Jazz Dance History in America

as researched by Bob Boross

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GEORGE BALANCHINE AND THEATRICAL JAZZ DANCE

The first major change in the presentation of dance in the popular theatre has been credited to George Balanchine, the founder and choreographer emeritus of the New York City Ballet. A Russian emigre, Balanchine was schooled in the historical tradition of the Kirov Ballet but also embraced the budding philosophy of dance as a means of expression set forth by Michel Fokine and Isadora Duncan. In the 1936 Broadway show On Your Toes, Balanchine staged dances that were integrated with the story so that the dance served to move the plot forward, not interrupt it. He also collaborated with Herbie Harper, an African-American tap dancer, to add authentic jazz dance movements to the show's ending ballet "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue." Lisa Jo Sagolla noted that "... by instructing the dancers to execute pirouettes and attitudes without the customary outward rotation of the legs, Balanchine was combining the parallel leg positions of jazz with ballet steps." Balanchine was the first on Broadway to use the title "choreographer" instead of "dance director."

The invasion of Broadway by choreographers from the artistic dance world sparked a trend to fuse techniques and choreographic models from ballet, modern, and ethnic dance with movements from jazz and folk dance. Dance was now being utilized as a valid means of expression and plot advancement - equal to dialogue and song. Agnes DeMille, a ballet choreographer influenced by the psychological dance dramas of Antony Tudor, made this trend the norm with her dances for Oklahoma! in 1943. DeMille created characters who danced as naturally as they sang or acted, and who helped to tell the story with their movements. Another of her contributions which she used in Oklahoma!, Carousel, and Brigadoon was an extended ballet placed midway through the second act. Soon the majority of Broadway shows featured dances integrated with the plot and an extended second act ballet. Instead of dance acts of jazz and tap dancing and female chorus lines, Broadway was now demanding a technically trained dancer - one who could execute the exact commands of an accomplished "choreographer" hired from the artistic world of ballet.

Ballet was the first influence of artistic dance on Broadway, and its success encouraged new ways of using elements from jazz dance in serious choreography. This new form of "theatrical jazz dance" was popularized by three choreographers: Katherine Dunham, Jerome Robbins, and Jack Cole. Each one came from the perspective of dance as as art form, and each created an individual style based on their particular background. Katherine Dunham, born in 1912, based her choreography on primitive dance. She studied anthropology at the University of Chicago and was awarded fellowships to study ethnic forms of dance in the West Indies and in Africa. She is noted for using elaborate costuming, lighting, and choreographic structures to make primitive dances palatable to theatrical audiences. Dunham trained her dancers in classes that combined primitive dance movements with exercises that developed proper dance technique. Some of her choreographic accomplishments include the concert pieces Tropics and Le Jazz Hot (1940) and L'Ag'Ya (1938), and the films Star Spangled Rhythm, Stormy Weather, and Cabin in the Sky. She also collaborated with George Balanchine on the stage version of Cabin in the Sky.