Jerome Robbins and Agnes de Mille

Jerome Robbins and Agnes de Mille An analysis of the life and works of the choreographers Jerome Robbins and Agnes de Mille and therole of dance in musical theatre Agnes de Mille and Jerome Robbins worked in musical theatre in what is widely regarded to be the industrys Golden Era. Many would say that it was their innovative approach to choreography in musical theatre that brought an energy and a dynamism to the musical, accounting for its surge in popularity. It is certainly true that they did much to elevate the role of dance in musical theatre, which was previously largely merely as an accessory to the main dramatic event; pretty women with bare flesh parading around the stage. Robbins and De Mille regarded dance as a serious art form and strove to portray it as such on the stage. Musical theatre, as we know it today, did not come into being until the twentieth century, but song and dance have been a part of theatre for thousands ofyears. From as early as the 5th century BC the Ancient Greeks employed music and dance in many of their comedies and tragedies to entertain the public. The Romans carried on this tradition from the 3rdcentury BC, with many plays by Plautus including song and dance. They invented the first tap shoes by attaching metal plates to their shoes so that the entire audience, who would sit in a colossal open-air theatre, could hear the dancesteps (1). In the Middle Ages travelling minstrels and troupes of actors, dancers and singers performed popular songs and slapstick comedy. The religious dramas of the 12th and 13th centuries also included liturgical songs, although no dancing. In the French court of the Renaissance Louis XIV insisted that song and dance be incorporated into his entertainments. In America, some of the first dramatic roles to be performed by dancers were in melodrama, which is unsurprising considering the highly stylised movement of melodramatic actors lends itself more to dance than to anything else. Mlle Celeste, who was later to become one of the most famous dancers of the nineteenth century, was first billed in America as the celebrated melodramatic actress (2). Across the nineteenth century, circuses, showboats and pantomimes all included dance in some form. Stars such as Mlle Celeste and Fanny Essler helped create a popular demand for dance and companies began to include more elaborate dances in their evenings bill. Melodrama and pantomimes would often incorporate complex ballets into their entertainments. In England the most popular form of entertainment for the working- and middle-classes was the music hall, which staged vaudeville entertainment in the way of singers, dancers and speciality acts. Vaudeville was also extremely popular in America in th e nineteenth century, and by the 1890s dance acts were ever more in demand. Dances were still, however, largely performed in between the acts of the main production or before the end-piece to fill the gaps. The role of dance in the theatre at that time was limited mainly to entractes. They existed purely to appease the audience, to show piece a star, or to titillate predominantly male audiences with allowing spectacle of female limbs in tights(3). Jack Cole referred to the dances and the dancers in theatre at this timeas wallpaper (4). It wasnt really until the 1930s that dance began to be an important part of the musical. George Balanchine, who trained at the Russian Imperial Ballet School before working with Serge Diaghilevs Ballets Russes, regarded dance as a legitimate and important component in musical theatre. He believed dance to be the greatest expressive medium and first introduced ballet onto the popular musical stage with Ziegfeld Follies. Dancers in the theatre began to be taken seriously, rather than regarded merely as pretty girls baring a lot of leg; Into a choreographic world that was a mÃÆ'Â ©lange of decorative movement, legs and taps,Balanchine opened the door and ballet leapt on to the popular musical stage,directed by a supreme artist (5). Whereas previously only routines had been performed on the theatrical stage, Balanchine choreographed dances.He refused for his dances to be merely bite-size slices of entertainment sandwiched between the main attraction and insisted that they be part of th e plot, integrated seamlessly into the action. For the first time in a musical the dances in Balanchines On Your Toes actually helped to advance the plot. When, in 1982, On Your Toes returned to Broadway, Carol Lawson of the New York Times wrote; On YourToes was a turning point in the history of musical comedy, for Mr.Balanchines dances were more than mere interludes. Instead they served as essential aspects of the plot, and were thoroughly integrated parts of the production.(6) Balanchine paved the way for AgnesDe Mille and Jerome Robbins to totally change the dynamics of dance in musical theatre, and thereby in musicals has a whole. De Mille introduced the concept of using dance as a vehicle for story-telling and Robbins transformed the role of choreographer in a musical to being director of the entire show, making dance the driving force. Agnes De Mille Asa child, although she came from a theatrical family, De Mille was not permitted formal dance training, but would improvise pieces to perform to guests and nightly improvised to the accompaniment of her mother on the Orchestrelle (7).She would practice her melodramatic acting skills every night before performing flexibility exercises to limber up her body in readiness for the stage. When in Hollywood with her family her true dancers instinct became evident as she fell in love with the wide open spaces of the country surrounding the town;this would be a recurring theme in her later choreography. In her autobiography, Dance to the Piper, she exclaimed; The descendinggrassy slopes filled me with a passion to run, to roll in delirium, to wreck mybody on the earth. Space means this to a dancer or to a child! The descentthrough theair, the finding of earth-footage, the embracing and struggle with thefundamental ground.These are to a dancer what strong scents are to an animal. (8) Theday De Mille first watched Anna Pavlova perform only increased her desire tobecome a dancer. She was enthralled, awed, and dumbstruck, and describes thatmoment with passion and gusto (9). It was this that encouraged de Mille toorganise her first dance show with a group of other girls but she was still notallowed dance lessons and became frustrated with the limited dancing she coulddo. It wasnt until her sister was advised by an orthopaedist to start balletdancing that she too was permitted to attend the Theodore Kosloff School ofImperial Russian Ballet. Whilst there she learnt technique and poise andtrained her body into that of a dancers. She worked feverishly hard, perhapseven more so because her parents would not allow her to have lessons more thantwice a week, leaving her lagging behind the rest of the class. She resortedto practicing in her mothers bathroom, where she had installed a barre for her. Bythe time De Mille had finished high school however, she had grown to loath therigours of daily practice and decided to abandon her classes and her solitarypractices and go to college. During her time at UCLA De Mille occasionallystaged dances for student rallies and towards the end of her college life shestarted exercising with the mind to getting back up on her points. She decidedto dance professionally after meeting Douglass Montgomery, who convinced herthat she could. Things were never going to be easy for her though. She movedto New York at a time when dancers [were] hired on the sheen of the stockingand the wink of their agent, and when the few dance companies that existed onBroadway were small and dedicated to the personal exploitation of some star(10). I have mentioned earlier the limited opportunities a dancer had in thistime, where no pure ballet was being performed in either music shows ormoving picture shows and there was no such word as choreography. Whenrehearsing for a concert of her own choreography Montgomery taught De Mille howto act through her dancing; he taught me that every gesture must have someexplicit meaning (11). She decided to perform character studies whereby thedancing revealed personality and was natural in the course of the story. Rightfrom the start she wanted to employ dance as more than light entertainment, asa vital story-telling vehicle. These first attempts, being only charactersketches, were quite light by nature, and the style was folk rather thanballet, but it was different to what anybody else had done on the stage before.When she performed some of these at a concert she was received well but whenshe auditioned for Charles Cochran and Noel Coward they told her that she wasmore suited to the concert hall, and that she would never make it in thetheatre. Aftertouring with Adolph Bolm, she was commissioned as a dancer-choreographer on ChristopherMorleys revival of The Black Crook but the drunken, noisy audience madeher hand her notice in. It was in the thirties that the dance scene in NewYork began to stir. Every Sunday a couple of dance concerts were given, withsoloists experimenting with every dance form imaginable. De Mille remembers,we were out remodel our entire craft there were no rules we struck sparksfrom one another (12). For five years De Mille taught herself to choreograph,but she was trying to learn to compose dances, not pantomimes, nor dramaticstories, nor character studies, but planned sequences of sustained movementwhich would be original and compelling (13). She viewed dance as a seriousart form and wanted to choreograph dances that would present it as such, butwith barely any formal training behind her she found this very difficult.After disastrously choreographing Flying Colours De Mille and her mothermoved to Londo n where, as in New York, she choreographed and danced in her ownrecitals to critical acclaim but with no financial gain. At one recital though,Marie Rambert and Arnold Haskell were amongst the audience and were impressedenough to ask her to stay in London to continue her recitals and be taught atThe Ballet Club. Itwas at The Ballet Club that De Mille met Anthony Tudor and Fredrick Ashton,both of whom would go on to become important choreographers and who, with her,would revolutionise the dance world. In 1933 she choreographed the dances forCharles B. Cochrans Nymph Errant in London but during the thirties DeMille returned to America several times, dancing in her uncles production of Cleopatrain 1934 and choreographing Irving Thalburgs film-version of Romeo andJuliet. On the latter project she had to endure her dances being cut topieces as the camera cut out most of the group work and showed only snippets ofthe rest. The custom at the time was not to show a whole dance but to providelight entertainment with cuttings of dances. OnHooray for What De Mille came up against the type of men that insisteddancers were hired for their sex appeal and that dances were performed to sellsex. These were the sort of men that were keeping dance from becoming aserious, important art form and that issued it with only a decorative functionin theatre and films. The management wanted the girls exposed as much aspossible, face front always, bosom bared, legs just visible to the waist, DeMille recalls (14). As she refused to conform exactly, wanting her owncreative input, she was fired with one word, before her choreography was rippedto shreds. Without the security of Equity many of the dancers and actors werefired without warning as the Business Manager exacted his vision of abosoms-and-legs chorus-line extravaganza. At this time on Broadway dances, attheir best, were slick and well-formed, but with no great moments of dramaticrevelation (15). When De Mille returned to Broadway some years later she wasto dramatically change thi s notion. In1940 Ballet Theatre was formed and De Mille was invited to become one of thechoreographers, on the understanding that she was not to dance herself. It wasa highly creative time for De Mille and she was able to work with some of thefinest dancers and choreographers of the time. It was at Ballet Theatre thatDe Mille created her first ballet, Black Ritual, a controversial piecewith black dancers; the first time this had ever been attempted by a seriousballet company. Having had only brief and frenzied flurries with commercialtroupes of mixed prostitutes and chorus dancers she had not had the experienceof setting a schedule of choreographing and rehearsing and was extremelynervous. Her dancers did not help matters by being consistently late and byarriving unprepared. The ballet was not received well but shortly after shewas hired by a successful booking manager for a national tour. De Mille andher dancers prepared for the tour through blood, sweat and tears but it was atotal success, a nd De Mille discovered something vital: although the managersmay not, the public liked and appreciated her work. Notlong after returning to New York, De Mille was asked by Ballet Theatre tocreate Three Virgins and a Devil, which was a huge hit and dÃÆ'Â ©buted theyoung Jerome Robbins. In 1942 she was commissioned to create a ballet for theBallet Russe de Monte Carlo. She extended a piece she had partly choreographedyears earlier, and Rodeo was the result. The ballet formed the basisfor a uniquely American dance style, using folk themes, tap dance andenergetic, fast-paced movements, capturing the essence of a cowboys manner.Teaching male dancers who were used to the precision and elegance of balletproved to be difficult so De Mille resorted to acting lessons to help herdancers find their characters. She wanted them to be cowboys; shewanted them to communicate dramatic meaning. Come opening night they wereprepared and the audience adored them. De Mille had created an entirely newand exciting dance style; it was the first of its kind, and the moment wasquick with birth (16). De Mille successfull y turned ballet into musicalcomedy, and gave the form real energy and gusto, with movements never beforeseen in this very precise of dance forms. Wehad breached the bulwarks De Mille exclaims in Dance to the Piper (17).She, with a few choreographers before her, had created a new tradition, onewith a different root impulse to traditional ballet. She asserts that tocreate a style that truly differs from ballet one must base that style onanother technique. De Mille integrated folk dances into her work, withoutlowering the performances to comedy caricatures. Her work, like that of fellowchoreographer Anthony Tudor, conveyed theatrical meaning through dance steps;the line between actor and dancer was blurred. Rather than dancers usingtraditional technique and performing well-known steps, where the human bodiesare used merely as units of design, grouped, lumped, and directed intopredetermined masses, De Mille strove for originality and dramaticcommunication in her choreography. She writes of Tudors work; Tudordeveloped the story-telling quality of his choreography to such a degree thateach gesture, formed out of the emotional components of the moment, is almostas explicit as though the dancers spoke. The new choreography does not arrangeold steps into new patterns; the emotion evolves steps, gestures, and rhythms. (18) Reading De Millesexplanation of her method for creating dance in Dance to the Piper, oneis reminded of a director beginning to stage a play. She spends much time oncharacterisation; finding the right gestures and stance for each character actsas a stimulus for the choreographic process (19). De Mille did not createimpersonal dancers but characters acting out, through dance, a story. Fromthe success of Rodeo, as well as for its all-American style and theme,De Mille was asked by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein to choreographdances for their new production, Oklahoma! De Mille knew the projectwas going to be difficult as, unlike ballet where the choreographer is themaster and ruler of the show, many elements other than dance contribute to formmusical theatre. The performers must take direction from the director, thecomposer, the author of the book, and the producer. The dance director gotlittle say in the arrangement. Singing and acting were the main components inmusical theatre at the time; dance was merely for decoration. When casting thedancers, De Mille insisted on talent and personality, Rodgers wanted faces,although his idea of a face had frequently to do with the character in it,but Mamoulian, the director, wanted slim legs above all (20). It was assumedthat the public, also, were far more interested in the singing and the dramathan the dancing. The num bers of dances were therefore limited. De Milleinsisted, however, that every dancer was hired for just one reason that heor she was the best available performer for the role (21). She did not cavein to the whim of the director; she wanted her dancers to be seriousprofessionals, and Rodgers agreed. Once, during rehearsals, a note was playedout of tune and one of the chorus faces winced with pain, but it was notannoyance or amusement, it was agonised concern. When Rodgers saw herexpression one he had never seen cross a chorus girls face he realisedthat responsible artists had entered the ranks (22). The chorus dancers wereno longer pretty faces, good legs but nothing between the ears; everyperformer, including the dancers, knew their craft. Another difficulty DeMille would have was that the dances would have to be created from the impetusof the book, they would have to build the authors line and develop his action(23), rather than being created from scratch from characters develope d by her.De Mille was also faced with the problem of swiftly travelling from dialogue,to song, to dance, and back to dialogue again without it looking farcical. Asthe choreographer she was going to have to learn surgery, to graft and splice(23). DeMille achieved all this and more. She succeeded in elevating her role aschoreographer to that of equal importance with the playwright, the composer andthe lyricist, and she did what no choreographer had successfully done before -she integrated the ballets into the story. Her dancers were not merelydecoration but characters, and she worked with them to achieve depth ofcharacter, motivation and emotion. Dancers could no longer project theirpersonal response to a piece of music. They needed to move as the charactersthey were portraying. Their reactions, their facial expressions, all needed tofurther the audiences understanding of their character. This requiredin-depth script readings and analysis of character motivations, just as adirector would insist on for his or her actors. De Mille realised that this canreally help the dancer. Whereas in ballet the dancer has to rely on what theyfeel to give the dance energy and dynamism, they now had the singing and actingto give them background and motivation to help give their dancing, as thesecharacters, expressive movement (24). If the role of dance in Oklahoma!was to communicate dramatic meaning to the audience, and to further the plot,the dancer had to become the character, and know it inside-out. AsDe Mille herself notes, it was Anthony Tudor who first shocked audiences intoviewing a ballet dancer as an individual capable of dramatic communicationthrough her body, by clothing them in long Edwardian dresses (25). No longerwas the ballet dancer the stylised, typical image that made it acceptable forwomen to bare their legs and arms and wrap their limbs around a man. She wasnow familiar; like their mothers and aunties. They could now communicate humantruths and take part in the telling of a story. Dressed as the characters of aSouth-western town, rather than tights and a tutu, the audience was able to seethe dancers as humans with a story to tell. Thecrowning glory of De Milles choreography on Oklahoma! was without doubtthe dream-ballet which occurs at the end of Act 1. With this De Milleexperimented with something entirely new in musical theatre, and for many yearsto come barely a musical was made without it containing a dream ballet. Inthis extended ballet Laurie acts out her quandary through dance; a highlyimaginative method of moving the story forward. Dance was inextricably boundto the plot of the musical. Whereas in previous musicals dance was merely aside entertainment and could be cut without the story losing any of itsmeaning, one could not take the dream ballet out of Oklahoma! withoutruining the plot. By using dance the thoughts and feelings in the mind and theheart of Laurie could be conveyed and explored far more effectively thanthrough straight dialogue. The dances were intended to strengthen theaudiences understanding of the characters and further the plot, as well ascomplement the lyrics and the dialogue, and i t worked. Now, as well as singingand acting, dancing added to the dramatic impact of the musical on theaudience. AsKislan notes, dance also adds to the important theme of open space in Oklahoma.It is the guiding metaphor for the promise of the American Dream and thelimitless opportunities for the brand new state the lovers are destined tolive in (26). The audience is always aware of the physical space on stage asthe dancers never seem crowded, no matter how many occupy the space. In thedream ballet Curly lifts Laurie up in the air, reaching for the sky, and theballetic style danced in constantly opens the body up, extending arms and legsto give the impression of limitless space. In Dance to the Piper DeMille writes of the sense of space ballet dancers work with; Every joint andsinew is pulled long, the arms are wide and free the stretching up and out,the liberating jump, the racing over and away from the earth (27). Thefeeling of space conveyed on stage through dance complements the songs, withlyrics such as plenty of room to swing a rope/plenty of heart and plenty ofhope (28). Atlast dance as more than an accessory, but as a serious art form, had arrivedonto the popular stage, and the audience were roaring. They were howling.People hadnt seen girls and boys dance like this in so long. Of course, theyhad been dancing like this, but not just where this audience could see them(29). Perhaps the most important accomplishment for dance in Oklahoma!was that De Mille was a choreographer on the show, not a dance director. Thedifference being that dance directors worked for audience approval;choreographers work for audience enlightenment (30). Her dances were integralto the story they added and enlightened rather than decorated. This was anew role for dance in musical theatre. DeMille went on to choreograph the dances for many more Broadway musicals in the1940s and 1950s, including One Touch of Venus in 1943, Carousel in 1945, Brigadoon in1947, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1949, and Paint Your Wagon in1951. Tally-Ho(1944) and FallRiver Legend (1948) provided her with the opportunity to further herrevolutionary style. She continued to cast dancers that were skilled at projectingcharacter as well as performing the correct steps. Kislan records that dancersthat worked with De Mille have testified to her fantastic ability to sense eventhe smallest dramatic quality in their dancing, and, together, manage to set itfree and integrate it into the choreography so that the dance is alwaysexpressive of the drama (31). De Mille was still responsible to the director, the lyricist andthe author of the book though. Her choreography had to fit the other elementsof the musical, and dance was often of secondary importance to those elements.Choreographers such as Jerome Robbins were to change the role of thechoreographer, and thus the role of dance in musical theatre, forever. Banishedwas the mindless aesthetics that enslaved dance to the colossal, opulent, andlavish needs of the producer, the star, or the specialty act (32). Dance wasto be given the highest status of the production. The choreographer was torule the show. Indeed, the choreographer would no longer be merely the dancecreator, but the director-choreographer; the dance-director follows, thechoreographer adapts, but the director-choreographer leads (32). JeromeRobbins was a pioneer of this change in status for the role of dance in musicaltheatre. Jerome Robbins Robbinswas born into a devoutly Jewish family in 1918, but resented being Jewish, withits conservatism and old ways. His large family, however, provided him withmany theatrical contacts and influences. His uncle, Jack Silverman, startedout as a ballroom dancer with the two men he was living with, Bing Crosby andGeorge Raft. Edward G. Robinson was also related, and another of Robbinsuncles, Daniel Davenport, owned a chain of vaudeville and burlesque theatres.Davenports father and his brother performed on the vaudeville circuit underthe name of the Davenport Brothers, staging acrobatic acts. It is to this partof the family that Robbins owes his zest for vaudeville-comedy. Robbinsparents ensured that both their children were educated in the arts, and this iswhere Jerome shone. He saw it as an escape route, a way by which he could haveaccess to the possibilities which lay beyond his community; When I was a childart seemed like a tunnel to me. At the end of that tunnel, I could see lightwhere the world opened up, waiting for me (33). Both he and his sister,Sonia, were strongly encouraged by their mother to aspire to the stage. Soniatook dance lessons and Jerome music lessons, and by the time he was three and ahalf he was composing pieces and giving recitals on the piano. Indeed, heexcelled in anything creative that he tried, but admitted that this wasbecause, the only world that was really exciting for me was the world in whichI could make believe that things were not the way they were (33). The worldof musical theatre was therefore the perfect world for him, later, to live in. Robbinshad to keep his love of dance a secret from his parents, especially his father,and his school friends, who were all into sports. As his sister danced her wayinto the spotlight Jerome was left practicing in private, often with the helpof Sonia. At the Weehawken schools he attended Robbins performed in manyschool plays, but it was at his summer camps that he fell in love with Gilbertand Sullivan musicals, and played the comic leads in HMS Pinafore, TheMikado, and Pirates of Penzance. Jeromes knack for comedy was madeevident through his performances in these roles. A fellow camper latercommented, Jerry had a tremendous sense of humour in everything he did (34).He still kept his dancing a secret though. At one parents day at the camphowever, Robbins performed a dance on the table-tennis table and, as anothercamper remembers, had the adults in tears. Furthermore, This was a bigaudience and he was completely uninhibited (34). Robbinseventually took dance lessons with Sonias dance teacher in modern dance, theform that was the emerging trend in the Depression years of the 1930s, whenpeople wanted a dance form that could more readily express the social realismsof the time than could ballet. Jerome witnessed many pioneering greats of thedance stage, such as Martha Graham, Charles Weidman, and Doris Humphrey, but in1932 he was to meet the man he would later call his guru, Gluck Sandor (35).Sandor directed, choreographed and danced in many of the productions staged atthe Dance Centre, at which Sonia danced. He worked in vaudeville and onBroadway in the 1920s and was a tremendously expressive dancer, manipulatingevery gesture for dramatic effect, which was to a have profound influence onRobbins future work. As Robbins himself has cited, We dancers were taught toperform with the concentration of an actor (36). Anzia Kubicek, a dancer,remembers that Sandor, preferred to do things with a story line hisimagination w ould just go a mile a minute, and he worked with the bodies he hadto work with, which were sometimes very limited (37). Robbins would work withboth principles in his choreography, starting with a story from which hisdancers could develop their characters, and therefore their movements. Aftergraduating from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1935 Robbins entered New YorkUniversity to study Chemistry, but in his second year his fathers corsetbusiness was in danger of going bankrupt and he could no longer fullyfinancially support Jeromes education. Jerome was by this point desperate todrop out and follow his dream of becoming a professional dancer and, throughhis sister, he managed to successfully audition for an apprenticeship withSandors company. With the help of Sandor, Jerome convinced his parents tolet him try to make it as dancer, and he left the university. Sandor persuadedan unconvinced Robbins to concentrate on ballet rather than modern dance but itwasnt until he saw Alexandra Danilova perform with the Ballet Russes that Robbinsagreed that ballet held many opportunities for him. Jerome progressed quicklyand Sandor recognised him as a natural dancer, recalling years later; Oncehe saw something, he could do it backward. Before I would do a thing he had it.He could anticipate what was to come. He was sensitive and he was musical. (38) In1937 Robbins secured his first part in The Brothers Ashkenazi, whichintensified his passion for the theatre. Throughout its run he would practiceon the barre, much to the bewilderment of the Yiddish cast of the play. Hisfellow performers recall him constantly dancing (39). After two years trainingat the Dance Centre, and having procured roles in various plays, Robbins leftthe company in search of more commercial work. He found work in the chorus ofa number of musicals which, in the thirties, were largely comic. AlthoughRobbins went on to choreograph and dance in such musicals, he also wanted totake the medium further, and use musical theatre as a vehicle for explorationinto the human psyche. He would later say, Musicals tend to be facetious. Noone has ever used them as a medium to depict deep personal struggle, and Ithink this can be done (40). He would go on to do just that. Aswell as his brief encounters with Broadway, in the summer of 1937 Robbins startedworking as part of the entertainment staff at Camp Tamiment, a summer job hewould have for five years. The resort played host to many up-and-comingtalents, such as Danny Kaye, Imogene Coca, and Carol Channing. It was avirtual breeding ground for musicians, comedians, singers and dancers. Robbinschoreographed and danced in many of the performances held in the social hall.It was a very creative atmosphere, with new productions performed every week.Max Lieberman, director of the entertainment program at Tamiment, strove forBroadway-quality pieces, and with only a week to create and rehearse each one,ideas had to flow. Robbins work was of two extremes; burlesque sketches onthe one hand and socially serious dramatic dances such as Strange Fruit andDeath of a Loyalist on the other. Some of his pieces were performed atthe 92nd Street YMHA, under the auspices of the Theatre ArtsCommittee, as well as in the Str aw Hat Revue, which Tamiment opened onBroadway in 1939. The revue was an amalgamation of many of the sketchesperformed at that summers camp but, due to the sensitive atmosphere followingthe outbreak of war in Europe, they were only allowed to include the comedysketches. Robbins suffered a huge blow to his ego when Jerome Andrews, who hadbeen brought in by the backers to supervise the dances, was given sole crediton the billing for the choreography. It did however give him a determinationto be wholly in charge of

Accounting Profession

The workload of the office is measured 2 In terms of actual clients; rather than attempting to measured the firm In terms of the billing hours or dollars. Two individual clients serviced by the firm illustrate the complexity of coordinating the activities within one local, targeted firm within the region. One client Is an independent 011 and gas entrepreneur that operates over an expanded region which may involve operations in multi-states when exploration is active. A second client is a construction company that has crews operating in four states on a weekly basis..The required accounting and tax documents (paperwork) ND information change exponentially with the addition or deletion of new clients to the existing client list. A concurrent change is that of administering a database to ERM the tell to manage the required coordination between separate accountants working independently but for the same client. The firm's workforce is made up of two partners, one non-partner associate an d various other hourly personnel. The firm currently operates offices in two locations within a single state.The CPA Firm (CPA) partners recognized within the past several years that a paper intensive environment ad resulted in a firm-wide system that was in danger of collapse. One of the two partners, the senior partner, was assigned the specific task of developing policies related to two interrelated purposes involving the use of technology: (1) to improve the management of the processes and work (data) flow within the firm's system and (2) to undertake strategic planning to insure the firm's continued growth and success by improving cost efficiencies through better usage of technology.The research group (authors of the study) used the results of an interview of a partner of a repressions law firm (in a parallel study) using the nine milestones recommended by the SEARCH (the National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics) during the literature review as a guide in dete rmining the strategic planning and implementation for a typical law firm within the Justice system in order to compare research results between two different, but similar, professional firms.The milestones permitted the research group to organize its findings in a manner that is consistent with other efforts within the Justice system (law firm) while also providing similar structure for a CPA that is governed by parallel expectations.However, since the law firm was a component of the Justice system the findings are grouped into fewer categories to allow the research group to structure the intent of the recommendations provided by SEARCH to a specific case study (of the CPA) regulated by professional, federal and state statutes/regulations to a professional law firm within a specific segment of the overall Judicial system yet regulated in a similar manner. Both types of professional firms have legal and ethical obligations to protect their clients' interests (manual and electronic do cuments, etc. 3 STRATEGIC DISASTER PLANNING The CPA notionally had a self-contained computer- based information system housed internally in one of the two branch offices of the firm. As growth of the client base grew and the firm expanded the firm added a part- time, consulting-in-nature IT support that continues today. Initially IT periodically backed up the firm's data on an infrequent basis that evolved into a routine practice over time. However, no firm backup policy or procedure existed; rather the IT staff simply implemented common sense and applied what experience had shown them was the service the firm needed.In short, simple use of backup tapes and disks as determined informally by the IT consultant as his time permitted. However, as the CPA continued to grow the partners began to informally create a plan for backup; however, the backup was still localized and stored at one of the firm's office where the primary IT operation was housed. The easy plan established and used wa s to store duplicate copies of computerized files in the same physical location where the master copies were located.Experience proved to be a lesson learned. The offices of the firm are located in an area of the U. S. That is prone to hurricanes. While the offices are not located on the coast hurricane damage NAS occurred within the elite to the firm and the original partners learned that offside storage of backup copies could prove to be a wise course of action in an area that has experienced hurricanes on a frequent basis. Thus a backup of computerized records with offside storage became the default plan for several years.The senior partner, upon being charged with the responsibility to improve the management of the processes and work (data) flow within the firm's system and to undertake strategic planning to insure the firm's intended growth and success by improving cost efficiencies through better usage of technology initiated planning by developing a firm wide identification o f technology needs, policies and procedures that would be necessary for the firm to successfully survive a natural disaster.This planning effort included charging the IT consultant with the responsibility to recommend changes in the computerized firm-wide system that would permit the daily backup of all databases and other files at remote sites including alternative network capabilities that could be used to resume email and there communication capabilities as quickly as possible if the main office location was down due to a natural disaster. The plan was to have alternatives that would permit the firm to resume and maintain operations from various sites within the U.S. If necessary. On no single date was the system to be backed up at only the main location by having the master and backup files physically located at the same system. The IT consultant recommendations were used by the senior partner to subsequently develop plans for the CPA which addressed the backup, relocation, secu rity, and covert in the areas of hardware, software, databases, and physical 4 structure or operational areas, and telecommunications-network links internal and external to the CPA.The IT staff was requested to provide the senior partner with suggested scenarios that would describe the cause and effect of actions (procedures) that the CPA should implement. Examples provided by the senior partner included the following: 0 Hardware – laptop computers were to be taken home (and subsequently to evacuation locations) by individuals the laptop was assigned to by the firm. All non-removable computers, etc. Were wrapped in heavy plastic for retention from wind and water damage (anything short of a direct destructive hit).The CPA buildings were to be secured to minimize the effect of wind and water debris and structural damage. 0 Software – All software programs, systems and applications, backed up and sent to offside locations in second firm office located another geographical region of the country. 0 Databases – all data backed up and copies moved to local and distant locations electronically and hardcopy. Two sets prepared and kept at two different locations locally and one set sent to an off-site location in Tennessee (and not in line for hurricane damage).Telecommunications- network – reviewed the backup contingency plans with vendor that was located in another geographic region to initial recovery efforts once the CPA and vendor could resume contact and after power and other utilities were restored. Partners of the CPA were obviously kept in the loop and were advised to carry identified hardware, software, and paper files to other locations (homes and perhaps subsequently to evacuation location areas outside to the disaster area). The partners supervised t transfer of items to the second CPA location (from one gulf coast state to an inland state overnight).August 26, 2005 the path of Hurricane Strain continued to indicate that the CPA likely would be within the projected landfall area and subsequent inland path of destruction. The increasing magnitude of the hurricane became obvious to the firm personnel and the disaster plan was set in motion. The plan identified those responsible for each of the planned areas of responsibility. When the decision was made by the partners-owners of the firm to implement the disaster plan there was approximately four hours remaining in the work week.CPA employees were already concerned for family and personal reporter and the firm began to allow employees to leave work early to tend to those needs. However, a core of employees – partners and one staff person remained to oversee the completion of disaster procedures. Who did what? When asked this question the senior partner stated that the partners did the activities related to insuring the hardware, software, databases, 5 telecommunication-network and structural preparations were completed as quickly as possible.He commente d that what most have to remember is that Hurricane Strain grew from a category 1 too category 4 or 5 within a very short timestamp. All disaster planning had been based on what disaster experiences in the past had shown would be probably. The IT consultant worked non-stop until the last items were relocated, secure, backed up and ended their efforts on Sunday, August 28th. The CPA partners at both locations dealt with the business end of the disaster plan implementation.Those tasks included : 0 Notifying clients and carriers the CPA was â€Å"battening down† and would be back in touch as soon as possible, 0 Arranging to have any imminent incoming checks re-routed to the off-site inland state location (for feet and operational banks), 0 Updating voice messages for the office, 0 Making final decisions about which paper (hard) copy file needed which level of protection (covered, uncovered, removed to another location, etc. , 0 Reviewing that all electronic (soft) copy were back ed up according to the plans to insure that copies were located in several locations locally and remote and the person responsible for each copy, Providing phone contact lists for all employees and giving out partner information to all employees (who had already been sent home to deal with personal and family assister preparations), and 0 Checking insurance policy coverage (and later following through [for example, business interruption insurance has been troublesome]).

The Unexplained Puzzle Into Samples on How to Write a Scholarship Essay

The Unexplained Puzzle Into Samples on How to Write a Scholarship Essay Whatever They Told You About Samples on How to Write a Scholarship Essay Is Dead Wrong...And Here's Why It is possible to also find many discounts on our site which will help you to save some more money for future orders or anything you want to spend them on. By applying the web, you can readily search decent scholarship essay samples. If you would like to fully grasp how to compose an essay for a scholarship, it would be prudent to begin from ordering an affordable custom writing help online. Investigating each of the opportunities on the internet can be overwhelming. The very first step to any essay writing is to choose a subject of interest. There are a number of ways to conclude your essay in an effective way. Possessing another man or woman reading the essay is crucial. Take your time to get ready for writing this essay. Let's explore a few ideas about what your essay headline may be. It's highly suggested that you outline an essay at first before finally writing its real content. Steer clear of rambling and be certain each topic contributes to the general essay. Then jump into the major subject of the essay. Therefore, in regards to writing scholarship application, it's crucial that you keep the focus on all the appropriate things and produce the superlative superior essay so you ensure that very best impression created. You don't need to possess the ideal writing skills to be able to be creative and compose an effective essay. You will also get to take a look at a couple of essay examples, together with a list of do's and don'ts that is likely to make the writing process even simpler for you. Moreover, one is a 500-word reply and the other one is a 1,000-word reaction. If you believe a specific word is appropriate for your essayuse it without doubt! It is tough to compose an ode to yourse lf, which means you can ask for a little writing assistance from people who know you well. While it can be difficult to motivate yourself to compose an essay rather than lying in sunlight, there's nonetheless a good reason to get yourself together. Bear in mind that the individual reading your essay would like to give out money. Samples on How to Write a Scholarship Essay - Overview Scholarship sponsors search for applicants with vision and motivation, so they may ask about your targets and aspirations. You should make an application for scholarships online. Therefore, awarding me the scholarship will help me to find the education essential to enhance the lives of the people whom I work for each day in my community based group in addition to in my field of public wellbeing. Guaranteed, there are several more scholarships to pick from. If no, you must learn to compose an essay for scholarship. Scholarship essays shouldn't be considered a burden since they are your gateway to land entrance into a prestigious university with plenty of benefits and perks that have the scholarship. A scholarship essay is a significant document which is used in the processes of scholarship application. You'll learn just what you want to do in order to create the ideal scholarship essay. A scholarship essayis part of ascholarship application. Anyway, the scholarship will give me the opportunity to advance my interpersonal skills at a greater level. Some scholarships will just request a statement of financial need. This $5,000 scholarship is provided each month. Samples on How to Write a Scholarship Essay - the Conspiracy Getting mindful of common essay mistakes and the way to repair them can help you produce an impressive scholarship essay. Having us to fix any of the issues which you may face when coming up with scholarship essay topics will be recommended for you. Absolutely free essays on there's no place like home get assistance with your writing 1 through 30. There's a higher probability of the scholarship committee throwing the essay paper in case it doesn't concentrate on the subject. There are not many main tactics to make your scholarship essay conclusion. There are various ways to begin an essay and all you have to do is to use one that can offer the most positive impact to the folks who will review your scholarship essay. An additional thing to discuss to fully grasp how to compose a personal essay for scholarships is the topics to pick from. As you think about exactly how to compose a college scholarship essay understanding the format is quite crucial. The ending of your scholarship application essay has become the most significant part the piece. The scholarship essay examples shared here are an exceptional plan in telling you the way to write the ideal scholarship essay. Also, there ought to be a scholarship essay outline.

The Unexplained Puzzle Into Samples on How to Write a Scholarship Essay

The Unexplained Puzzle Into Samples on How to Write a Scholarship Essay Whatever They Told You About Samples on How to Write a Scholarship Essay Is Dead Wrong...And Here's Why It is possible to also find many discounts on our site which will help you to save some more money for future orders or anything you want to spend them on. By applying the web, you can readily search decent scholarship essay samples. If you would like to fully grasp how to compose an essay for a scholarship, it would be prudent to begin from ordering an affordable custom writing help online. Investigating each of the opportunities on the internet can be overwhelming. The very first step to any essay writing is to choose a subject of interest. There are a number of ways to conclude your essay in an effective way. Possessing another man or woman reading the essay is crucial. Take your time to get ready for writing this essay. Let's explore a few ideas about what your essay headline may be. It's highly suggested that you outline an essay at first before finally writing its real content. Steer clear of rambling and be certain each topic contributes to the general essay. Then jump into the major subject of the essay. Therefore, in regards to writing scholarship application, it's crucial that you keep the focus on all the appropriate things and produce the superlative superior essay so you ensure that very best impression created. You don't need to possess the ideal writing skills to be able to be creative and compose an effective essay. You will also get to take a look at a couple of essay examples, together with a list of do's and don'ts that is likely to make the writing process even simpler for you. Moreover, one is a 500-word reply and the other one is a 1,000-word reaction. If you believe a specific word is appropriate for your essayuse it without doubt! It is tough to compose an ode to yourse lf, which means you can ask for a little writing assistance from people who know you well. While it can be difficult to motivate yourself to compose an essay rather than lying in sunlight, there's nonetheless a good reason to get yourself together. Bear in mind that the individual reading your essay would like to give out money. Samples on How to Write a Scholarship Essay - Overview Scholarship sponsors search for applicants with vision and motivation, so they may ask about your targets and aspirations. You should make an application for scholarships online. Therefore, awarding me the scholarship will help me to find the education essential to enhance the lives of the people whom I work for each day in my community based group in addition to in my field of public wellbeing. Guaranteed, there are several more scholarships to pick from. If no, you must learn to compose an essay for scholarship. Scholarship essays shouldn't be considered a burden since they are your gateway to land entrance into a prestigious university with plenty of benefits and perks that have the scholarship. A scholarship essay is a significant document which is used in the processes of scholarship application. You'll learn just what you want to do in order to create the ideal scholarship essay. A scholarship essayis part of ascholarship application. Anyway, the scholarship will give me the opportunity to advance my interpersonal skills at a greater level. Some scholarships will just request a statement of financial need. This $5,000 scholarship is provided each month. Samples on How to Write a Scholarship Essay - the Conspiracy Getting mindful of common essay mistakes and the way to repair them can help you produce an impressive scholarship essay. Having us to fix any of the issues which you may face when coming up with scholarship essay topics will be recommended for you. Absolutely free essays on there's no place like home get assistance with your writing 1 through 30. There's a higher probability of the scholarship committee throwing the essay paper in case it doesn't concentrate on the subject. There are not many main tactics to make your scholarship essay conclusion. There are various ways to begin an essay and all you have to do is to use one that can offer the most positive impact to the folks who will review your scholarship essay. An additional thing to discuss to fully grasp how to compose a personal essay for scholarships is the topics to pick from. As you think about exactly how to compose a college scholarship essay understanding the format is quite crucial. The ending of your scholarship application essay has become the most significant part the piece. The scholarship essay examples shared here are an exceptional plan in telling you the way to write the ideal scholarship essay. Also, there ought to be a scholarship essay outline.

The Unexplained Puzzle Into Samples on How to Write a Scholarship Essay

The Unexplained Puzzle Into Samples on How to Write a Scholarship Essay Whatever They Told You About Samples on How to Write a Scholarship Essay Is Dead Wrong...And Here's Why It is possible to also find many discounts on our site which will help you to save some more money for future orders or anything you want to spend them on. By applying the web, you can readily search decent scholarship essay samples. If you would like to fully grasp how to compose an essay for a scholarship, it would be prudent to begin from ordering an affordable custom writing help online. Investigating each of the opportunities on the internet can be overwhelming. The very first step to any essay writing is to choose a subject of interest. There are a number of ways to conclude your essay in an effective way. Possessing another man or woman reading the essay is crucial. Take your time to get ready for writing this essay. Let's explore a few ideas about what your essay headline may be. It's highly suggested that you outline an essay at first before finally writing its real content. Steer clear of rambling and be certain each topic contributes to the general essay. Then jump into the major subject of the essay. Therefore, in regards to writing scholarship application, it's crucial that you keep the focus on all the appropriate things and produce the superlative superior essay so you ensure that very best impression created. You don't need to possess the ideal writing skills to be able to be creative and compose an effective essay. You will also get to take a look at a couple of essay examples, together with a list of do's and don'ts that is likely to make the writing process even simpler for you. Moreover, one is a 500-word reply and the other one is a 1,000-word reaction. If you believe a specific word is appropriate for your essayuse it without doubt! It is tough to compose an ode to yourse lf, which means you can ask for a little writing assistance from people who know you well. While it can be difficult to motivate yourself to compose an essay rather than lying in sunlight, there's nonetheless a good reason to get yourself together. Bear in mind that the individual reading your essay would like to give out money. Samples on How to Write a Scholarship Essay - Overview Scholarship sponsors search for applicants with vision and motivation, so they may ask about your targets and aspirations. You should make an application for scholarships online. Therefore, awarding me the scholarship will help me to find the education essential to enhance the lives of the people whom I work for each day in my community based group in addition to in my field of public wellbeing. Guaranteed, there are several more scholarships to pick from. If no, you must learn to compose an essay for scholarship. Scholarship essays shouldn't be considered a burden since they are your gateway to land entrance into a prestigious university with plenty of benefits and perks that have the scholarship. A scholarship essay is a significant document which is used in the processes of scholarship application. You'll learn just what you want to do in order to create the ideal scholarship essay. A scholarship essayis part of ascholarship application. Anyway, the scholarship will give me the opportunity to advance my interpersonal skills at a greater level. Some scholarships will just request a statement of financial need. This $5,000 scholarship is provided each month. Samples on How to Write a Scholarship Essay - the Conspiracy Getting mindful of common essay mistakes and the way to repair them can help you produce an impressive scholarship essay. Having us to fix any of the issues which you may face when coming up with scholarship essay topics will be recommended for you. Absolutely free essays on there's no place like home get assistance with your writing 1 through 30. There's a higher probability of the scholarship committee throwing the essay paper in case it doesn't concentrate on the subject. There are not many main tactics to make your scholarship essay conclusion. There are various ways to begin an essay and all you have to do is to use one that can offer the most positive impact to the folks who will review your scholarship essay. An additional thing to discuss to fully grasp how to compose a personal essay for scholarships is the topics to pick from. As you think about exactly how to compose a college scholarship essay understanding the format is quite crucial. The ending of your scholarship application essay has become the most significant part the piece. The scholarship essay examples shared here are an exceptional plan in telling you the way to write the ideal scholarship essay. Also, there ought to be a scholarship essay outline.

Fluency in Speech and Writing Definition and Examples

In composition, fluency is  a general term for the clear, smooth, and seemingly effortless use of language in writing or speech. Contrast this with dysfluency. Syntactic fluency (also known as syntactic maturity or syntactic complexity) refers to the ability to manipulate a variety of sentence structures effectively. Etymology:  From the Latin fluere, to flow Commentary In Rhetoric and Composition: An Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 2010), Steven Lynn presents some illustrative activities that research or direct experience or compelling anecdotal evidence indicates can help students to improve their stylistic fluency and general writing ability. These activities include the following: - Write often, and write all sorts of different kinds of things for different audiences.- Read, read, read.- Nurture students awareness of the effects of stylistic choices.- Explore various approaches to characterizing style.- Try Sentence Combining and Erasmuss copiousness.- Imitation--its not just for sincere flattery.- Practice revision strategies, creating tighter, brighter, and sharper prose. Types of Fluency Syntactic fluency is  the ease with which speakers construct complex sentences containing linguistically complex structures. Pragmatic fluency refers to both knowing and demonstrating what one wants to say within and in response to a variety  of situational constraints. Phonologic fluency refers to the ease of producing long and complex strings of sounds within  meaningful and complex language units.  (David Allen Shapiro, Stuttering Intervention. Pro-Ed, 1999) Beyond the Basics By providing non-threatening but challenging writing experiences for [students], we are enabling them to develop confidence in the writing abilities they already have as they demonstrate--for self as well as a teacher--the syntactic fluency they have been developing through a lifetime of using and listening to their native tongue. Very few if any of them could explain that they are putting words together in the patterns that create meaning; and as they fill the empty pages, they would be unable to name the kinds of verbal constructs theyre using to express their thoughts. But they are indeed demonstrating that they have already mastered the basic grammatical structures they need for writing. And the writing were asking them to do is enabling them to develop more fluency. (Lou Kelly, One-on-One, Iowa City Style: Fifty Years of Individualized Writing Instruction. Landmark Essays on Writing Centers, ed. by Christina Murphy and Joe Law. Hermagoras Press, 1995) Measuring Syntactic Fluency [W]e might reasonably infer that good writers, expert writers, mature writers have mastered the syntax of their language and have at their disposal a large repertoire of syntactic forms, especially those forms we associate with longer clauses, which we can recognize simply by their length, or denser sentences, which we can measure using the T-unit, an independent clause and all related subordination. However, the question that immediately comes to mind is this: Are longer and denser sentences always better, more mature? Can we necessarily infer that a writer who uses longer or more complex syntax in any given case is a better or more mature writer than one who does not? There is good reason to think that this inference maybe misguided...[A]lthough syntactic fluency may be a necessary part of what we mean by writing ability, it cannot be the only or even the most important part of that ability. Expert writers may have an excellent grasp of the language, but they still need to know wha t they are talking about, and they must still need to know how to apply what they know in any given case. Although expert writers may be syntactically fluent, they must be able to apply that fluency using different genres in different situations: different genres and different situations, even different purposes, call for different kinds of language. The test of writers syntactic fluency can be only whether they adapt their repertoire of structures and techniques to the demands of a particular purpose in a particular context. This means that although syntactic fluency may very well be a general skill that all expert writers share, the only way we can actually know the degree to which a given writer has that ability is to ask that writer to perform in different genres in a variety of circumstances.​  (David W Smit, The End of Composition Studies. Southern Illinois University  Press, 2004)