#jazzdancecontinuum

I was excited to read this section of the text just from reading the title. I was curious as to see how jazz dance can be a continuum and in what sense. Continuing on with my reading, I was really surprised that styles such as contemporary, lyrical, hip hop, classical and others are considered a jazz derived or jazz influenced style of jazz. I have been dancing jazz and lyrical and hip hop for a majority of my life and I never even considered those to be jazz. Jazz was jazz and lyrical was lyrical and so on. Everything was its own style. Then, I started to think about it more and began to realize how and why lyrical and contemporary and hip-hop can be forms of jazz. Lyrical or contemporary are a softer and maybe more smooth version of jazz, whereas hip-hop is the sharper and hitting harder version of jazz.

 If I understood this reading correctly, when the author referred to the tree analogy throughout the few pages, the trunk of the tree would be the original West African culture jazz and then the branches would be the jazz derived or jazz influenced styles, such as lyrical and hip-hop and so on. I never would have thought to organize it that way and it really helped fix an image in my head and help me to understand the continuum aspect of jazz and how that can be broken. I guess a lot of times when I have taught dances that I choreographed, there were times when I didn’t use a proper term like pas de bourree and that’s where that jazz gets lost and that continuum disconnects. For me, it’s so easy to not use the correct jazz terms, and if everyone stops using them, then would the original style of jazz eventually be lost and all we would have would be the branches or the jazz derived or jazz influenced?

Questions:

1)    How did the European element of dance appear in jazz dance with the African elements?

Samantha Conte

After reading this article for a third time, all for different classes, I have had the chance to truly digest it. The main gist of this article is to say what creates true jazz dance, and how missing one of the required elements breaks of the continuum. The largest emphasis in this reading is that of the social history and vernacular of African culture. Since coming to college I have learned in depth, through this text, about the extensive connection that jazz dance has to the African culture. This is why I find it so interesting that I had never been taught this history before entering a college jazz class. If jazz dance sprouted from that culture why did none of my previous educators think that was important information to know? Did they not know that, and if they didn’t are they still qualified to teach jazz dance?

Another aspect of this reading that intrigued me was the idea that “jazz classes” today are not truly teaching the actual form of jazz dance. That being said I am not completely shocked by it. Until college I never took a jazz class with the expectation of using vocalization, improvisation, or the sense of community and challenge. Jazz was more about “how high can I get my leg”, “how many turns can I do”, “Leaps across the floor”, and so on and so forth. Improvisation was strictly used in modern classes and we never used vocalization in anything. Since I have been in college I do feel that I have been exposed to many aspects of vernacular jazz dance that I did not have before. While I do not think I have had a class that completely encompasses every single “requirement” of vernacular jazz dance, I do believe that they have encompassed up to 90% of them. Does this mean we cannot advertise them as “Jazz Dance Classes”? Should they instead be called “jazz-influenced or jazz-derived dance classes”?

Discussion Questions:

1. In what ways do you think the tree analogy for jazz dance helps? Do you think that it has left any styles out of its diagram? Do you believe modern dance could fit as a branch of jazz dance, or jazz dance could fit as a branch of modern dance?

I think that this reading is basically saying that the root of jazz (Africanist culture) will always remain the same, and there are branches stemming off of jazz, such as vernacular or theatre jazz dance. I think the term “jazz dance” is hard to define in terms of which branch you are trying to connect with. Some people would define jazz as smooth and sexy movement, while others would define it as the root of African culture. I feel as if some people don’t really give credit to or recognize the importance of African culture in jazz dance. In the chapter on page 5, it names categories of jazz, the kinetic aspect and the social elements. I recognized that the list of the kinetic aspects of jazz dance related very similarly to the kinetic aspects of modern dance. Both jazz and modern dance have the use of the flat foot, bent hip, knee, and ankle joints, as well as body part isolations and asymmetry. This leads me to my open ended question: Are jazz dance and modern really different in their kinetic movement, according to the chapter? How so? This reading went very smoothly for me, because of the length. It was only 5 pages, which led me to read it very quickly. I read this in the quiet atmosphere of my dorm room, no distractions. I had to go back and read certain parts of the chapter in order to fully connect all of the paragraphs together. 

One More Open Ended Question: What is your definition of jazz dance?

Rachael Wieczorek

#dancehistory

#jazzdancecontinuum

After spending a huge chunk of class time discussing The Black Dancing Body, something from this reading that really jumped out at me was the inclusion and importance of American social, popular, and theatrical dance in order to make sure that “the continuum is established.”  We spent so much time talking about the African roots and the influence their culture had on the birth of jazz dance but within this text author discusses that in order to have balance jazz needs to have this incorporation of American social dance. Furthermore, the metaphor of the tree used by Wendy Oliver was such a strong choice when talking about all the different genres of jazz dance.  What classifies a certain style of movement as jazz dancing? Is there a checklist that needs to be checked off in order to be pinned in this tree? The text states that “the solid trunk contains the cultural, kinetic, and social history of African Americans, while the thick branches represent the vernacular and theatrical offshoots of jazz dance.”  This made me think for a minute.  How do we know which styles are the trunk or the branch and are they all interconnected?

 Because the term “jazz dance” is being so loosely used, has jazz lost its authenticity and pizzazz that it used to have? This is one question that I had while reading this text. I feel as though jazz dancing has evolved so much but not necessarily in bad ways. Reading about the college teacher who asks her students “where’s the jazz?” made me think about the jazz classes that I have taken.  These elements of improvisation, call and response, friendly challenges between dancers, and interaction between musicians and dancers, etc. I find that several elements are missing. One in particular that I took time to process was this interaction with the musician. It was not until college that I danced with live music and while we get our accompanist for modern and ballet it is less prominent that we have live music for jazz, which is almost the most important style to have live music for.  Is it possible that because we are using pop or techno music that jazz has lost its original aesthetic? Is this something we can get back? Finding the connectivity with the music can bring about this call and response interaction and improvisation that are so important to jazz dancing.

 If a style of dance only carries a few characteristics of jazz can in be placed under of the umbrella of Jazz Dance or is it just a jazz influenced style of movement?

“When the roots and trunk remain unacknowledged, the continuum is disrupted.” These words from Patricia Cohen stood out to me the most within this reading. Through learning about the history of various styles of dance such as musical theatre, modern, tap, and jazz in my classes during my collegiate career, I have started to realize how truly watered down our perceptions of dance genres are. But even though I have learned about the roots of such styles on paper, the only class we took the time to explore what the roots were in our bodies was the first semester of musical theatre dance. Does the fact that my mind knows the history but my body doesn’t make my dancing in each genre lack continuum?

The image of the tree resonated quite well with me. Having a visual of West African Culture as the roots and trunk with vernacular and theatrical jazz as the branches seems to be an accurate representation. I was also pleased to read about how Cohen uses the image of the tree within her collegiate jazz classes and has her students identify which part of the tree they are working from on a given day. I feel like a similar activity within my classes would be beneficial in helping me connect the intellectual knowledge to my kinesthetic knowledge. Also, by her asking “Where’s the jazz?” and requiring them to answer with the characteristics they identified as being jazz dance can help differentiate what is true to the traditional jazz dance and what has been embellished by popular ideals.

-Do you think the lack of education of the roots of jazz outside of the collegiate settings is at the fault of the teachers being uneducated or of the students disinterest?

Adina Stuhlman

Jazz Dance: A History of the Roots and Branches

Ch 1. Jazz Dance as a Continuum pgs. 3-7

Having reread this section of Jazz Dance: A History of the Roots and Branches I feel that I understand the text better. I found that the I was more familiar with many of the terms used, like the Lindy Hop, and the idea of the community in Jazz dance because I have had experience with these since the last time I read this book. I strongly agree with the author, Patricia Cohen, about the importance of understanding the roots behind what we call Jazz. Without understanding where the dance form came from there is no way to keep it growing. Jazz dance is a great example of why dance history important. We cannot move forward in our culture without understanding how the past has influenced us. If we do, then we lose everything that has made us who we are.

Cohen mentioned the Vernon and Irene Castle, important influencers of dance in the 1920s. I was reminded of Musical Theater 1 where we learned the Castle walk, a pretty simple partner dance. I was also reminded of how much effort they put into modifying “Black” dance to make it more acceptable in white circles. I found this rather strange to think of in today’s context, but I see how it would have made sense then. I think today we are much more accepting of sensuality and articulation of body parts than mainstream society (i.e. white people) were in the early 20th century. It is hard to tell whether what the Castles did was appropriation or cultural appreciation, but they certainly made the African-American vernacular dances available to a large audience.

Discussion Questions:

1. In what ways could we add back in the social aspects of jazz dance into our technique classes and how would this change the dance form?