December 5, 2005

A Video Archive of Jazz Dancing Styles

My 13-week Jazz class at Joy of Motion in DC will wrap-up next week. The class is taught by the dance center's Executive Director Doug Yeuell. The class has been great - and challenging - and a few weeks ago I also started taking Level I Jazz classes as well. Before taking the Level I classes, I thought Level I meant introductory, but that's definitely not the case. Most of the students in the class have a good number of years of dance experience and I end-up struggling through the floor exercises and the routine. I think it will take a few months to catch on.

As I learn more about jazz dancing, one of the things I would like to find online is a website that shows videos of different styles of jazz dancing and the influence on jazz by famous choreographers. I haven't found anything like this. It would be very helpful to compare these types of videos to understand how jazz has evolved.

Actually, I'd like a website that compared all forms of dance and showed the historical connections among different styles and traditions - there doesn't appear to be anything like this. Focusing first on jazz in US, the videos on such as site could start with dance styles from the turn of the last century and show how both popular and stage influences shaped the different jazz styles that are danced today.

I have to figure out how to create this type of video-intensive website. It would require contributions from a lot of jazz dancers demonstrating and explaining different jazz styles for starters. Plus jazz dancers would have to have camcorders to film dances and upload them to the web. If you have thoughts on this type of project, please let me know.

Posted by Doug Fox on December 5, 2005 6:19 AM

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