When I started teaching jazz dance, I simply taught the type of jazz that I partly remember doing when I was younger. I copied from my own memories of my dance teachers and I “winged” every class. I technically taught leaps and turns to music that I THOUGHT was jazz music. I knew there were multiple forms of jazz dance, but I was never truly taught and educated and only pieced together what little I knew. Now that I know the truth and the history and culture of vernacular jazz dance, I feel like I have robbed my students and cheated them out of, not only their classes, but also out of a true education on jazz dance and history.
I feel most strongly about including elements of African movements, pop culture moves from the decades and honoring the pioneers of the true vernacular jazz movements. I also feel strongly about making sure my students know the history and culture behind jazz and its different branches. Only if I touch on a few each class, eventually I want my students to have a full understanding and exposure to all the branches and be able to identify them as part of the jazz dance tree. I also want to emphasize in my classes the choices in music and make sure they honor the correct rhythms so that my students can identify the “fake” jazz music, like some pop songs or rock and roll and they know that music like that does not honor the dance form nor is it truly pure in what it is trying to represent. They will also know a little nit about each of the pioneers of jazz dance so in case anyone was to ask them, they are not ignorant about who influenced the style and form. They will be able to explain the movements of that pioneers’ style, tell how it is influential to the jazz dance style all together as well as be able to identify its influences on other dance forms/styles and in other dance pieces/ performances that they may watch.
I believe that the future of jazz dance can go one of two ways depending on the now teaching community and commercial dance. I believe that if more teachers become educated themselves on the true jazz dance forms and branches then jazz will continue to evolve and create new branches on the tree with the vernacular and traditional still existing. Jazz dancers will have full knowledge on the history and culture of jazz dance and evolve it as well as honor the originality in it and keep it alive in their dancing as well as combine the old with the new. Or, if the culture, history and vernacular jazz dance isn’t taught or shown then it will all together disappear. Dance is a hand-me-down art form that is passed along and taught by multiple people in different areas, spaces, cultures, and even on different platforms now-a-days. Education is key to keeping jazz dance alive. Knowledge of the pure and true will keep it going and continue for years. But without teaching the old with the new, eventually it can go extinct. It is my responsibility as a teacher and educator to make sure that this will never happen for as long as my dance teaching career is alive.
