Students at Boston Conservatory say it is a "dream come true" to learn rare dance style

Students enrolled at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee are learning the unmistakable style of Bob Fosse. The work is part of a five-year partnership with The Verdon Fosse Legacy, founded by Gwen Verdon and Bobbe Fosse's daughter, Nicole.

The Legacy works to preserve the groundbreaking work of the dance legends.

Tommy Neblett, the Dean of Dance, explained the choreography involves "lots of hips, lots of shoulders, lots of Internal movements. It's very subtle, but it's incredibly powerful."

Both commercial and contemporary dance majors at the school are learning the intricate movement, thanks to reconstructionist Alyssa Epstein and Mimi Quillin.

Quillen explained, "It really is movement that you have to use your acting chops in order to do properly," with Epstein adding, "We always want to create these beautiful shapes. It's not just about steps. It's about how high you can kick your leg or how many turns you can do. It's about creating really beautiful images that will create an emotion in someone."

Neblett said that the young performers jumped at the chance to learn. 

"Students are thrilled and excited beyond belief that they get to do this, because very few people get to do Fosse anymore," Neblett.

Senior contemporary dance major Chloe Waser is taking it all in. 

"This is absolutely my dream come true. I worked with the Verdon Fosse Legacy two summers ago. I trained with them for six weeks in their professional training program," Waser said. 

There are about 20 students participating in the spring residency.

"They're such hard workers," said Epstein. "I remember I can see myself in them being in the studio and wanting it and wanting to learn it and just absorb as much as I can. So it makes my job so much easier when there are such willing participants and so incredibly talented. "

 Quillin and Epstein know that honoring the past, while looking towards the future, goes beyond Verdon and Fosse's dance steps.

"The way they worked is most important," explained Quillin. "And that it goes forward into making more choreography because we can't keep reaching back. We can reach back for information, but we want to go forward."

"Because performing this work is incredibly special and not everybody gets the opportunity to do it. And I think it's rare sometimes that you feel you can be authentically yourself on stage," said Epstein.

Wasser told WBZ-TV, "I hope I have the opportunity to keep experiencing it and dancing it and loving it forever."

You can see the Fosse performance by the contemporary dance students at "Limitless," the spring dance concert at the Boston Conservatory Theater, April 23rd through the 26th.