California State University, San Bernardino CSUSB ScholarWorks Theses Digitization Project John M. Pfau Library 2003 Danny Daniels: A life of dance and choreography Louis Eric Fossum Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project Part of the Dance Commons Recommended Citation Fossum, Louis Eric, "Danny Daniels: A life of dance and choreography" (2003). Theses Digitization Project. 2357. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/2357 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the John M. Pfau Library at CSUSB ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses Digitization Project by an authorized administrator of CSUSB ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DANNY DANIELS: A LIFE OF DANCE AND CHOREOGRAPHY A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University, San Bernardino In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies: Theatre 'Arts and Communication Studies by Louis Eric Fossum June 2003 DANNY DANIELS: A LIFE OF DANCE AND CHOREOGRAPHY A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University, San Bernardino by Louis Eric Fossum June 2003 Approved by: Processor Kathryn Ervin, Advisor Department of Thea/fer Arts Department of Theater Arts Dr. Robin Larsen Department of Communications Studies ABSTRACT The career of Danny Daniels was significant for its contribution to dance choreography for the stage and screen, and his development of concept choreography. Danny' s dedication to the art of dance, and the integrity of the artistic process was matched by his support and love for the dancers who performed his choreographic works. His career should be a template to future choreographers, and dancers in that he was always true to himself, and never disrespected the intelligence of his audience. His visionary work matched his own personality in that it was always forward driven. Danny Daniels was truly ahead of his time, and his work survives as a testament to his talent.. iii DEDICATION. In Theatre a common experience of performers, stage managers, stage hands, conductors, directors, and choreographers is to cross paths only once, while others may work together many times over the span of a career. Fortunately, my association with Danny- Daniels, an award winning Broadway, film, and television choreographer, would be the latter experience. My first audition for Danny Daniels occurred in 1975, for Edwin Lester' s Los Angeles Civic Light Opera production of Wonderful Town, starring Nanet.te Fabray, George Gaynes, Marty Rolf, Mary Wicks,, and Leroy Reems. In the ensuing years I found myself working on seven more projects with Danny and his son Daniel (D.J.) Giagni on both stage and television. It was Daniels' great talent, concentration, and dedication to the art of dance that kept me coming back for more. This biography of Danny Daniels is dedicated to all of the dancers, including Danny Daniels, who so admired the artistry of Fred Astaire, and experienced with Danny Danniels, the quest for theatrical excellence. This thesis is also dedicated to his family, and especially his wife Bea, for their unwavering support for his career. To the many Broadway audience members over the years that have experienced the thrill that I experienced at the Broadway opening of The Tap Dance Kid, when the house leapt to its feet in a thunderous ovation for Daniels' choreographic symphony of syncopation in the "Fabulous Feet" number. Lastly my biography of Danny Daniels is dedicated to the future dancers, and director-choreographers who may benefit from an Emmy and Tony award winning career that has spanned over sixty years. May this retrospective of Danny' s career allow young dancers to stand in the wings as it were and learn how dance is lifted from simple staging to a profession, and an art. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................ iii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION........................... 1 CHAPTER TWO: BEGINNINGS.............................. 15 CHAPTER THREE: BROADWAY BOUND....................... 21 CHAPTER FOUR: LIVE FROM NEW YORK......... 41 CHAPTER FIVE: CROSSING OVER THE MEDIUMS............ 67 CHAPTER SIX: KEEPING TAP DANCING ALIVE............ 98 CHAPTER SEVEN: THE BROADWAY HIT...... ............... 121 CHAPTER EIGHT: REMINISCENCES AND REUNIONS.......... 136 CHAPTER NINE: CONCLUSION ................... 153 APPENDIX A: TAG LINES................. 159 APPENDIX B: CREDITS AND VIDEO MENU................. 163 APPENDIX C: BIBLIOGRAPHY............................ 171 APPENDIX D: PHOTOGRAPHSA ND DANCE NOTATIONS........ 17 6 REFERENCES............................................ 182 iv CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION The career of Danny Daniels spans over seven decades. Beginning his dance training as a child, Daniels was gifted, and had what tap dancers, (hoofers), would call great feet. That is the elasticity of the ankles to produce syncopated rhythms at controlled rapid speeds. It is a sound that is exciting, and elicits an immediate response, from an audience. Danny's talent continued to flourish with early training in classical ballet, that expanded his. technical skills as a dancer, and this ballet training., would serve, him well as a. future choreographer. As Danny would readily admit, he was lucky that he studied tap dancing first, and not the other way around. Danny' s style of tap dancing is into the floor, as opposed to the classical ballet technique that is pulled up out of the floor. In ballet, the training is to appear to defy gravity, (the term for this is ballon) . In the Daniels style of tap dancing, the feet not only must work the pounding rhythms into the floor, but the entire body must be included to produce movement that is interesting for the audience to watch. His early dance training allowed 1 him to utilize his entire body to dance at a level that few dancers ever achieve. Danny' s dance skills alone would yield a full career for most dancers, but he was also blessed with a capacity for visual learning that allowed him to cross over, as it were, becoming a choreographic talent. Danny was eventually able to visualize what dance should look like on stage, and then transform that vision, utilizing the physical skills of dancers executing the choreography. This visual skill was learned over many years of choreographing dancers. Eventually the two processes began to develop into a personal style. To notate that style, Danny developed a notation process that is different from the Rudolf Laban dance notation as described by Jean Newlove in her book, "Laban For Actors and Dancers." Where the Leban method notates from the bottom up, the Daniels notation is the opposite. Danny places the meter of the dance at the left margin, and a series of three lateral squares names each step to correspond to the meter in the left margin. In this way Danny was able to catalogue his choreography for rehearsals, or future performances, and to develop his own unique style of conceptual theatrical dance movement. 2 There have been many choreographers over the years, but only a select few have transcended dance, by moving beyond mere patterns moving through space, to create within the conceptual sphere of dance. This is dance that tells a story, dance that has meaning, and dance that is holistic at its core. Those choreographers who immediately come to mind in considering conceptual talent are Agnes DeMille, Jerome Robbins, Busby Berkeley, Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, Michael Kidd, Bob Fosse, and Danny Daniels. Without committing the. mortal sin of explaining art, and risking banality, I would describe the Daniels conceptual choreographic technique as complete and pure concentration. All theatrical factors are focused into a single dance number. These factors are dance, music, acting, story, rhythm, physical patterns, and always the Daniels trademark, humor. A Daniels number starts with a core step, or rhythm pattern; from this the number begins to build upon other corresponding rhythms that sound individual but are in fact related to the core step. The musical term for this is contrapuntal rhythm. As the dancers execute an opening dance segment, the Daniels concepts begin to appear as storyline. Simplicity is key to this building process. The concept must be 3 encompassed in the amount of musical bars used for the dance sequence. This is where Danny' s musicality comes into play, for he must climax the dance as the music dictates, so as to close out the concept, and to allow for the audience to experience the maximum emotional lift. This is the Daniels style; building contrapuntal rhythms, and pressing the dance forward, without stopping the pace of the show, makes the dance become an integral part of the overall narrative. It is within this framework that Danny' s conceptual choreography is expressed. The dream ballet from Oklahoma by Agnes DeMille, the "Two Lost Souls" number from Damn Yankees by Bob Fosse, the opening Times Square urban ballet in Guys And Dolls by Michael Kidd: these are all fine examples of Broadway conceptual dance. In film, Busby Berkeley' s urban ballet in 42nd Street, Gene Kelly' s 17-minute ballet in An American In Paris, Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly' s "Broadway Rhythm" ballet in Singing In The Rain, are all fine examples of conceptual film dance. With choreographers like these as your contemporaries, some of whom choreographed the longest running shows in Broadway history, the artistic level of dance on stage was enormous. 4 With the exception of The Tap Dance Kid, all of the Daniels Broadway choreography was exhibited in shows that didn't have lengthy runs. Finally having a hit show to gain maximum exposure was not only key to this show' s success, but The Tap Dance Kid also earned Daniels his first Tony Award. Had Danny accepted Jerome Robbins offer to co-choreograph West Side Story, perhaps the Daniels style would have gained prominence three decades earlier. Perhaps not, considering that Jerome Robbins didn't give Danny credit for the■numbers that he staged for Gypsy.