer, Cole projected tough masculine energy. Photos show the elegant, muscular young Cole striking sphinx-like poses dressed in harem pants and jewels, captivating audiences at NYC&#;s Rainbow Room with exotic, weird, entrancing movements. In many ways, he was America&#;s Nijinsky. He was also homosexual, but he remained closeted during his en
Jack Cole
Jack Cole, born John Ewing Richter, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Early on he decided to pursue dance with the Denishawn Dance Company led by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. He made is first professional appearance in August , and although he had previously studied ballet, Cole was entranced by the Asian influences Denishawn utilized in its choreography and costuming.[2] Cole also performed with another pair of pioneering modernists, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman,[3] but eventually left the modern dance world for commercial dance career in nightclubs, performing with Alice Dudley, Anna Austin and Florence Lessing.
A fund-raising event launched this long overdue tribute to the “Unsung Genius” of Jack Cole,. It will preserve the legacy of this great innovator, the father and pioneer of Jazz Dance in America. Jack developed his own movement style, vocabulary and technique. In the late s he combined East Indian Bharata Natyam, modern dance, ballet, Afro-Cuban and African American movement, and set it to swing music.
Before Jack Cole, the commercial dance was line dancing and tap. His highly innovative choreography influenced many choreographers such as Bob Fosse, J
&#;Whenever I see a great performance, I change. I come out of the theatre a different person and stay a different person for the rest of my life. That&#;s what art should do. It should shake you.&#;
TRQ: Jack Cole, Died February 17,
Dancer and choreographer Jack Cole, known as the “The Father of Theatrical Jazz Dance,” was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Openly gay, Cole was sent to boarding school after his parents divorce and went on to discontinue all contact with him.
Cole began his career in dance at the Denishawn Dance Company under Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. He is credited for codifying jazz dance into theatrical choreography. The “Cole technique” has become the basis of theatrical jazz dance today. Cole’s disciples included Bob Fosse, Alvin Ailey, Gwen Verdon, and Tommy Tune..
“They all stole from Cole,” confirms choreographer Agnes de Mille.
Verdon, a Tony-award winning actor and dancer, was Cole’s assistant for a number of years. “When you see dancing on television, that’s Jack Cole,” she says.
Cole was known for being exacting, shaping every detail of a choreographed performance. His work with Marilyn Monroe and Chita Rivera is some of his most well k
Jane Russell remembers &#;Gentleman&#; Jack Cole
&#;Yes,&#; answered Jane Russell last Wednesday evening, nodding emphatically when asked if choreographer Jack Cole had directed the dance sequences in Howard Hawks&#;s &#;Gentlemen Prefer Blondes&#; ().
Russell&#;s brown eyes flashed and she became animated on hearing Cole&#;s name.
The brunette bombshell of the /50&#;s, appearing at a Hollywood Heritage event this past week, chatted with arts·meme ever so briefly about Cole, the great Broadway/nightclub/cinema dance maker who choreographed the three song-and-dance numbers of &#;Gentlemen.&#; Cole, a brilliant film and dance innovator who had a multi-picture relationship with Marilyn Monroe, died in Los Angeles in
&#;He [Cole] sat up on a big tall thing [camera dolly] running the whole thing &#; where the dancing was concerned,&#; Russell told me, indicating upward with her arm, and repeating, &#; &#;directing everything.&#;
This is not news; it&#;s been intimated in various written accounts over the years, but never reflected in the film&#;s credits.
In his Hawks biography, &#;The Grey Fox of Hollywood,&#; Todd McCarthy quotes Gwen Verdon as saying tha
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