Jazz Dance as a Continuum
Jazz Dance as a Continuum
There are a multitude of jazz dance labels and descriptions. Acknowledging the entirety of the genre allows us to establish historical, cultural, social, and kinetic continuity, also called a continuum. When the primary cultural sources of jazz dance remain unacknowledged, the continuum is disrupted. However, once we recognize the relationships between traditional African cultural dances and African-American vernacular dance, as well as the influence on American social, popular, and theatrical dance, the continuum is established. Whether via appropriation or blending, jazz dance evolved through the first half of the 20th century to include elements of both Africanist and European dance. When we accept the concept of jazz dance as a continuum based in West African roots with diverging vernacular and theatrical branches, each of which is continually creating new offshoots that gradually but inevitably generate newer blended jazz dance forms, we may also accept a broader definition of jazz dance.
Keywords: African-American vernacular dance, Appropriation, Jazz continuum, West African roots
Florida Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
