Rose McRae Dance Academy - The History of Jazz Dance

The History of Jazz Dance

The term “Jazz Dance” has been used to describe a forever-changing form of popular and creative dance movement ever since the 19th Century. It represents our popular culture, and as the culture changes, so does the appearance of jazz dance. Jazz dance has a character and the ability to make changes as a main fragment. It’s this element that allows itself to shed it’s skin and take up another for every passing era.

Jazz dance in the European circuit originated in black social dances around 1910 with a barrage of dances inspired by African animal dances. The vernacular inspired dances such as Turkey Trot, Monkey Glide, Chicken Scratch & Bunny Hug swept through white ballrooms setting the stage for the same process in white Broadway.

In 1913 J. Leubrie Hill produced “Darktown Follies” in Harlem which introduced social dances in a theatrical setting. It’s popularity affected the way white people produced their shows and marked the beginning of nightly migration by whites to Harlem. In 1921 “Shuffle Along” featured a jazz inspired dance call the Charleston that created a sensation due to it’s unbridled energy and irrepressible spirit. The most immediate effect of Shuffle Along was an absolute craze for jazz dancing, musical comedies took on a new more rhythmic life and the chorus girls danced vernacular dances to jazz music. This trend continued until the late 1920’s where it died due to depression and careless presentation by Negroes stereotyping movement rather than presenting authentic jazz dances.

In the 1936, George Balanchine, the founder and choreographer emeritus of the New York City Ballet, staged "On Your Toes" and integrated dance with the show's storyline. Another choreographer, Jack Cole, brought together East Indian, ethnic, and modern dance with the jazz dances of the time. These created a new style of theatrical jazz and meant dancers would need to be trained in this new form of jazz inspired movement. So in 1953 Chuck Kelly began teaching what was called “modern jazz” classes in New York. These classes emphasized body lines and flexibility, fast and accurate footwork with parallel feet and exaggerated movement of individual body parts.

This style Cole had created influenced a generation of choreographers on Broadway in the 50’s such as Jerome Robbins and Bob Fosse but it’s effects were most noticeable in the 60’s with many avenues for performance in Broadway Shows. Unforgettable Musicals such as “My Fair Lady”, “Hello Dolly”, and “West Side Story” became theatrical blockbusters but in the late 60’s when music changed from jazzy to rock, Broadway was no longer the sprawling ground for theatrical dance. It had now become a pastiche of old standard styles and movements and an incubator for a new for of jazz that had evolved to absorb the blossoming social scene of hippies.

The growth of disco music in the 70’s once again had an effect on jazz dance and completely obliterated the swing beat of the 60’s. Disco became the popular dance craze where everything and anything was permissible on the dance floor becoming a low point of jazz dance. But Broadway once again brought about a high to jazz dance in the 70’s with two of the best directors/choreographers, Michael Bennett and Bob Fosse, at their top form.

In 1975 Bennett, a chorus dancer, produced “A Chorus Line” which was based on the confessions of why gypsies like to dance. It became a smash hit, winning a Pulitzer Prize and became the longest running musical on Broadway. The show glorified the Broadway dance style – hard driving jazz dance, tap dance, flamboyant ballet and showmanship – and again boosted the popularity of theatrical jazz dance.

But in terms of “Jazz Dance” the decade of the 70’s belongs without a doubt to Bob Fosse. He produced unforgettable Broadway shows such as Chicago, Dancin, Cabaret and All that Jazz, utilizing jazz dance in all of them. He created a unique style of dance with the overlook of the rounded shoulder, hop popping, and elbow jutting that is still apparent in the world of jazz dance. Bob Fosse is the finger snapping song and dance man who remains a legend whose work on Broadway remains unequalled.

Punk rock brought a faster, h harder edged beat to music in the 80’s and once again jazz dance changed along with the music. “Breakdancing” – involving sharp and hard movements, continuous waves throughout the body, and spins – became the new and popular style of dance in the 80’s causing Broadway Dance to suffer its biggest decline in jazz dance. Michael Bennett had died from Aids, Bob Fosse was doing a non-musical film and Jerome Robbins was working in ballet. With Broadways 3 top choreographers no longer producing big musicals full of dance it gave way to composer Andrew Lloyd Webber to produce his musicals on Broadway. He produced smash hits such as “Phantom of the Opera” and “Cats” creating a new emphasis and breakthrough on Broadway. But these shows were primarily vocal shows and showed a massive decline in jazz dance on Broadway.

“Breakdancing” in the 80’s gave film companies an electric, eye catching body/dance movement and made dance from the street popular. 1981 saw this commercial jazz take a new direction with the debut of MTV playing non stop video clips of musicians. MTV was a huge success with the young population and along with it dancing became more and more a part of the videos concept. The top video act to use dance was Michael Jackson who made considerable use of his unique blend of street toughness with older styled Broadway moves to sell his music.

The 90’s produced yet another transformation of jazz dancing, moving from “Breakdancing” to the newly popular “Hip Hop”. Hip hop with it’s own music, clothing and vocabulary became a dance culture of society’s youth expressing street toughness. Hip hop’s dance style shared some characteristics of jazz dance like torso movement, shuffling and improvisation but because of it’s simpler, less musically complex style it’s noted as a form of dance movement rather than jazz dance. Both jazz dance and hip hop are derived from the same base – African style but hip hop does not utilize a swing beat as does jazz making it known as a cousin to jazz dance.

Jazz dance has evolved from it’s beginnings of the Charleston to the hip hop dances of today and reflects it’s enduring and forever changing nature. But as Marshall and Jean Stearns state the basis and feel of jazz dance is a “blend of African and European traditions in an American Environment”. The Europeans movement contributed an elegance to give jazz it’s shape, but it was the Africans rhythmic contribution that has given jazz dance it’s character and appeal that still stands strong in the jazz dance today.

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