Jazz History - Dance 1 Ms.Yarter

Jazz can: ● express the pulse of society while expressing the longings of an individual. ● be anything from modern, to tap, to hip hop, to theatrical dance, to contemporary ● be used to train individual dancers for the concert and commercial stage. ● provide an outlet for recreational dancers who want to physically emote their joys and pain, hopes and sorrow and all feelings expressively.

Evolution of Jazz Dance: Jazz has undergone myriad changes throughout its short existence, evolving a variety of techniques to express many moods in a wide range of styles. Though jazz has African and European traditions, jazz dance is strictly an American creation--a twentieth-century invention that personifies the social, technological, and visual history of popular American culture.

Evolution of Jazz Dance Jazz music and dance began together at the beginning of the 20th century in a lower-class neighborhood, District Storyville, in New Orleans. The rhythmical nature became popular, first in the Southern U.S. and then migrated to Northern cities, by the 1920s. These energetic art forms helped to add the environment of the Roaring Twenties.

Evolution of Jazz Dance: During the Depression dance was performed at dance halls, parties, vaudeville stages and on Broadway. Much of the dancing was imitative of social dancing and was criticized for not being of artistic value. Jazz of this time was improvisational and allowed the individual to be moved by the music’s syncopation.

Evolution of Jazz Dance: During WWII, jazz music evolved into what is called bebop, which expanded upon many of the improvisational elements of the swing era. Jazz in performance seemed to fade temporarily while ballet and modern dance began to win popularity. Dance was slowly becoming a vehicle for change and revolt.

Evolution of Jazz Dance: Throughout the middle of the 20th century, choreographers from modern and ballet dance began to create a style that required dancers to be professionally trained, many times in a specific technique. This style was often called theatrical or modern jazz. The importance of the dancer’s ability to imitate movements set by the choreographer became more important than the dancer’s improvisational skills.

Evolution of Jazz Dance: At the same time, many choreographers were creating pieces that could be categorized as jazz, but influenced more by ballet and modern techniques. Dancers needed to be able to quickly catch on to the hodge-podge of dance that jazz had become, as the importance of improvisation had veered to imitation,. Many varieties of techniques existed, and modern jazz dance was wildly popular, and covered many different areas of influence from ballet, jazz, ethnic dancing, and modern.

Evolution of Jazz Dance: Though it served as an important jazz hub, New York City was not the sole mecca for jazz dancing. Hollywood provided work for many dancers in the film industry.

Jazz Timeline: ● ● ● ●

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Early 1900s - Beginnings of jazz music and dance 1920s - Jazz dance has moved to the North 1930s - Dance is used as entertainment and social value, not as an art. 1935-1960s - Choreographers from the ballet and modern dance worlds created a very demanding offshoot of jazz dance that surpassed the technical skills of the average person and required instead a trained dancer. 1940s - Bebop age of jazz, which included swing. On Broadway, jazz dance that was derived from social styles vanished with the emerging popularity of ballet and modern dance. 1950s - Jazz dance was “in” and could be found at almost every dance studio Mid-1900s - Theatrical/modern jazz reigned, emphasizing technical skills. This style of dance is still what we consider to be jazz today. Skills hold a precedence over the improvisational skills of the dancer.

Dancers & Choreographers: Joe Frisco was one of the most influential dancers of the vaudevill age. His style of dance was a series of shuffles, camel walks, and turns, and he incorporated stand-up comedy into his act.

Dancers & Choreographers: Jack Cole was a Broadway and film choreographer, trained at Denishawn, he taught classes in East Indian and other ethnic dance forms while also doing Lindy. His technique includes the ‘theatre dancing’ that appeared in his musicals.

Dancers & Choreographers: Kathrine Dunham took the essence of Caribbean traditional dance and made it into a performing art.

Dancers & Choreographers: Bob Fosse began as a choreographer with his “Steam Heat” in The Pajama Game, which created a demand for classes in his style of Broadway modern jazz. Unable to conform as a young dancer to the rigid positions of ballet, Fosse incorporated inward turned knees and hunched shoulders.

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