Just Dance

Jazz influences much more than just lyrics, rhythms, and instruments. This lovely music influences one of the most entertaining spectacles of life: dance. After doing some research, I learned that...

"Prior to the 1950s, jazz dance referred to dance styles that originated from African American vernacular dance. In the 1950s, a new genre of jazz dance—modern jazz dance—emerged, with roots in Caribbean traditional dance. Every individual style of jazz dance has roots traceable to one of these two distinct origins."

After digging further, I have learned the differences of these dance types. Jazz dance started off as what is now known as tap dancing because it was simply tap dancing to jazz music. However, jazz dance then began to create its unique flavor as dances such as the the Cakewalk, Black Bottom, Charleston, Jitterbug, Boogie Woogie, swing and the related Lindy Hop. A video of the Charlston and how to dance it is shown below...


Then after the 1950s, the essence of Caribbean dance, transforming into the smooth style that it is noted for today. This style, known as "modern jazz" is a major component of musical theater. It is influenced by many other styles such as ballet, lyrical, and contemporary. An example of this is shown in the video below...



Personally, I enjoy the elements of modern jazz more. However, I love the unique characteristics of the dances from the past. I think it would be neat to return to the dances of the mid 1900s, simply because it was a way to connect to others and to learn do with others without taking classes. It would be really neat if our school dances had as many massive coordinated dances as there are in the past. And our chance to do so is now: Roncalli High School has a swing dance club that is bring swing back!