Jazz History Emancipation to 1970s

From the 1850s into the 20 th century presentational performance opportunities for African-Americans increased. Vernacular dance and dances that were previously only seen on plantations were seen on stage. Near the end of the 19 th century dances on stage began to use the emerging Ragtime music and began to blend even further with the dances and cultures of other white immigrants. African-American vernacular dance became more syncopated, heading toward the swinging dance forms such as the Charleston and Lindy. Early musical theater began to incorporate dances such as the Cakewalk, Ballin’ the Jack and the Texas Tommy which derived from African-American dances

Thanks to the social dance boom and new jazz music in the early 20 th century dance that was formerly only seen in after hours joints or “jook houses” and brothels moved into ballrooms Group dance forms gave way to partner dances and the animal dances such as the Turkey Trot and Bunny Hug became all the rage From the 1920s through the 1940s, a time known as the jazz age, new dances were emerging through experimentation, extension and creative development During this time jazz dance moved to the forefront of musical theater due to the 1921 production of Shuffle Along that featured the Charleston

In the 1930s jazz swing style music and jazz social dance were at their peak. “Dances emphasized the swinging body in space, moving not only through the body’s weighted and under-curve reslease in and through space but also through a propulsive, rhythmic conversation with the equally swinging and propulsive jazz music.” The Savoy Ballroom in New York City was where swing dance was born. Legendary jazz orchestras and artists such as Duke Ellington and many others performed at the Savoy Ballroom.

In the 1940s swing began to decline and a new form called bebop began to surface. Bebop still had the swing rhythm but had a more rhythmically complex sound Concurrently there was a decline in social dance from 1945 to 1954 due to a 20% tax on dance floors to support World War II. This contributed to many ballrooms closing. Bebop had a significant impact on jazz dance. While Lindy dancers were able to swing to bebop, swing and bebop were loosing popularity Jazz as social dance music was being replaced with Latin, rhythm and blues, rock ‘n’ roll and funk

Moving beyond the 1940s musical theater began to embrace modern dance and ballet but jazz dance was not left behind. Katherine Dunham continued to create jazz dance for movie musicals and this influenced an innovation that would eventually be theatrical jazz dance, a divergence from jazz dance to date Ballet choreographer Jerome Robbins, the choreographer of West Side Story, experimented with merging jazz dance and ballet therefore shifting the focus from rhythm to line and space. As jazz dance was transitioning, choreographers Jack Cole and Bob Fosse were integrating the dynamics of jazz inside their theater dance style for film and Broadway.

Jack Cole created his own stylized form that used syncopated rhythms and mixed African-American social dance (Lindy and Jitterbug) with modern dance and East Indian dance technique. This was the first form that was coined modern jazz dance. Choreographers and teachers struggled with how to teach this new style under the name jazz. At the same time the uprising of rock ‘n’ roll, disco and funk music encouraged choreographers and teachers to experiment with the pairing of jazz dance to new music. Jazz dance merged with these musical styles with a passion and became the norm in classrooms, Broadway and film. This was even more solidified when choreographer Bob Fosse paired jazzlike dance to rock ‘n’ roll style music in Sweet Charity in 1966 and Pippin in 1972.