Jazz Dance History

To begin with, jazz is an all American dance that has some African rhythmic influences. The first group that portrayed jazz to the American society were a group called the flappers in the 1920’s. This group was young western women who wore short skirts and bobbed hair and were considered wild based on the image

Jazz has always been a part of the American tradition. Some may say they like Jazz for its rhythmic twist and turns. Others may love the soothing melodies from an improved Trumpet solo. All in all, Jazz has been an American staple and has molded today’s popular music, into what it is today. It’s very different from classical music, which is written out and strict. Jazz is much more. It’s made up of spontaneity and improvisation, which makes up an idea on the spot. There are many wide varieties in Jazz. There is Bebop Jazz, Avante Garde Jazz, Acid Jazz, Free Funk Jazz, Soul Jazz, Swing Jazz, and many, many more! These forms of Jazz can be seen and heard in some of your favorite music of Today. It’s been widely used by the world. There is an important reason as to why this genre contributes to the growing of music. We first take a look into the root of all Jazz. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the country of Africa was the first known country to use rhythm primarily for the element of musical expression, and ensembles composed entirely of percussion instruments created extended polyrhythmic works. These polyrhythms, which means the “layering of multiple rhythms.”, were record in Western music. African music did not use paper, or sheet music. Instead, they relied on Aural rituals, learned by ear and also used” spontaneity, which is later said to be known as improvisation”. In Africa, most of the music that was expressed was for religious

Charleston, the cakewalk, the black bottom, and the flea hop. Many jazz bands played in dance

According to the PBS documentary, the Minstrel Show was Americans first entertainment craze. Their inspiration for doing some of these dances

Over the course of history there have been many contrasting and similar views in terms of religion and the practices done in this aspect. An example is the Mexica (name given by the West to refer to the Aztecs) practices of El Día de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) and the Catholic (people in the Christian religion loyal to the Roman Catholic Church and the leader of that church, the Pope) practices of the holiday. The Day of the Dead fell on about the beginning of August which was the ninth month on the Aztec Solar Calendar and was celebrated for the entire month. The Aztecs and other Meso-American civilizations commemorated this day by using skulls to honor and

One of the most memorable cultural changes to occur during the Jazz Age was its eponymous musical genre. First played in New Orleans, the lively, swinging style and danceable rhythms

It is not uncommon in music that a particular style or genre may share similar traits with another completely different musical genre. In fact, this happens quite often, and much like other forms of art, different types of music influence each other regularly and co-exist to create newer forms of music. A brilliant example of this is demonstrated through the music of Claude Debussy and his widespread influence on 20th century music. Considered one of the fathers of “impressionistic music” (a title he personally disapproved of), Debussy’s selection of harmony opened an entirely new realm of harmonic possibilities that hadn’t existed previously. Through the implementation of extended harmonies and flowing non-diatonic melodies (among other techniques) he carved a unique sound completely different from his contemporaries. One of the genres his music inspired was Jazz. Debussy’s usage of harmony and modulation was highly influential on many of the Jazz greats including Duke

One thing that contributed to the popularity of dancing in the 1920s is how universally simple they made the dances. If these dances would have been harder to learn, not as many people would have been doing them. Many people know that, during the “Jazz Age, almost everyone danced so they did a dance almost anyone could do”(Nelson). When Billie Putman was growing up, there were dances every weekend at the big auditorium in the middle of town. Everyone in her small town would show up to dance. She remembered going to the dances with her mom to help her serve refreshments downstairs, while most of the town was upstairs dancing. If dancing was so popular in such a small town in Idaho, it’s unimaginable how influential it must have been in big cities(Nelson).

What people don’t know about our society today is that African Americas have created most of the dances we do today. As a society, we have been inspired by the native African dances because they poured their souls into the dances which all had meaning. From what I’ve noticed African Americans and dance are a pair because it brings out the rhythm and joy in folks. The musical culture is very strong and over the last few years has become stronger.

“Many of the Euro-American colonists were intrigued by the exotic music and dance of the African Americans” (Morgan, 656). In contrast, African American thinks Euro-American music was more superior or civilized than their different and proper style of music they have. Dance belonged as an important part because every day and on special occasions they danced. In the world of African American dance, existed many traditional dances like Ring Shout, a popular dance. From many of the kinds they danced from came hip hop and Rock and Roll.

Jazz emerged towards the beginning of the 20th Century, but didn 't just spring up out of nowhere. Instead, it was a creation that developed from popular music styles of the 1800s that blended and combined them to entertain the nation and social dancers. The two main music styles that jazz consisted of were ragtime and the blues. Both ragtime and the blues had their beginnings in African-American communities. While both of these music styles strongly contributed to the creation of jazz and have a lot of similarities, they do have their differences. These differences lie within their origins, their elements that make up their styles and how these elements influenced jazz, and their artists and composers.

Another style is Black dances, specifically, twerking. “Twerking” did not originate from Miley Cyrus. As said by Debbie Allen; “Well twerking is nothing but African isolations. It’s an African dance. It’s been given a new name. They’ve been twerking for 500 centuries”.

jazz started well before then, in Africa. The powerful impact that African culture has throughout

The origins of jazz music and dance are found in the rhythms and movements brought to America by African slaves. The style of African dance is earthy; low, knees bent, pulsating body movements emphasized by body isolations and hand-clapping. As slaves forced into America, starting during the 1600’s, Africans from many cultures were cut off from their families, languages and

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