Jazz Dance was birthed as a response to Jazz Music which rose to prominence in early 1900’s New Orleans African-American communities. Both art forms started out on the streets as minimalistic, raw and erratic in style. As they grew in popularity, they moved from the streets to more formal settings, and saw their share of appropriation. Louis Armstrong as pictured above is the perfect example of this outward to inward movement. Armstrong started off poor living in a neighborhood so disenfranchised that it was called "the battlefield." From there, and with the frequent absence of his parents, Armstrong was placed in the Colored Waif's home for boys where he fell in love with music and learned to play the cornet. Armstrong looked to another prominent Jazz figure at the time, Joe "king" Oliver to be his mentor and later moved to Chicago in 1922 to be apart of Oliver's creole jazz band. This band would give Armstrong his rise to fame as it was the first famous Chicago Jazz band that highlighted the authentic New Orleans sound. Once in the spotlight, he started making music of his own which incorporated new elements like scatting while maintaining traditional elements like improvisational breaks which people could easily dance to. The swinging tempos allowed for a synchronization that was easy to dance to and provided a joyous relief from the stressors of the 1930s like The Great Depression. Traditional jazz dance was really booming at this time due to its responsive nature to both the music and the circumstances.
The two forms however, would eventually split. As they developed and grew more modern, they eventually stopped going hand in hand with one another. Jazz music is a genre today is often referred to as “dead” or “dying,” due to its lack of popular demand and interest. Now, while some sects of it are still hip and upbeat, most jazz music today is far more subdued in nature. As a matter of fact, the name that it is most commonly called is "smooth jazz", which only really appeals to certain crowds; mostly older. Jazz dance though still lives on and is paired with more mainstream/upbeat pop music with elements of traditional jazz mixed in. With the influence of mixing and appropriation, the dancing and the way that bodies move in the dances are more subdued in nature today. Though there is a certain swing-like tempo in the music that modern jazz dance is paired with now, the same swinging body movements that were so prevalent in the 1900s are no longer as popular.
-Greg Zola and Krystal Turner
The two forms however, would eventually split. As they developed and grew more modern, they eventually stopped going hand in hand with one another. Jazz music is a genre today is often referred to as “dead” or “dying,” due to its lack of popular demand and interest. Now, while some sects of it are still hip and upbeat, most jazz music today is far more subdued in nature. As a matter of fact, the name that it is most commonly called is "smooth jazz", which only really appeals to certain crowds; mostly older. Jazz dance though still lives on and is paired with more mainstream/upbeat pop music with elements of traditional jazz mixed in. With the influence of mixing and appropriation, the dancing and the way that bodies move in the dances are more subdued in nature today. Though there is a certain swing-like tempo in the music that modern jazz dance is paired with now, the same swinging body movements that were so prevalent in the 1900s are no longer as popular.
-Greg Zola and Krystal Turner