Thread by @sheilakathleen

Lydia Marks' work in #FosseVerdonFX - in particular their apartment - is overwhelming. The details! Even with every carefully chosen object - the glasses, the paintings and knick-knacks - it still feels like a place where these two actually live and work.

The glasses with the little flowers on them.

You can read about her process over on her Instagram. instagram.com/lydia.0h.lydia/

I only saw the first episode but I liked what I saw so far. Centralizing Verdon's place in his process - which you could see in All That Jazz too - but her actress perspective towards those crazy a-symmetrical dance moves. Helping dancers "get it."

You're not putting your leg up on the bannister just to make a pretty picture or show off your long legs. You're putting your leg up because you are so tired of standing, and when you close your eyes, you see a love seat. Verdon providing CONTEXT to Fosse's shapes.

I wrote in that piece about his choreography that it's not just about the shapes. It can't be. That's why "Fosse-esque" comes off as Fosse-Lite, because it's not ignited from within by emotion and context. If you don't have that INNER thing going on, you're not doing Fosse.

The first episode made it REALLY clear how that happened, and how Verdon was essential in translating his vision to the dancers who needed to pull it off. You can't just learn the steps. It won't work otherwise.

Like all singular artists - he probably couldn't have sat down and written a manifesto about why he needed bodies to twist in those weird angled ways. It's just how he saw things. But dancers can't just be obedient to the steps. They have to know WHY. This makes him unique.

And Verdon knew why. Verdon knew what he was getting at, and could help dancers get it too. (Watch the dancer's face when Verdon's telling her "you're putting your leg like that b/c you're so sick of standing." Suddenly, the dancer "got it." She nods. Okay. I understand now.

The episode dramatized the collaboration and why it was so vital for the both of them. Again, you could see that in All That Jazz - his women were crucial to him - they're the ones who made his vision actually come to life, have "legs," so to speak.

Because it's important to remember too - and it's hard because Fosse changed everything, changed dance as we know it - how radical his stuff was and how much it was resisted. It comes from vaudeville and strip clubs. It's underworld.

He was comfortable with burlesque, with sex workers, with people whose sexuality was "out there" - who had seen some SERIOUS SHIT. He had never been innocent himself. It didn't really factor into his worldview or his work. Verdon got that. Not only "got" that, but could DO it.

There's a moment where they're experimenting, early on in the ep - hand out, hip in, knee cocked in - maybe it looks better on the opposite side? Maybe cock the knee out? She tries it. No. That's not right. They both know instantly. They had a shared vision of de-personalization.

Atomized human parts. All cock-eyed. Let's say you come from a ballet background. Ballet is the most rigorous form of dance there is. And so much of ballet involves creating at least an impression of fluidity and flow. This is why it's so difficult!

Dancers trained that way couldn't "pull off" Fosse's anti-fluidity. I persist in thinking most of this has to do with sex - you either get into Fosse's view of sex or you are unable to do his choreography the way it has to be done.

His work requires a headspace. Not all choreography is like that. While I wanted more dancing - and hopefully that will come - what I appreciated in this first ep was its interest in how this collaboration operated. Also, the resistance to his black-hearted worldview.

People misunderstood his dance. They thought it was the stereotypical razzmatazz "jazz hands". But it wasn't at all. It was twisted and psychological, ANTI-erotic, ANTI-show-biz. There were a couple of "Who do you think you are filming CABARET this way??" moments w/the producer -

- which, okay, I get it, you want to make the point to people who don't know. You want people to get how CABARET was envisioned as one thing, and Fosse went his own way w/it, and created a classic. Some of the dialogue is obvious in that regard, but it's forgivable.

All I cared about was that this collaboration - their artistic one-ness - a truly legendary partnership - was given its due. The name of the series is not Fosse. It's "Fosse/Verdon." So I was very happy with the result in that respect.

The gorilla moment - with Fosse and Verdon explaining why the gorilla couldn't be presented as a joke - was the pinnacle of this for me. And how they spoke and thought as one. "That gorilla suit is not right. And it's CRUCIAL that it be fixed, and here's why."

Process-oriented moments like that are - to me - like blood to a vampire.

And we saw it all in All That Jazz already. This is one of my favorite scenes in the movie!

Here's my Fosse piece. During the Cabaret rehearsal scene, he's saying to the upside-down girls, "90 degrees, not 60 degrees" for legs in the air. So difficult. With non-pointed feet, jutting backwards. It's super porn-y. But God, the end result! sheilaomalley.com/?p=137925

Sorry, one last thing: In the ep, Fosse walks away and Verdon says to the Sweet Charity dancers, "What you're doing here is not a come-on, it's a CON" and they all burst into knowing laughter. It's all beautifully complex. I love that number:

And notice how their bodies are not "ignited" by sex here. Even tho they're all cartoonishly sexy, almost a lampoon of what's deemed "sexy" in the marketplace. Their sexiness isn't on their minds, they're not performing how sexy they are - which would be the most obvious choice.

Instead, what they're DOING is playing the desperation of women who are plum worn OUT, who have seen it all. Who are over it all. who see the big spender and turn themselves inside OUT: pick me, pick me, pick me, not b/c I'm the sexiest, but b/c I need a break the MOST.