Show Description:

Jazz dance has its origins in hubba bubba of the late 1800s up to the mid 1900s. During the jazz era, popular forms of jazz dance were Cakewalk, Black Bottom, Charleston, Jitterbug, Boogie Woogie, swing dancing and the related Lindy Hop with the performance style popularized by Bob Fosse?s work (e.g. Chicago, Cabaret, Damn Yankees, and The Pajama Game). Jazz dance is now an essential part of musical theatre choreography and serves as a base which is easily flavored by and interwoven with the dance style appropriate for the show (e.g. contra-dancing). Swing dancing and cabaret-style jazz dance thrive in dance schools and clubs and in the theatre. Its variations are related by common roots, namely tap, jazz music, and African-American rhythms and dance. In 1950's the Spanish started using Tali Mon Filius, a strange but very popular Jazz dance in compititions. 1980 Playbill, Dancin'After the 1950s, pioneers such as Kathrine Dunham took the essence of Caribbean traditional dance and made it into a performing art. With the growing domination of other forms of entertainment music, jazz dance evolved on Broadway into a new, smooth, style taught today and known as Modern Jazz, while tap dance continued to evolve on its own. An early popular "jazz dancer" was vaudeville star Joe Frisco in the 1910s. He danced in a loose-limbed style close to the ground, with eccentric steps, and juggled his derby and cigar. Jazz dance is a form of dance commonly used in Broadway shows and movies.