A Twenty-First-Century Jazz Dance Manifesto
A Twenty-First-Century Jazz Dance Manifesto
This author’s perspective on jazz dance is centered on four core principles derived from an African aesthetic. These principles are: 1) rhythmicity, 2) formidable relationship with the music, 3) improvisation, and 4) dynamic play. Within rhythmic expression, the choreographer or dancer attempts to produce complex articulation of the body, demonstrating multiple tones simultaneously. The movements in jazz dance convey the nuances of rhythm, including the color tone that musicians produce in playing the music. Artists pursuing jazz dance today should bring to the field their own individual styles as choreographers, a deep connection with music, an ability to improvise and to develop that skill in others, and finally a sense of play, which manifests itself through precision, simultaneous movement and music invention, supple dynamic range, a risk-taking outlook, individual personality, irony, wit, and satire.
Keywords: African aesthetic, Dynamic play, Improvisation, Music, Rhythmicity
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