such as Bob Fosse and Michael Bennett. The debt was acknowledged
early on by Fosse, who in his nightclub days with Mary Niles used to
introduce their act with the quip: "You've heard of the Champions?
We're the runners up." Champion certainly understood his own value
to a show: He was the first director/choreographer to receive over-the-
title billing ("A Gower Champion Musical"). As John Simon observed,
he did "more than anyone to break down the barrier between the prose
of mere blocking and the poetry of dance." ¹

Champion's work melded two distinct modes of expression: the dance
team realm of the Castles and the Astaires, with its emphasis on inti-
macy, romantic lyricism and elegance, and the more boisterous jazz-
driven rhythms of Broadway and movie musical chorus dancing, as
exemplified by the choreography of Busby Berkeley. Like Berkeley (an
early idol of young Gower), Champion understood the appeal of youthful
vigor and charm tempered by the poise and sophistication of experience.
He also knew how to present stars, especially women, to best advantage.
His work with Carol Channing in Hello, Dolly! remains a masterpiece
in the art of creating a star's big moments.

Champion knew instinctively that what made musical theatre effective
was its unabashed and self-referential theatricality: it was about "num-
bers"--not as links between sequences of exposition, but as the central
architectural features of a show. Everything built to those spots where
music, dance, lighting, costumes and staging created a sustained narrative
and emotional flow through sound and motion rather than words. Hello,
Dolly! is a sequence of ever more elaborate and complex staging patterns
which unfold and flow seamlessly before the audience.

Herein lies one of the great misconceptions about Gower Champion's
style and its relation to the work of other Broadway dance innovators.
In an article written shortly after Champion's death, Frank Rich praises
him as the principal torchbearer of the Busby Berkeley school of spec-
tacle, but hesitates to place him in the first tier of director choreogra-
phers.

For all the commercial and critical success Mr. Champion achieved during
his lifetime, perhaps he was never fully appreciated on his own terms.
That may be because he was an anachronism. He was no innovator like
Jerome Robbins or Michael Bennett. He never created his own distinctive
choreographic style, like Bob Fosse. He didn't try to tackle daring subjects
like Hal Prince. ²

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