History of Jazz Dance By Susan Gehringer ©, Rev 3/24/2017

Jazz dance is an umbrella term that can refer to several related dance styles. All of them

are connected via common roots namely; immigrant traditional dance, jazz music, tap,

ballet and African-American rhythms and dance. As we look at the dance landscape today

it is exciting to recognize that jazz dance in its many manifestations is a truly American

dance form that is deeply ingrained and ever-present in our culture.

Short History: Quick snapshot

Jazz dance is generally accepted to have originated

from a combination of the African-American vernacular

dance and immigrant folk dance of the late 1800s.

Some people are loyal to the authentic jazz of the

“Jazz Era” started in New Orleans in the 1900-1930s

(pictured left) when dance and music were inseparable

entities that stood firmly in West African roots.

Meaning jazz dance could not be done without jazz

music. Other people identify jazz dance as a theatrical

style heavily reliant on ballet-based movement and

suited for Broadway and concert dance stages. This style came through the tap and

vaudeville influences of the 1800s. The term "Jazz" was first applied to a style of music

and dance during World War I, specifically out of the jazz south.

Long History: Evolution of American Vernacular Dance

Tracing the beginnings of many of our dance forms we use the term “vernacular dance”

(meaning of, relating to, or characteristic of a period, place, or group). An abbreviated

understanding of the term would be to call it social dance or cultural dance. It relates back

when music and dance were functional aspects of everyday life; celebrating joy, sorrow or

specific passages of time. So using that term we are tracing the beginnings of dance that

made an impact on American culture.

All dance forms are interrelated. Jazz in its dance form, originates from both the immigrant

cultures, specifically Irish, British and the African cultures during the early 17th century.

One academic observation was that slaves were exposed to the national dances of British

culture like the jig, reel, hornpipe and others, during their voyage from Africa to the West

Indies. The Captains would force the slaves to dance on the ships to keep them healthy,

being that dance was active and it was known to the sailors. These European dances

would blend with the native religious dances of their African cultures. Most of the ships

would stop in the West Indies to give the slaves a chance to regain their health before

heading to American slave auctions. There they would be exposed to European social

dances and native West Indies dances which

created a bigger melting pot of the origins of

American vernacular dance.

Opportunities to share these new found dances,

loosely called performances, started early as small

slave or immigrant gatherings that allowed people

to share. These were still mainly improvisation

dances, with a heavy storytelling quality. Slowly

opportunities to perform for others started in the

form of traveling “Medicine shows” or “Gilly Shows”

(pictured above) which started in the 1700s and expanded into tent shows, or “Jig Tops” of

the early 1800s. Medicine shows combined various forms of popular entertainment with

sales pitches from a fake doctor selling an astounding cure-all medicine or device.

A popular performer in Vaudeville; Dewey “Pigmeat” Markham (1904-1981) explained

show business and the increasing importance of

various performance venues in this way;

“Kindergarten would be a Medicine show,

elementary would be a Gilly Show. You’d work

through high school in Carnivals, Circuses then

Minstrel Shows. College was Vaudeville and

then you graduated to Broadway”. (Pictured left,

seated in the center) Not very many dancers

made it all the way to Broadway. Most never

made it out of the tent shows. This was a

descriptive way to understand all the different

early performance options for dance.

Irish jigs and clogs started appearing on stage by 1840. All sorts of social dance started to

creep into the performances at that time but were still heavily influenced by the African-

American culture. It was not until after the Civil War that audiences started to see more

blending of styles and a more integrated cast and audiences. And segregation still

remained to some extent until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Burlesque, Vaudeville and Broadway

Soon the country was scattered with talented dancers using all kinds of movement. The

venues were starting to gather into circuits for control of the better performers and the

more successful locations. This also encouraged the growth of agents to help control the

talent. The largest: T.O.B.A.; Theater Owners Booking

Association or “Toby” for short started in 1920. TOBY booked for

hundreds of theaters in the U.S. The performers had to get in with

the booking agents to work. The shows provided the music. It

came in many forms for the early performers. It was not until

around 1910 you started to have recognizable songs as

danceable songs. This allowed, in some part for dance to make

its way to Broadway.

The European social dances, ball room and smooth dancing,

were still dominating Broadway. The strictly vernacular dance

styles of the African-American performers was considered too

rough for the Broadway audiences. But acrobatic dance and

Russian dancing were being slowly added to the choices. Soon

ballroom style partners started to make their way from the vaudeville to Broadway.

Specifically around 1910 came Vernon & Irene Castle (pictured left); a famous dance duo

that dominated Broadway early in the twentieth century. They started to set a dance

standard that utilized songs of the day and styles beyond the European social dancing.

The so called “animal dances”; Turkey Trot, Buzzard Lope,

Grizzly Bear (pictured right), Bunny Hug, Fishtail, Foxtrot,

among others used many patterns of the African movement.

The Castles’ took some of the exciting dances of African roots

and smoothed them out making them more dignified for

Broadway audiences. Jazz dance transformed from this

African based vernacular form into a theatre-based

performance form of dance that required a highly trained

dancer. This blending with multiple sources and influences

allowed the development of jazz dance throughout the first

half of the twentieth century.

Broadway Revolution

Broadway really pushed the need to use dance directors, or choreographers as they are

now known. Up until that time most performers worked up their own dances. Some found

the use of dance directors’ extremely limiting or irritatingly unknowledgeable. But the push

for big shows and larger choruses needed these people to help get the shows ready.

Early twentieth century saw variety shows and

spectacles hit Broadway. Ziegfeld Follies

(pictured right) and the like utilized dancers in

increasing numbers. Early on they were little

more than slightly moving lines, very

unimpressive. These dance directors would

pull from acts they had seen or their own dance

styles to try to make the shows work. As they

incorporated different dance acts into the whole,

you started to see style categories: eccentric,

buck & wing, flash & grin, legomania, just to name a few. Large precision dance

presentations were becoming common forms of dance too. These groups were much like

The Radio City Music Hall Rockettes of today. The Dyerettes, (pictured left) the

Roxyettes, the Cotton Club Chorus Line and the Whitman

Sisters were only a few of these large precision dance groups

that cropped up during the 1920s. (The Whitman Sisters were

at one time the highest paid act in the Vaudeville circuit).

The 1920s – 1930s Broadway had a marked increase in the

African-American musicals. Most notably Shuffle Along

(1921). It was generally accepted that the African-influenced

dancing was more exciting, spectacular and the dancers more

energetic than the safe, traditional chorus dancers of the era.

This was a star packed musical (Eubie Black, Josephine

Baker among others) that was a smash hit! The show's

energetic dancing and catchy jazz score drew enthusiastic

and famous audience members. The show was credited with helping to unite the white

Broadway and black jazz communities. It was a landmark musical for two reasons. It was

not only the first all-black musical to open on Broadway but would become the gold

standard of excellence by which all other musicals were compared. Recently the show

would see another generation. The revival, of sorts, was called: Shuffle Along, or, the

Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed. It used much of the

original score and script. Based on the original book

of the 1921 musical Shuffle Along, the story focuses

on the challenges of mounting the original

production of Shuffle Along and its effect

on Broadway and race relations.

The 1920s-30s saw fast changes. Nine black

musicals followed Shuffle Along but none compared

to the original. Even Bill “Bojangles” Robinson’s hit

Blackbirds of 1928 couldn’t sustain. The decade

also gave audiences a choice. Radio and “talkies”

were making their way into Middle America. By

the early 1930s vernacular dance, jazz and tap

were fading from Broadway shows. Tap, jazz and

vernacular dance could no longer carry a musical.

The advent of the “dream ballet” in shows, started

by the 1936 On Your Toes choreographed by

George Balanchine and Oklahoma!

choreographed by Agnes de Mille (pictured left) in

1943 pretty well closed the chapter for a while on

the strictly American dance form of tap and jazz.

This era of dream ballets is credited, or blamed

depending on your viewpoint, for the demise of tap and vernacular jazz dance on

Broadway for the next 40 years.

Development of Jazz Technique

During the mid-twentieth century, several prominent figures in

dance made their mark and technical stamp of style on

movement that still remains today. Syncopated rhythm is a

common characteristic in jazz music that was adapted to jazz

dance in the early twentieth century and has remained a

significant characteristic. One important dance trail blazer

was Katherine Dunham (pictured right). Katherine was a

pioneer in taking the traditional style and essence of

Caribbean folk dance, including the isolated torso, and bring it

into a dance performance art. Dunham was the trail blazer to

research and document the beginnings of the Afro-Caribbean

movement. When she applied for a fellowship to try to find the

roots of this style of dancing she was thwarted by the men

who didn’t understand there was a difference between ballet

and this other type of dance. She demonstrated a bit of ballet movement and then a tribal

war dance to show the difference. She commented; “I want to go where they dance like

that. I want to find out why, how it started and what influence it had on the people. I want

to learn something that will help me teach people”. She would go on to bring this style of

dance back to America and develop what would be called the Dunham Technique. The

Dunham Technique blends polyrhythmic Afro-Caribbean movement, modern and ballet

with a focus on strengthening the core and creating a versatile torso. Isolations of the

head, shoulders, torso and hips occur frequently as do back undulations and contractions.

It would become integrated with other new jazz forms for the newly emerging genre.

George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, Jack Cole (pictured

left), Peter Gennaro, Michael Kidd, Jerome Robbins and

of course Bob Fosse (pictured below) also heavily

influenced the standardization of the jazz technique. More

common characteristics from these pioneers emerged as

trademarks of jazz in addition to the primary syncopated

rhythm is: grounded swing quality, articulated torso,

syncopation, isolations, energy, force, rhythm and the

aesthetics of cool.

Paralleling the development of the performance side of the movement were the teachers

that helped develop the jazz dance art form. Matt Maddox, Luigi, Eugene Loring and Gus

Giordano were pivotal to the development of technique.

Giordano was the creator of the Jazz Dance World

Congress and the author of Anthology of American Jazz

Dance, the first text book on jazz dance. His Chicago

based dance studio would be the annual destination for

all serious jazz dance performers, educators,

choreographers. It continues to this day as the longest

established jazz dance education center in the world.

Jazz Today

Jazz dance is many things to many people. It looks different with a modern technique base

as opposed to a ballet or tap base. But today the term jazz dance is somewhat of an

enigma. It’s a classic American dance style, yet it has become something more varied. It

reflects other influences such as Latin jazz, street jazz and Afro-jazz. Some see jazz as a

commercial or contemporary form of dance that reflects popular culture or television

categories and online content. The term “Classic Jazz” is starting to take root pushed by

dance educators and choreographers who wish to preserve the base of the art. But no one

can dispute that Jazz Dance is a uniquely American art form.

Sources:

• Giordano, Gus; Anthology of American Jazz dance, Orion Publishing House, 1975 pp. 86-87, 109

• Mrozowski, Cheryl, Jazz Dance; A History of the Roots and Branches; edited by Lindsay Guarino and Wendy Oliver 2014, pp 93, 109, 127-128, 157.

• Stearns, Marshall & Jean; Jazz Dance, the story of American Vernacular Dance, 1968

• Boross, Bob; Comments on Jazz Dance 1996-2014,

• http://www.ndeo.org/content, advancing dance education

• http://dancelessons.net/dancehistory/HistoryofJazzDance.html

• Latimer, Chelsea, History of Jazz dance, May 22, 2014, Udem

• Dominy, Jeannine, Katherine Dunham; Dancer and choreographer 1992

• McNamara, Maggie, The Jazz Breakdown, DanceSpirit Magazine, April 1, 2014

• Images: NoLa History, Alamy Stock Photos, Jered Marin, Dance Heritage Coalition, Getty Images,

Name_____________________________________________ Per_______________

Legends in Dance History of Jazz

Dance Standard: Understanding the historical contributions and cultural dimensions of dance. Study dancers from various cultures and historical periods. (3.3, 3.4) Common Core: CCRST #1; Cite specific textual evidence to support text, attending to the precise details of the descriptions.

Highlight (do not underline) the answers in the attached text to support the response. Circle words in the text you are unfamiliar:

1. What is the “jazz era”? What two components make up this combination? What are

the years noted?

2. In your own words, what is vernacular dance? What could be an example of a

vernacular dance in life today? (Think of a social construct where a dance is

expected.)

3. Why would Africans be exposed to British social dancing? Where were the two

places they might have learned it?

4. Which is the more important show: A Gilly Show or Minstrel Show?

5. What did “Pigmeat” Markham compare to “college” in the performing venues?

6. Why were the T.O.B.Y. agents so powerful?

7. Why was there not many opportunities for the strictly African influenced dance to

appear on Broadway in the early 1900s?

8. Name two of what was called the “animal dances”?

9. Why were choreographers, or dance directors becoming a necessity for shows?

10. Why was Shuffle Along (1921) so important to Broadway?

11. How did the “Dream ballets” become important for jazz style dancing on Broadway?

12. Why was Katherine Dunham important to the jazz movement?

13. Name four (4) common characteristics that emerged from the jazz pioneers. There

are over 10 mentioned.

14. What social influences does jazz dance today reflect?

15. List three words that are unfamiliar to you from this text. Be sure you have circled

all the words that might not be familiar to you.