Ashley Valdahl COM 110- Informative Speech Mike Spinelli 10/5/10 Jazz Dance Imagine yourself standing on stage,

waiting for the curtain to open, so you can begin your routine. You probably have butterflies in your stomach knowing that hundreds of people are sitting out in the crowd ready to watch you dance your heart out. As the curtain opens and the bright lights shine on you, the butterflies go away as you start dancing to the jazzy music playing. If you are a dancer or have ever performed on stage in front of a large crowd, you know the exact feeling that I am talking about. Being a dancer for twelve years, I have felt this feeling many times before all of my recitals. I have taken a number of dance classes, which include tap, jazz, lyrical, and hip-hop. Jazz dance was one of my favorite types of dance that I took. Jazz is a skillful combination of both rhythm and design. This quote was printed in the article All Thats Jazz from the Dance Magazine, and was said by a well known dance teacher, Matt Mattox. With jazz dance being one of the more known types of dance today, it is surprising that people, especially dancers, dont know much about its background. To get a better understanding of jazz dance, I will explain some of its history, a few of the well known jazz dancers and choreographers, and the different styles of jazz dance today. To begin jazz dances history, we will take a look back at how it got started. Jazz dance became more known soon after World War I, but the actual foundations started further back in history. It was created in America by Africans who came over to North America. According to Rachel Straus, author of And All That Jazz in the magazine, Dance Spirit, in the 1840s a black man named Master Juba used different body parts to dance with different rhythms. His style of dance became one of the foundations of jazz dance. Also in the

article, And All That Jazz, by Rachel Straus, we come to find out that the 1920s was known as the jazz age. During this time many new dance moves were developed, and jazz dance spread all throughout ballrooms and even on Broadway. Later down the road in the 1950s, dance studios began offering classes that were similar to jazz. Some of the classes included freestyle, primitive, and Afro-Caribbean. In the same article that Rachel Straus wrote, she states that in 1955 the modern-day jazz class was born. Because of all this excitement of this new style of dance, college dance departments added it in the late 1960s. Nowadays, you can find jazz dance at every dance studio, on Broadway, and even on television. Although this style of dance was brought over by Africans it is still very popular because of some very influential people who helped make it what it is today. In the magazine, Dance Spirit, an article called Jazz Movers and Shakers was written by Ariel White. In this article, she said that the grandfather of jazz is Jack Cole. Cole created a group of dancers that would perform at night clubs and theaters. He was a well known choreographer who created dances for musicals and films. The same time that Jack Cole was around, so was Katherine Dunham. According to the Jazz Movers and Shakers article by Ariel White, she was called the mother of indigenous dance. As I mentioned previously, the AfroCaribbean type dance was founded by Katherine. In Dance Magazine, there was an article named Luigi, Gus Giordano, and Matt Mattox: Jazz Masters. This article was written by Rachel Straus. In this article she states that Luigi, Gus Giordano, and Matt Mattox are three jazz teachers that the jazz technique we know today came from. Luigi, whose real name is Eugene Louis Facciuto, was injured in a car accident when he was twenty one. He was able to learn how to dance again by repeating moves over and over again. Although he could not dance as well as he could before the accident he was still a good dancer and teacher, and his techniques deal with

fluid motions and lots of stretching. Gus Giordano was a dance teacher who started Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago. Gus was inspired by Katherines style of dance so he incorporated a lot of it into his dances. Matt Mattox whose classes were originally supposed to help people in the musical theater actually helps dancers technique. According to Ariel White from the Dance Spirit magazine, Matt Mattox still teaches today and he calls jazz freestyle dance. Mattox is correct because today, jazz dance involves many aspects of dance. Jazz dance started off with the jazzy music and moves, but today it is a combination of dance styles. In And All That Jazz by Rachel Straus, she said that todays jazz style has merged with hip hop, ballet, modern, world dance, and more. From experience, I know that this is true. I have taken a jazz/hip-hop class which involved a variety of dance moves from jazz dance and hip hop. Combing the moves of past choreographers and todays choreographers you get unique dances. Jazz dance has a deep American history with a mix of African traditions. It has come about through all the talented dancers and choreographers. Without all the talented people throughout jazzs history, todays jazz dance would not be what it is. A quote said by Danny Buraczeski in a Dance Magazine article named All Thats Jazz clearly summarizes jazz dance. Jazz dance is a melting pot of countless styles and influences.