I had an interesting experience in my Jazz III class at SMU last Thursday. I am teaching the students a solo Le Souvenir. I performed it this past July in the Lost Voices in Jazz concert in the Twin Cities. It was created at the Bates Dance Festival in 1992, set to the jazz standard For All We Know sung by Lillian Boutte. I am sharing it with them for two reasons, the challenge of working musically with a prop (a scarf) and exploring how to be rhythmically dynamic with a lyrical piece of music. It has been an interesting process, this being the first time I’ve taught the solo in a long, long time. I first explain the phrasing of the footwork and then layer the phrasing of manipulating the scarf. There is one sequence that repeats twice. Lillian Boutte sings:
For all we know, this may only be a dream.
The dancer moves forward, gently tossing the scarf and catching it until it falls over the head and face. The dancer then reaches forward, places the hands on the scarf and gently slides it down, quietly breathing in a memory. I explained the counts but it wasn’t working. I finally said, “reach out with the right then left hand on “this may”, touch the scarf with the right then left hand on “on-ly” and then slide it down on “be a dream”. It worked like a charm. I had to stop and say, “it’s Contemporary!”.
Well, it’s not Contemporary, it’s jazz. They are not one and the same. The faculty are constantly facing this issue. When we have Dallas auditions, quite a few of the solos we see are described as Contemporary and they are often danced to lyrics. I suppose one way to describe/define Contemporary is a blend of ballet, modern and jazz, often set to the lyrics of a song, that song usually not being jazz. I am absolutely fine with Contemporary, I just don’t feel that it belongs in the jazz curriculum. I hope this makes some sort of sense.