Jazz dance is a type of contemporary dance that is heavily influenced by jazz music’s sounds, rhythms, and techniques. This type of dance, like jazz music, emphasizes individual skills, and dancers who specialize in it are skilled at improvisation as well as collaborating with other dancers to achieve a desired look and feel. This type of dance is taught in many parts of the world, and some very talented dancers and choreographers work in this field.
Jazz dance has its origins in the African-American community in the United States, just like the music that inspired it. As early as the late 1800s, various forms of jazz dance were being performed, and by the First World War, it had established itself as a popular and well-known genre. This dance form has had a significant influence on Broadway choreography and, as a result, Hollywood choreography, as well as ballet and modern dance.
The majority of talented jazz dancers begin their careers in ballet. They learn control, skill, and grace in ballet classes, as well as how to tone and condition their bodies for dancing. After mastering the discipline of ballet, dancers can pursue additional training in jazz dancing, which focuses on improvisation and teaches dancers to move to the beat and riff off one another in a performance setting. Jazz dancers are in high demand, appearing in films, Broadway productions, and dance performances all over the world, with some well-known choreographers working in a variety of genres, from television commercials to drill teams.
Due to its African influences, jazz is known for being heavily syncopated and unpredictable, and jazz dance is no exception. Dancers can move slowly, dreamily, and gracefully, or they can move quickly and sharply, performing incredible leaps and feats. As a result, they must be physically very flexible, as well as extremely sensitive to the music to which they dance.
Some jazz dance performances are highly structured and choreographed, while others leave room for improvisation. In a group performance, improvisation must be carefully executed, with the dancers cooperating so that they do not clash or detract from the piece’s harmony, as jazz musicians do. This style of dance does not have to be performed to jazz music, though it frequently is, and it can incorporate skills from other dance disciplines, such as tap; in fact, tap dance was the original jazz dance, with dancers branching out into other styles only in the early 1900s.