Jump into Jazz
By Alison Moss
“Come on Babe, why don’t we paint the town?… And all that jazz…” If ballet is the foundation of our house of dance, jazz is the colorful, individualized paint on each wall of your home. Jazz dance emerged in the late 1800’s tied to African American roots and jazz music. The American Heritage dictionary describes it, “Any of the various dances characterized by the use of improvisation and influenced by rhythms and techniques of jazz music.” Whereas ballet is graceful and predictable, the dancer performs the step to the right side and then repeats it to the left side, jazz dance is syncopated and unexpected. In jazz dance, choreographers play with the downbeat and include moments of improvisation, where the dancers (like jazz musicians) spontaneously create their own movements playing off one another.
The beauty of jazz dance is that it’s forever changing with musical trends and each choreographer’s personality. If synthesized music is hot right now, the performances will follow suit, and if slow, sultry voices fill the airwaves, sinuous movement will fill the dance floor. It’s not unusual to see a mix of fast and slow movement inside of one choreographic piece. The footwork in jazz dance is what appeals to me most. When I teach my jazz classes and it’s time to go across the floor, I experiment with different levels and directions. Each student individualizes his or her own “high walk forward” with his or her personality. Some pretend they are famous movie stars, and others pretend they are preying cats in a jungle as they walk. A jazz dance class is also characterized by lots of parallel positions and plenty of leaps and turns. They all begin with a warm up that emphasizes isolations, moving only one body part at a time. For example, we might start moving only our head by looking side-to-side, lifting up and down, and rotating in circles. Each class ends with a cool down to catch your breath after all of those leaps and to return your heart rate back to normal.
There are many notable individuals who’ve paved the way for jazz dance today: Jack Cole, Katherine Dunham, Jerome Robbins, and Bob Fosse. Jack Cole might be considered the ‘father of jazz dance’. He was a visionary who encouraged the use of isolations in class and performance. He is mostly responsible for why we include them in a modern warm up today. Katherine Dunham was a pioneer in the jazz dance movement. She influenced jazz dance with her African and Caribbean style of movement and was the first to sustain a black dance company, Katherine Dunham Dance Company, in America. When jazz dance spread to Broadway, Jerome Robbins came alive and choreographed many shows for the New York stage that include West Side Story. Bob Fosse is most known for his turned in knee, shoulder isolations, and simple nuances in his steps. He liked to choreograph pieces with hats and gloves to disguise his own fears of baldness hatred of his hands. His known works were Chicago and Cabaret. It was because of these individuals that jazz dance is what it is and continues to grow.
Strengthening for jazz dance is very similar to ballet training. The best jazz dancers have a background in ballet to build their core muscles and maintain flexibility. In a lengthy jazz warm up, you do lots of abdominal work through crunches and isolations. Jazz dance also plays with the concept of suspension, fluidly moving through a step. In suspension, a long layout of your leg to the front keeps growing past the balance point into a new step. Versatility is key! You need to be able to transition from very fast movements that are sharp and quick to slower, lyrical dancing that looks more like a modern ballet. Grab your jazz shoes, which lace up like sneakers…unless you have the pull on variety, your baggy jazz pants, and leotard or tank top. Add your own touch of a headband or bandana and crazy socks if you wish. I’ll see you out on the jazz dance floor ready to strut with your jazz walk!
Posted in: Moves That Groove
