Jazz & Choreography

Choreography

Get Bossy with the Fosse

Warm Up

Cooldown

Pliés

A movement where the knees bend slightly

Tendus

Battement tendu is a movement where the leg is stretched while maintaining the foot firmly on the ground

Pliés with hand positions

Jazz Ports de Bras

Isolations

Pirouette (Turning Left)

Pirouette (Turning Right)

Fully Jazz Concentrated Workshop

Workshop Part 1

Workshop Part 2

History of Jazz Dance

New Orleans - 1600s - 1900s

First and mostly, jazz is a combination of African, Latin and Europeans’ different forms and styles of music, however the earliest form of jazz dance is rooted back from African culture which was imported to America through the slave trade during 1600s. Jazz dance and music was formerly played by African American musicians such as Louis Armstrong in the popular state of New Orleans, mainly in the red-light district. Nevertheless, many Americans and news outlets such as the New York Times criticised the new and growing era of music, describing jazz as improper. Alongside the slave trade, travelling musicians spread the culture of jazz including even popular dance movements such as body isolations with the use of drums. However, the Slave Act of 1740 banned slaves from performing their culture’s dance or their drums, nonetheless, they invented new movements and styles of musical expression such as hand and clapping and using their vocal talent which was implemented to the jazz we know today.

Jazz Age - 1920s

The Jazz Age became a sensation in the 1920s, mainly known now as the ‘Roaring Twenties’, musicians began making recordings for their music, jazz was appearing everywhere including nightclubs, radios or even purchase a copy. Jazz had become a staple for both economic and cultural change in America and was widely popular in states such as Chicago and New York. However, with the developing minds of the youth, there was a rise in parties, use of alcohol and on the other hand, dance! A popular dance movement to come from this was the ‘Charleston’, which consisted of foot stamps and handclaps as I had previously mentioned. How do to the Charleston dance:

‘In the basic step the knees are bent, then straightened, as the feet pivot in and out. Weight is shifted from one leg to another, the free leg being kicked out from the body at an oblique angle. The basic step is often interspersed with strenuous movements, such as forward and backward kicks while travelling forward.’

- https://www.britannica.com/art/Charleston-dance

Modern Jazz Dance - 1950s

A new era began in the 1950s known as the modern version of jazz dance, this was introduced by popular musicians such as Lester Young and Nina Simone who swayed away from the traditional forms and overall structure of jazz and pursued a more innovative style of jazz which is more commonly known now as Avant Garde. Original jazz dance and Caribbean traditional dance techniques combined paved the way for a modernised version of jazz dance. Jazz dance then became heavily involved with a sense of performing and eventually into Broadway, a smoother style that can be seen by the popularised work of Bob Fosse and the current date of Broadway shows such as: Chicago, The Pajama Game and Cabaret.

MTV and Pop Videos - 21st Century

Jazz has even integrated into modern day while maintaining its popularity by still including its original Caribbean and African American culture. Jazz dance has even made its way into music videos from all different genres such as Beyoncé, Madonna and Michael Jackson making references from popular jazz choreographers such as Bob Fosse’s choreography in Sweet Charity in Beyoncé's music video ‘Get Me Bodied’. The appeal of jazz has fascinated many famous musicians by its bold and striking hairstyles and sense of fashion style. Another way jazz has merged into pop culture is the youth’s dance trends through the use of social media such as YouTube, Instagram and Tiktok, where people share their choreography in hope to challenge others to recreate it. Similarly, dance competitions have included many styles of dance including jazz while it evolves into future generations.

Examples of Jazz Dance in Pop Culture and their Original

Marilyn Monroe - Diamonds Are A Girl's Bestfriend

Madonna - Material Girl

Bob Fosse - Sweet Charity

Beyoncé - Get Me Bodied

Who inspired me and how? - My Progress

In the beginning of this project, in January whilst planning my choreography and music choice, I decided to look into various different jazz concentrated choreographers and their style of dance along with their techniques. After a while, I decided to choreograph my dance to the song ‘All That Jazz’, which was originally choreographed by a popular known choreographer Bob Fosse. I decided to research Fosse's style regarding jazz dance and found he mainly focused on full-bodied choreography, while still maintaining movements that are controlled and resisted and moments where the body is still. Fosse’s signature moves consist of: hip rolls, jazz hands, thrusts, sideways shuffling and finger snaps. I decided to use the famous jazz hands, finger snaps and thrusts. I also thought of possibly using a hat but that was depending if I could find one that would fit my head and not fall off during my dance routine.

At the start of February, I came to the decision to research another choreographer which came to be Gus Giordano. Whilst investigating Giordano’s style, I realised that his techniques are classical and are inspired by the natural movements of the body in modern dance - he specialises in isolations and accentuates your head and torso leaving you to have an elegant form. I was considering using body isolations in a snappy and fast manner during some of the beats and then finalising this movement by contracting the isolations slowly and controlled. By the end of the month, I realised that I should extend my arms instead of doing isolations with my chest since it gave a more exaggerated look to it which is what I wanted from my character as he is drawing attention to himself from the audience. However, I found that the head turns during some of the beats were good and seemed to work well, similarly with Giordano’s technique, I decided to include some pliés.

Due to filming and script work, I couldn’t work on the dance during March. On the other hand in April, I researched the choreographer Gene Kelly, who famously co-choreographed the song ‘Singing in the Rain’. His style consists of a combination of ballet, jazz and tap; he reflects his acrobatic and athletic skills in his dancing style with an energetic pump in his step. We recently started working on our play with Midsummer-Night’s Dream in which he took the first scene and changed our acting style from dramatic and serious to comedic, which I decided to implement and try on my dance choreography. However, whilst practising the dance I found it to look more appealing in a slower manner during the start of the song. Yet, towards the ending of the song I felt like a faster pace may help the dynamic of the choreography, although it may be affected by my decision to include chair work at the end of the song, I will have to do various research on chair work in a jazz format.

'All That Jazz' (Final Performance)

All About Choreography

A choreographer’s job is to design and teach certain movements to a song/ piece and is usually performed in an entertainment setting whether that may be: MTVs, musicals or even movies while maintaining the director’s vision and overall artistic aspect, for example some directors may want a selective style of dance e.g.. ballet, jazz, street, tango. Choreographers will often have to create a dance routine while equally working out the dancers’ costume, set of stage and the possibility of a dancer’s health problems/ disabilities e.g. hypermobility. As soon as the choreographer has their initial idea for the choreography, they will usually have to research regarding a possible historical side to a piece e.g. Hamilton or a musical aspect e.g. Chicago - it was mostly based around the jazz era and certain moves were used to represent the sensuality of the characters. Since the choreographer investigated and did some background research to ensure that the dance correlated to the piece itself as well as the scene involved, the director will have been able to more clearly communicate their vision and evaluate the dance.

As I previously discussed, choreography is a creative form in which people express themselves through the use of their body movements, which for some dance styles may take years of training to perfect e.g. ballet. However, to grow a career as a choreographer is certainly difficult due to the competitive nature of the industry itself, since you have to ensure that you have an online presence to share your work to others, many use social platforms such as: YouTube, Instagram and Tiktok to share their routines and dances techniques in order to gain traction to their page. One way this could be achieved is by creating a certain dance trend to a certain audio and hoping the overall audience of the platform are influenced to share the original choreographer’s dance routine. A lot of dancers and choreographers rely on marketing their work to the public to grow in popularity which comes with possible collaborations with other choreographers and just overall more potential opportunities that may come with it. As much as choreography is about the creativity of it all, it equally shares the importance of business.

Another way that choreographers refine themselves into the entertainment industry is to define their brand, this could be achieved by years of practise and choreographing which eventually leads into creating their own unique style which could include: hand movements, chest isolations, speed/ pacing of the song, these stylistic choices can make a choreographer stand out. By fabricating a personal vision for their dance, choreographers can convey their work through a clearer lens, similarly a dance can reflect the choreographer’s intention, passion and understanding of a director’s possible influence. When you construct that personality and creativity to a dance, other creators and brands are more likely to connect with your work and will be more willing to collaborate.

Bloody Mary Choreography - Incomplete

After receiving the plan for this music-concentrated scene, I decided to have a meeting with the directors of ‘Professor Schmirnoff’, Sam Gwilliam and Misty Coates - they informed me that the scene consisted of the villain, Liby manipulating/ brainwashing the workers of the company to perform in her dance. The part of the song that I was to choreograph, started with eight beats: the first three I left to have Liby leading Chad to the dance chorus as she watched them and took control over them, then the other five beats I began the choreography leading with simple steps to do a 180 degrees - this is to show synchronisation which relates to mind-control. Then as the song continues, I wanted to give the dance an undertone of an unsettling nature; to do this I decided to have the dance have multiple mentions of monsters e.g. a zombie walk then rise as well as continuous rigid movements. However to maintain parts of choreography, I had the dancers do 360 degrees chest isolation as they got up to four beats.

Midway through the song, I introduced Liby in the middle of the choreography in centre stage surrounded by the dancers around her. I did this because I wanted to give off the illusion that Liby had full control of everyone that was around her and that the dance centred around her presence - I showed this by freezing everyone as she came in then prolonging that control over her peers as her hands movements follow the other dancers’ whole body movements in synchronisation. One thing that I had to keep in mind was the centre stage dancer, Misty (Liby) as she suffered from hypermobility which meant that when the other dancers were already on the ground, she had to take a longer time getting down to ensure that her knees didn’t lock.

As the song finished, I had Liby again in the centre as the rest of the crew walked to her side, eventually pointing towards the camera to insinuate that Liby was self-aware to the point that she knew she was being watched as putting on a performance. During the recording day itself and after discussing with the directors, I asked everyone to keep a dull/ deadpan face and look towards the front (not the camera). Although, overall the dance performance and recording seem to go according to plan, I did have some worries that the dance moves were too open for their restrictive outfits which were just regular formal wear: white shirt, black trousers and tie. Luckily, everyone was able to move freely enough to perform the dance without any issues and multiple times due to the dance being filmed from multiple angles.