Jazz Dance I is a course for beginning students with little or no dance experience. The class introduces students to creative work, concert and world dance forms, and dance vocabulary. The curriculum is based on the California State Content Standards for Dance:
Artistic Perception: Students work to embody technical dance skills such as alignment, strength, coordination, and flexibility. Students work toward mastery with repetition of dance exercises and by learning dance sequences. Students also begin to learn the language of dance with jazz and world dance vocabulary.
Creative Expression: Students explore and improvise with the elements of dance (Space, Time, and Energy), solve movement problems, and think critically and respond to the work of their peers. Students learn the principles of choreography and collaborate in groups to create dances. Choreography project concepts covered in Jazz Dance 1 include body facings and traveling directions, symmetrical and asymmetrical shapes and levels, tempo contrasts, energy qualities, and narrative form.
Historical and Cultural Context: Students study the history of jazz dance as an African-American art form, including work on traditional jazz dances of the Harlem Renaissance. Students are exposed to historical social dance styles and culturally-specific traditional dance forms, and learn about the history and culture of each form. Dance forms include Central African dance, Baile Folklórico, Hawai’ian hula, Tahitian ‘ori, classical ballet, and foundational hip hop styles
Aesthetic Valuing: Students read and write about dance, observe dance genres and performances, and articulate the dance elements they observe.
Connections, Relations, Applications: Students apply the disciplines essential to dance training to other aspects of their school work and life.