Jazz Dance Fact File

Jazz Dance Fact File What is jazz dance? Who brought jazz dance into the main-stream? Born in America at the beginning of the 20th century, jazz dance evolved Many modern dancers and choreographers - including people like Helen alongside jazz music. The style of jazz dance combines the spirit of Tamiris and Hanya Holm, modern dancers who crossed over into musical improvisation with the discipline of an applied technique in a style that theatre - have influenced how jazz dance evolved. They demanded better constantly redefines and reinvents itself. Jazz dance is seen on stages training for dancers working in these evolving styles. Even ballet and in movies, on streets and in clubs; it is taught in dance studios and choreographers like George Balanchine, who was the co-founder and researched at universities. Its history engages both the past and present. director of New York City Ballet, and Agnes De Mille, started integrating jazz movement material within ballet in Broadway musical work. This Where did it start? can be seen in productions including On Your Toes (1936) by Balanchine Jazz dance originates from the vernacular dances of Africans when they and de Mille’s added extended ballet in Oklahoma!, which actually help were brought over to the Americas on slave ships. Dancing and drums create the musical dance-drama form. This blending of ballet with jazz were banned for African slaves. As a result, they found ways to express movement paved the way for choreographers such as Jerome Robbins, their feelings through dance and music in their daily lives. They used Katherine Dunham and Jack Cole, who in turn influenced the next period stamping and shuffling of bare feet alongside the clapping and patting of the evolution of jazz dance. of hands against their bodies to generate rhythm and movement. This movement material How did the style evolve into a technique? was small, accented Mid-1950s: Matt Mattox, a protégé of Jack Cole, began to teach jazz and felt from within classes in New York. the body. This was the beginning of • These classes used the structure of a ballet class as a model for the way both jazz music and the class was organised as Matt Mattox started to codify and classify the jazz dance. movements that he learned from Cole. • These exercises, steps and sequences evolved to emphasise an understand- ing of using isolations in the body together with a sharpened appreciation of co-ordination. The arms are often moving in one way, while the step pattern responds to another rhythm with the body performing isolations, developing a complex layer of movements within the body. Page 1 of 2 Jazz Dance Fact File • Mattox was the first to use the phrase ‘freestyle’ to describe his jazz style The key features of jazz dance because it allowed both the movement to be creative and have stylistic • Movements initiated and isolated to specific body parts, e.g. hips, shoulders choices, to be expressive but still show the shape of the evolving style, • Accented beats and syncopated rhythms especially alongside the music. • Downward stressed grounded movements 1954: Bob Fosse, the choreographer and film director, choreographed his • Sharp changes of direction and focus first musical. • Quick, short steps interspersed with long, smooth steps • It was called The Pajama Game. • Strong, sharp (percussive) contractions of the centre of body and other • It found success over a 30-year period on Broadway and in motion pictures. body parts, e.g. elbows • He had a distinct style. This was characterised by use of the pelvis. His • Use of still or held positions dancers used rounded shoulders to accentuate his style. The style uses • Emphasis on use of knees to give different qualities small arm and hand isolations and gestures, e.g. circling the fist. • Emphasis of medium level in space • It is now considered a classic theatrical jazz form. Jazz dance choreographers to look out for 1950s and 1960s: Two other prime • Alvin Ailey (1931–1989): modern dancer, choreographer, and director of movers in the development of jazz Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Credits include Revelations. dance were Ruth Walton and Gus • Bob Fosse (1927–1987): award-winning choreographer and director Giordano. Both were influenced who created a personal style for dance on Broadway and in film that is by modern dance techniques. studied by theatre-dance professionals worldwide. Credits include Pippin, Walton was influenced by the Chicago, and Dancin’. choreographer Martha Graham and Giordano by both Hanya Holm • Matt Mattox(1921–2013): disciple of Jack Cole. His technique emphasizes and Alwin Nikolais. Other modern the coordination of multiple body parts with polyrhythmic music. dance choreographers, like Daniel • Jerome Robbins (1918–1998): Academy Award–winning film director and Nagrin and Alvin Ailey, fused jazz choreographer; co-artistic director of New York City Ballet. He had an dance elements within their modern expansive career in classical ballet, contemporary and musical theatre dance. dance pieces, giving a new breadth Credits include The King and I, West Side Story, Gypsy, Fiddler on the Roof. to modern jazz pieces. • Brian Friedman (1977–): choreographer for such recording stars as Mýa and Britney Spears. Video credits include ‘My Love Is Like . .Wo’. Page 2 of 2.

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