This jazz dance class focuses on the form’s many different iterations and gives students a tour through a range of jazz elements. The class places a specific focus on musical and rhythmic connection while engaging different techniques inside of jazz, from contemporary to classical. The class also makes space to discuss the Eurocentric elements of some jazz-based techniques and works to locate and recenter the conversation around jazz dance’s African lineage and roots. By identifying jazz dance’s roots, we can better utilize the form in the now, and students will be given tools to start to question how we are engaging jazz dance in this current historical moment.
