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Jazz dance evolved along lines parallel to
jazz music.
Jazz dance, like jazz music, is a blend of
European and African traditions in an
American environment.
State of Louisiana Department of
Education A Fine Arts Survey 1992
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Tribal songs and dances were brought to
America by slaves and, with freedom, blacks
performed native dances and music in New
Orleans, borrowing European tunes and
mingling them with black rhythms and
improvised jazz melodies.
These spirited jazz sounds changed white
dances.
Jerky, lively, unexpected movements became
State of Louisiana Department of
popular.
Education A Fine Arts Survey 1992

In
the
1950s
as
rock’n’roll
superseded jazz as the most popular
music, movements to this new
contemporary music form changed
but continued to be called jazz
dance.
State of Louisiana Department of
Education A Fine Arts Survey 1992
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
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Today dances performed to rap and other
contemporary music forms continue to be
called jazz dance.
Jazz dance has no single, simple definition.
It is an approach, rather than a style of
movement.
There is improvisation, great variety and
constant vitality.
State of Louisiana Department of
Education A Fine Arts Survey 1992
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It is always changing.
It is found in social dancing,
shows, Hollywood movies,
spectacles, the concert stage; it
catch the consumer’s eye in
advertisements.
Broadway
television
is used to
television
Perhaps because jazz dance is seen so
often by the general public, it is less likely
to be seen in a concert setting.
State of Louisiana Department of
Education A Fine Arts Survey 1992
State of Louisiana Department of
Education A Fine Arts Survey 1992
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
Tap dancing is a blend of the syncopated
rhythms and tribal dances of the African
slaves with step dances brought to America in
the forms of the Irish jig, reel, and hornpipe,
and the English clog.
Tap dancing concentrates on intricate,
rhythmical footwork accented my metal “taps”
attached to the bottoms of the dancers’
shoes.
It has been used in minstrel shows, vaudeville,
and nightclubs, and most recently in films and
State of Louisiana Department of
on Broadway. Education
A Fine Arts Survey 1992
State of Louisiana Department of
Education A Fine Arts Survey 1992
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Theatrical dance refers to dance used in
musical theatre productions.
Its style varies depending on the style of
the music.
In the early days of musical theatre,
dancers were entertaining but separate
from the plot.
State of Louisiana Department of
Education A Fine Arts Survey 1992
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
Agnes De Mille is the choreographer given
credit for first using dance to advance the
plot.
She did this by incorporating vernacular or
everyday, characteristic gesture and acting
into her dances as seen in “Oklahoma,”
“Carousel,” and “Brigadoon.”
State of Louisiana Department of
Education A Fine Arts Survey 1992
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Musicals incorporate several
dance into one production.
styles
of
De Mille’s choreography for “Oklahoma”
used both ballet and modern, while “Cats”
uses both jazz and ballet.
One of the longest-running shows in
Broadway history, Michael Bennett's “A
Chorus Line,” uses tap, ballet, and jazz.
State of Louisiana Department of
Education A Fine Arts Survey 1992
State of Louisiana Department of
Education A Fine Arts Survey 1992
State of Louisiana Department of
Education A Fine Arts Survey 1992
State of Louisiana Department of
Education A Fine Arts Survey 1992
State of Louisiana Department of
Education A Fine Arts Survey 1992