Tapas Das in Blogs

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.”

Mimi Quillin teaching. Photo by Johanna Snow, courtesy Boston Conservatory.

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.”

Tapas Das: Tapas Das, a young entrepreneur of our times started TWIST N TURNS in 2005. A person who is kind, generous, creative and down to earth wanted to start his own one of a kind dance academy. According to him, Dance is a language of movements that involves space, time and the human body. He was born and grew up in Kolkata, the cultural hub of India. Being appreciated in the field of dance all his life, he is extremely talented. He has been dancing since the age of four. Once he finished his high school, he learned jazz/modern and contemporary dance. His horizons were broadened even more when he started dancing Bollywood with Beat Busters for 4 years, which then was the most upcoming dance crew in Kolkata. After that exposure, he studied how to be a dance teacher, which later started helping him impart his knowledge about dance. Thus, in 2005, with the help of family and friends, he started TWIST N TURNS. Starting with a mere number of 40 students, today TWIST N TURNS currently has over 500 students. Over the time Tapas has taught and performed all over the country. He has performed in cities such as Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Jhansi, Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Udaipur etc. He has been an active participant in the Salsa India Congress in the cities of Bangalore and Bombay, and he has also visited various International Salsa Congresses in Europe, namely in Berlin ,Singapore, Hong Kong,Dubai. He is been also trained recently at Broadway Dance Center (New York), Alvin Alley (New York) and Steps on Broadway (New York). He is not only a dancer or teacher. He is a successful choreographer and has coordinated various shows without difficulty in our country. His leadership skills are exceptional, thus he is where he stands today. His aim in life would be to become a dance educator. He wants to share his tremendous knowledge in the right way to the right people. He is also, simultaneously running other brands like Zumba Kolkata, Bollywood Studio ArtistWala.com and India International Dance Institute.