Jazz Dance Research Paper

The birth of jazz music is often credited to African Americans, though it didn’t take long to expanded to America's white middle class. Jazz, therefore, was characterised by a meshing of African American traditions and ideals with white middle class societies. Big cities like New York and Chicago were

To begin with, jazz is an all American dance that has some African rhythmic influences. The first group that portrayed jazz to the American society were a group called the flappers in the 1920’s. This group was young western women who wore short skirts and bobbed hair and were considered wild based on the image

The origins of Jazz are known to be in many various places like New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis, and Kansas City. However, as far as history can date back to, Jazz was associated with the African slaves who were transported on slave ships. These slaves were allowed to dance in order to keep them in good physical and mental form. They danced to the beat of instruments in celebration of the cycles of life and thus originated Jazz- a novel and unique dance form. Since its inception, it has

     The unique art form know as Jazz, was able to thrive initially in New Orleans. The most celebrated part of New Orleans was known as Storyville because it was a melting pot for Jazz. Storyville was so celebrated because it was the only region in the city that had brothels and pubs that allowed African Americans. Unfortunately, in 1970, President Roosevelt shut down the district in fear of violence between the natives and sailors. This resulted in a dispersion of jazz. Many artists traveled directly to Chicago after the closing of Storyville to restart their music.

The definition of swing dance can be described as a synchronized dance with jazz music that have a related variety of partnered dances which includes Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing, and Smooth Lindy. Swing dance is a type of social dance that was created sometime during 1920 to 1950. It is a dance that is associated with Jazz which is a type of music that can be seen having influence from Africa but was created and spread in the United States during the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance took place during the 1920s and 1930s, which is seen as the movement of colored people which led to the creation of new literatures, art, music, and dance.

The Jazz dance form is quite popular and is enjoyed by all for its energy and rhythm. It is often thought of as an American creation, but it truly originates from a form of dance that was African American in origin. This occurred during the late 1800s. The first man to officially perform jazz dance was an American called Joe Frisco in around 1910. Though this was the first recorded history of jazz dancing, its roots seemed to lie further in the past than this.

This moved jazz dance from a social dance to a

Meltingpot.fortuecity.com states the in the 1930’s and 1940’s jazz was at it all time highest. Although it is unclear when jazz first started some believe jazz started in New Orleans. Work it way up toward other major cities throughout in Midwest, such cities as Memphis, St. Louis, and Chicago have their own unique style of jazz. While the city of New Orleans was founded in 1719 by French men and for

The first appearance of jazz was at the turn of the century in New Orleans and is called “Dixieland Jazz,” or “Classic Jazz.” It developed out of music for street parades in the black community. It also had deeper roots in a style of music called “Blues,” which was used to express the

Jazz dance was not created in just one day; it took many years for it to finally come about and many other styles to go develop through. With jazz dance and music, its functional aspects of everyday life come from its passage, its joys, as well as its sorrows. Taking back to post enslavement and then as well as throughout the twentieth century, African American dance had evolved in many different directions that one of them was jazz dance. “Buck Dance, Juba, Pigeon Wing, Buzzard Lope. Turkey Trot, Snake Hips, Fish Tail, Fish Bone, Camel Walk, Cakewalk, Ring Shout, Water Dances.

Their music was known as social music or conservative music. The dances also reflected the music and were slower and flowed more smoothly. Dancers of this style would do more conservative versions of the Lindy Hop such as the jitterbug, the Varsity Drag, and the Fox Trot. Sweet bands usually stuck to the composition more closely while hot bands emphasized improvisation. Dancehalls, speakeasies, and ballrooms were new venues for Jazz music. We saw the birth of night clubs were swing dancing was very prominent. This was the beginning of jazz being associated with dance and drinking and

Jazz which had been prominent during and after the war was suited to the new music rhythms so it flourished. Old top picks like the Waltz and Foxtrot remained popular. The move that everyone was doing in the 1920's is the Charleston. The Charleston was acquainted with general society in the Ziegfield Follies of 1923 by the all dark cast Afro-American Broadway musical. These were most prominent moves during the decade with the foxtrot, waltz, and American tango. From the mid 1920s, other dances like the Lindy Hop was introduced as well.

The varieties of jazz dance reflect the diversity of American culture. Jazz dance mirrors the social history of the American people, reflecting ethnic influences, historic events, and cultural changes. Jazz dance has been greatly influenced by social dance and popular music. But, like so much that is “from America”, the history of jazz dance begins somewhere else.

Topic #1 Development of Jazz music in New Orleans Jazz music was originated from African American communities. The African American community is responsible for developing jazz as they used their culture as an influence in it. In the nineteenth century, jazz music had reached New Orleans. The history of the music can be traced back to the slave trading. In Africa, Slaves used music as a means of entertainment just as they did and the music was also affected by the new culture that they found in America leading to the development of jazz.

East Coast swing, otherwise known as the Jitterbug is another type of swing dancing. It is more social and less acrobatic. Although this style of swing is what most people learn at first, it is not really a swing-era dance. (This dance is learned as, "One and two, three and four, rock-step.") Most swing dance had an eight-count rhythm. (Counting to eight, with each beat equal to one step.) With the evolution of the 12-bar blues, however, the jitterbug lost two counts and became the dance of early rock-and-roll. It is taught as a swing dance, however, because it is much easier to grasp than the Lindy. This dance was not created until the 1950's. The version that is taught most often is done to fast big-band music and is also called East Coast Swing.