Talk:Jazz dance

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 16 October 2017 and 17 November 2017. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Broman.a. Peer reviewers: Broman.a.

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Dance
The following recent chaotic addition by 199.8.174.35, who vandalized several other pages is removed.


 * Whatever is hot and happening on the popular dance scene is found in the style of jazz. Isolations, upbeat music and high energy characterize jazz. This style is frequently seen in music videos and films. Workshops and clinics are also offered, such as Leaps and Turns and Lyrical Jazz.

However it seesm that the words used above deserve to be in the article. Mikkalai 22:21, 15 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Rationale for cleanup
First, the article moves back and forth between discussion of two or more senses of the term "jazz dance." The second bullet point deals with the newer sense of the term, but goes on to state "Jazz is the old word meaning TAP". Then the article seems to redefine the term halfway through as simply "a form of dance commonly used in Broadway shows and movies." I also have a feeling that Lindy Hop and swing should fall under the older sense of the term, but the article mentions them among some other passages that don't seem to relate to these dances.

Secondly, several passages use what is at best an informal tone: "Even though jazz dancing might look easy and fun when the dancers do it, the dancers have to be in really good shape, and practice sometimes six hours a day." Some of the quotation marks give me this overly informal impression, too. When the article states "In jazz dancing, the movements are big and exaggerated and there is usually an attitude the dancer conveys to the audience," does it really mean big and exaggerated movements define jazz dance? In other words, all the movements of jazz dance are this way? Doesn't the statement about conveying an attitude apply to every performing art or every art in general?

Finally, I simply don't understand the meaning of several passages, such as "In addition to Tap, during the jazz, a popular form of jazz dance was Swing dancing...."

I will work on the grammar where possible, but this article needs fact checking before all of the grammar editings can happen. I don't have the expertise to verify or refute any of the facts put forth.

--Officiallyover 05:34, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Historic Jazz Dance
PlainJane 11:20, 26 April 2006 (UTC) Swing dancers make many references to 'jazz dance', meaning solo dance, with an emphasis on footwork. This dance style has less in common with the broadway or contemporary jazz dance characterised by Bob Fosse than it does with African American vernacular dances like tap, flash dances, etc. It would be useful to add this type of dance to this article. I don't know anything about its history, though.


 * "Jazz dance" in the sense PlainJane means it is often referred to as "vernacular jazz dance", to distinguish it from the later forms that evolved in dance studios. (Partner dances like Lindy Hop are usually considered part of this tradition, as well as solo dances.) The best references I know of for information on this subject are Marshall Stears' Jazz Dance and Lynne Fauley Emery's Black Dance. I certainly agree that this article needs to be cleaned up. Szarka 22:55, 3 May 2006 (UTC)
 * The sentence "Until the middle of 1950s, jazz dance meant mostly tap dance" should probably be expanded with this vernicular jazz dance (and of course the articles needs a general cleanup).on dance moms there is a lot of terminology for jazz so look on there . // Habj 20:46, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

List of dance moves
I have been working to clean up this article armed only with my meager knowledge of this topic and the insights of other editors.

One thing that's been bothering me forever is the list of dance moves. It haphazardly mixes dance moves found in tap, modern jazz, Lindy Hop, and so on. It is completely disorganized and devoid of both explanations and sources. I suspect that some entirely fictional moves have been listed here as well. Also, portions of the list can be found nearly verbatim in other articles. It would be impossible for any one editor to fix this mess because said editor must have in-depth knowledge of the multitudes of dance styles that are jazz dance. So, how to fix this?

Well, here's my cure: I moved the list here. If you feel that it really does belong in the article, please clean it up before restoring it. In particular:
 * Create a section for each dance style.
 * List each move one time only, within its appropriate section.
 * Eliminate sections that duplicate lists in other articles.
 * Provide a brief description of each move.
 * Provide a valid source for each listed move.

The list
Common jazz dance moves include:

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 2406:3400:319:EBE0:81E0:8630:5EC0:ED01 (talk) 06:59, 18 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Jeté
 * Split Leap
 * Switch Leap/Swish Split
 * Stag Leap
 * Pas de bourrée
 * Piqué passé
 * Pirouette
 * Pivot step
 * Renversé
 * Toe Rise
 * Touch step
 * Pivot Turn
 * Fouetté Turns
 * Grand Pile
 * Chassé
 * Chaîné Turns
 * Posé Turns
 * Step-ball Change
 * Russian
 * Turning Pas de bourrée
 * Passe  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.35.15.214 (talk) 00:13, 5 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Step-Tuck Chassé
 * Jazz Runs
 * Centre Split Leap
 * Lame Duck Turn
 * Illusion Kick
 * Ball Change
 * Firebird Jump
 * Grapevine
 * Chasse
 * Roll (floor) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.176.93.60 (talk) 00:56, 27 May 2020 (UTC)
 * fan kick

Tap Steps (almost all of them are 8-count and start on 8): -- Lambtron (talk) 20:19, 29 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Shuffles
 * 3 Tap Riff
 * Pull Backs
 * Single Pull Backs
 * Draw Backs
 * Perry Diddles
 * Flaps
 * Buffalo
 * Wing
 * Shim Sham
 * Shim Sham Break
 * Basic Charleston
 * Charleston Break
 * Savoy Kick
 * Fall Off The Log
 * Boogie Back
 * Boogie Forward
 * Boogie Drop
 * Shorty George
 * Fish Tail
 * Tick Tock
 * Tack Annies
 * Half Break
 * Mess Around
 * Camel Walk
 * Rusty Dusty
 * Scarecrow
 * Broken legs
 * Box Step
 * Apple Jack
 * Gaze Afar
 * Horse (kick-ball-change - step - skip - step - kick-ball-change - down (gaze afar))
 * Rocking
 * Hesitation
 * Jumpin' Charleston
 * Squat Charleston
 * Skating
 * Truckin'
 * Spank A Baby
 * Peckin'
 * Around The World Charleston
 * Crazy Legs
 * Lock-turn
 * Rubber Legs
 * Kick Around (downhold on 8)
 * Knee Slap
 * Shine Your Shoes
 * Siska-boom-bah (roundkick - triplestep)
 * Single - Single - Double Kick
 * Tabby The Cat
 * Flyin' Charleston (high-kick - slide - back-step - kick-step)
 * Corkscrew
 * Flea Hop (Slip Slop)
 * Bees' Knees
 * Shouts
 * Irish step

Article Format
The entire article needs to be reformatted and properly divided. The basic entry should just speak to the history and basic origins of Jazz Dance. In that history it needs to properly speak to the other dance forms (ballet, modern, folk, tap, musical theater) that were the genesis for Jazz as a form. Dates need to be properly checked as well. A list of Dance Moves is an entirely separate article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nwdivod (talk • contribs) 14:05, 13 February 2011 (UTC) o wow —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.172.121.123 (talk) 02:08, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

The New Orleans connection
I am a jazz history researcher, and I think the New Orleans section should simply be removed. Although generally accepted as a fact, even the claim that jazz developed in New Orleans, is actually disputed. It is clear, that there was a lot of musical activity in the city, as well as a lot of dance venues, but it is not clear that the type of music first recorded in 1917 in New York, by The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, which is thought of as the first known type of jazz, was a type of music commonly played in New Orleans, prior to the advent of those records. Going as far, as to presume that the phenomenon of jazz dancing originated in New Orleans, is just wishful guessing, and the sources given for those claims in the article, are not of an academic quality. Obviously, elements of what was to be thought of jazz dancing, originated in many different places all over the US, and many of them stem back to the ragtime period. The listing of dance venues in the city, that takes up most of the place in the New Orleans section, hardly seems relevant to the issue of the article, at all. Without it, the article would seem more on track, less messy.

Louis Armstrong expressed the opinion that ragtime and jazz were basically just two names for the same phenomenon, during different historical periods - which is a quite useful angle when working on an article as this. Jazz is primarily a word, applied to different things, not a specific thing in itself. The term jazz dancing has also meant a lot of different things, and the uses of the word are still in development. In this respect, the section with the heading "History" is very precise, showing that the term has had different uses over time. My claim is that this section says what might be said, and is sufficient as it is. It furthermore sites more serious sources, sadly with the exception of a blog post that is no longer exists (something might be done about that). It might be expanded, but in the same vein, treating jazz dance as a term, not a thing. Now, if e.g. Fishtails is a move that can be traced back to a certain year or place, that is a part of the history of Fishtails and dance styles with this move in it, not something that belongs in the first paragraph of this article.

Unless somebody protests, I will remove the New Orleans section, on the grounds that it is an irrelevant, unnecessary digression, siting nonacademic sources. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ebronken (talk • contribs) 18:31, 20 February 2017 (UTC)

Jazz dance is mostly used with latin music. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.4.138.132 (talk) 22:21, 9 January 2019 (UTC)

Jazz dance inaccuracies
Jazz Dance did not start in the mid 20th century. The name jazz dance in print dates back to 1918. The roots of what became known as jazz dance are from African Dance and were incubating during slavery. These roots provided movements that later were incorporated into early authentic jazz dance during the jazz age and starting with Ragtime music what we know as jazz dance surfaced, but started well before that. Could this article be marked as needing major work because respectfully it is perpetuating the myth that jazz dance originated with white dancers in the 50's. Even this misunderstanding is misstated in this article because Jack Cole the so-called "Father of Jazz Dance" (an inaccurate title) started his work in the 1940's. The first sentence is completely historically incorrect. That's what jumped out at me and after that I actually didn't read the rest of the article because an article that starts with that sentence cannot be accurate. It worries me that anyone googling "what is jazz dance?" will find this explanation. I applaud the contributor for taking a crack at it because it is a complex issue... but I fear this article could do more harm than good. Thanks for listening. LennaLockwood (talk) 04:00, 26 February 2021 (UTC)

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