Boston Conservatory Launches Five-Year Collaboration With The Verdon Fosse Legacy

This fall, Boston Conservatory at Berklee joins forces with The Verdon Fosse Legacy in a five-year artistic and educational collaboration. 

Founded by Nicole Fosse, daughter of dance icons Gwen Verdon and Bob Fosse, The Verdon Fosse Legacy was created to preserve and share her parents’ groundbreaking work. “Educating the next generation is imperative to the continuation of this legacy,” she said in a recent press release. 

Boston Conservatory’s Dance Division will host The Verdon Fosse Legacy in residency twice a year to reconstruct Fosse masterworks—once during the fall semester for the commercial dance BFA program, and again during the spring semester for the contemporary dance BFA program.        

“Partnering with a program as well-respected as Boston Conservatory gives us unprecedented access to some of the most talented young artists in the country. These students are versatile, curious, and hungry for the kind of layered, expressive training that Fosse’s work demands,” said executive director Noah Fosse in the press release. “This partnership is vital not just for preservation, but for the evolution of the work itself.”

Fosse’s game-changing choreography—seen in Cabaret, Chicago, Pippin, and Sweet Charity—made him one of the most influential figures in the field of jazz dance in the 20th century. He is also the only individual in history to win the triple crown—an Oscar, a Tony, and an Emmy, all in the same year. Gwen Verdon won four Tony Awards for her performances in classic Broadway musicals and served as an uncredited choreography assistant for many theater and film productions, including Gene Kelly’s Singin’ in the Rain. The Verdon Fosse Legacy educational residency program carries this same philosophy forward, emphasizing dance technique along with the integration of acting, voice, and deep character. 

“The Verdon Fosse Legacy partnership is an absolutely thrilling next move for the Dance Division that will immerse students in a distinct choreographic style that forever left its mark on dance and theater,” added Boston Conservatory at Berklee executive director, Michael Shinn. “I can’t wait to see where it takes us.”