Age requirements 8.0 and up
Length 1 hour
Jazz emerged from many different dance styles, including tap dance, swing dance, and even African tribal dance. As a popular social dance in the United States that transformed into a theatre-based style, jazz dance continues to evolve as dancers and choreographers experiment with new movement paired with popular music of the times. Unlike tap dance, jazz style does follow strict syncopation, accenting the beats within the music with purposeful movement.
The jazz program at Charlotte Klein Dance Centers teaches the main elements of this style. These proper techniques include isolations of the body, such as moving just the head and neck to a beat while remaining stationary, and improvisation within rhythm. The dancers will be introduced to a variety of styles including Musical Theatre, Lyrical and Contemporary. Whereas Musical Theatre style is the technique found on and off Broadway, Lyrical and Contemporary Jazz are a fusion of jazz technique.
The jazz class will consist of proper warm-up, stretches, isolations, across-the-floor progressions and combinations within these styles. As our dancers explore the high-energy jazz style, they will develop flexibility as well as rhythms and patterns to improve their overall performance quality.
