Academic Abstract

I have taken a stab at writing my very first academic abstract – an interesting thing to do having left academia! Lindsay Guarino and Wendy Oliver are going to put together a second volume of Jazz Dance, the Roots and Branches. They put out a call for papers. I have decided to address Choregraphy and Performance of Jazz Dance. It is a subject I am most familiar with. The abstract is about 500 words. If they decide to include it, I will expand it into a full chapter.

Choreography and Performance of Jazz Dance

Concert jazz dance is a singular and unique aspect of the jazz dance aesthetic. It requires a deep knowledge and exploration of the history of America, its music and its dances. Classic jazz dance is historically the most prevalent form in American population entertainment. It is a lens through which to view 20th Century American society and culture, It necessitates  a wholehearted embrace of he vernacular. Classic jazz dances like the Cakewalk, Charleston,Lindy Hop and Blues have been a goldmine for American musical theater. there are steps associated with these dances that are instantly recognizable and constantly reimagined – think One Singular Sensation from A Chorus Line ( a Cakewalk if ever there was one). A concert jazz dance choreographer needs to make up new steps and new vocabulary that respects the originals but acknowledges the present. It is a search for an authentic, intelligent and contemporary jazz dance language.

Armed with this knowledge, the development of a clear point of view in essential. In general, musical theater jazz hopes to seduce. Concert jazz dance seeks to engage.It is the relationship of the performers and the dances they are doing to the audience that is different. Musical theater choreography is always aware of the audience. The “story” or situation gives the dances context. Withe great concert jazz dance, the relationship between the dancers is paramount. They are expressing a shared set of “ideas” and the audience watches that. The Fourth Was, in theater terminology is maintained.

Jazz dance is energy based. It is not an architecturally based form. The approach to rhythm is key. It represents the triumph of rhythm over the disorganized human condition. The arms and hands are like the gestures in a conversation, not positions or shapes.

Jazz dance and music developed along parallel lines. Jazz dance does not exist without the music, a specific kind of music. The great artists that created these art forms expressed every aspect of the human condition.Their created histories are a wellspring of material to explore in choreography. One could think of this as a house that does not always  sit in the sun with all doors and windows open. One should think of this as a house where some rooms are dark and closed. Some may even have a rank smell.It should be reflective of he full range of human emotion.. This is what concert jazz choreographers need to explore.

This could be characterized as a music first approach for  historically based jazz dance choreography. Choreographers can mine the past, look at the present or even suggest a future with the ideas they explore on the concert stage.

Critics respond strongly to jazz dance when it displays qualities that are most often associated with modern dance – structure, theme and variation, and a strong sense of sce and design. Not looking front all the time is a huge plus.

 

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