History of jazz dance essay

The dancer responds to the music physically, reflecting its rhythm, responding to its calls, even sometimes enacting its lyrics. In either performance or social mode, Authentic Jazz dance is as valid and can be as intense a listening experience as that of the passive, seated listener in a concert hall. The beauty of watching an Authentic Jazz dancer is that they embody and respond to the music sent out from the bandstand — both the rhythm and the melody.

Many musicians who play for dancers assume that we are only interested in tempo and, of course, taking the pulse will also set you up for the right tempo, but this is to misunderstand the pulse. Dance styles attach themselves to various fashions: hot jazz, smooth swing, manouche, western swing, slow drags, etc. They have local variations, but the pulse connects them all, underpinning every choice of step and supporting rhythms, especially variations and syncopations.

Jazz dancing has always involved some form of interruption and lively response. With its characteristic oom-pah bass sound, this music supported a large number of people walking in step at parades, dance halls and ballrooms. In his autobiography, jazz clarinetist Sidney Bechet remembers the parades in New Orleans when he was a boy in the early years of the twentieth century.

They would get shoo-ed away by the police who they dodged by diverting down side streets before re-emerging to re-join the main parade. It seems natural that such spirited youngsters would not be satisfied with a straight march but would be syncopating their steps, even before the music itself began to be ragged. By contrast, Animal Dances were a collection of eccentric hops, skips, shuffles and waddles that disrupted the harmonious line of dance.

They used exaggerated, jerky, and relatively bizarre posturing. After centuries of harmonious sequence dancing, the Turkey Trot, Duck Waddle and more saw people inhabit the dance floor in radically new ways: moving around it in zig zag, rotating and straight lines or staying in one place, in an almost entirely unpredictable manner [3].

The Charleston broke up traditional ideas of social dancing, namely that one danced exclusively with another person per one piece of music. A catch-all term for a variety of steps and fads, the Charleston announced the modern age by its fluidity: people danced solo, in groups, in pairs, changed partners, all during a single piece of music. The press was full of warnings to young women that dancing was the path to their ruin.

The Double Basic, a well-known s Charleston move in dance manuals of the period, consists of a single walk where the weight changes and a tap where the foot strikes the floor but does not take any weight. This Lindy Charleston was also a partnered dance step and could be executed in promenade side-by-side or shadow position a variation called the Back Charleston [4].

The Lindy Hop also proved flexible in the face of changing musical styles. At its history of jazz dance essay, Lindy Hop benefited from the play between 6-count and 8-count figures, which meant that the dancers sometimes sat squarely in a 2-bar phrase and at other times, skipped across them, slightly at odds until they re-synchronised, ideally at a resolve or break.

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Sign up Log in. Search icon An illustration of a magnifying glass. Neurological Pain Tolerance and Dancers. This essay was reviewed by Dr. Oliver Johnson. More about our Team. The History of Jazz Dance in America.

History of jazz dance essay: Like jazz music, its roots

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History of jazz dance essay: Jazz dance is rooted in

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InThe Slave Act was passed banning the playing of African drums and the performance of traditional dances. The prohibition led to other forms of self-expression used by the slaves such as feet movements and hand clapping.

History of jazz dance essay: The origins of jazz

African slaves slowly began to learn about the music and dancing culture of the Europeans. Their exposure to another culture started the fusion of West African music and "dance tradition to the harmonies and musical structure of European music" Kraines,2. It is evident today that the styles of the two cultures have been fused to create many different dance styles.

American dance has been strongly influenced by African elements in dance such as the rhythm and beats as well as movements. The shimmy and the Snake hips can be traces back to dances in Africa. In the nineteenth century Americans discovered the music and dance performed by the African slaves. After watching and taking time to analyze the slave's movements, the minstrel show was created.

This show was played by white Americans, with a face painted black, who made a parody out of the life of a slave while also popularizing the music and dance of the African culture.