History Of Contemporary Jazz

Around 1980s, the world "contemporary jazz dance" referred to the movement of
new dancers who did not want to follow strict classical ballet and lyrical dance forms, but
instead wanted to explore the area of revolutionary unconventional movements that were
gathered from all dance styles of the world. Contemporary jazz dances therefore do not
use fixed moves and instead try to develop totally new forms and dynamics, such as
quick oppositional moves, shifting alignments, expressions of raw emotions, systematic
breathing, dancing moves preformed in non-standing positions (for example lying on the
floor), and in general trying to find the absolute limits of our human form and physique.
The origins of this popular dance movement can be traced to several influential
dance masters such as Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. They all
wanted to show to the world that contemporary jazz dancers should embrace freedom,
ignore old dance conventions and explore the limits of the human body and visual
expression of feelings. Also, one of the precursors to the contemporary jazz dance can be
found in the millennia's old techniques of Zen Buddhism and Indian Health Yoga, which
incorporates various dancing philosophies that closely follow the principles of
contemporary jazz dance.
Dancer who introduced and greatly popularized the contemporary jazz dance to
the worldwide audience was Martha Graham (1894 - 1991). During her seven decade
long career, her modern dance and choreographies gathered the fame that is today
compared to the life works of legendary art geniuses such as Picasso, Stravinski and
Frank Lloyd Wright.
Merce Cunningham refined the work that his colleague Martha Graham formed,
and expanded with this his own improvements, choreographies and avant-garde dance
techniques. During his long career he was regarded as one of the greatest creative forces
in American dance, education dozens of worldwide famous dancers and thousands
professional dancers who preserved his style until today.
Lester Horton was a very influential contemporary jazz dance visionary, who trained
many famous modern dancers and managed to incorporate the styles of Native American
dance and modern jazz into his dance techniques.
Contemporary jazz dance is an extremely wide field, which involves many
techniques, styles and traditions and which is continuously experimenting. However, we
can say that it has its roots in America and in central Europe in the 1800s.
In America, the early 1800s saw the establishment of the first pioneers of modern
dance, such as Isadora Duncan, Ruth St Denis and Ted Shawn. They reacted against
ballet, arguing that ballet could not be the only dance form and promoting a more
expressive and free style of movement. As the early modern dance developed, new

practitioners and new theories emerged, such as Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey
and later Merce Cunningham and Yvonne Rainer amongst others. All these exponents of
modern and post-modern dance deserve separate articles but for now it suffices to say
that, since the early pioneers of modern dance, there has been a shift towards
experimentation.
The European roots of contemporary jazz dance are in German expressionist
dance (for example Kurt Jooss and Pina Bausch), eurhythmics, Laban movement theories
and British choreographers such as Marie Rambert Norman Morrice, Christopher Bruce
and the movement called new dance (the British equivalent of American post-modern
dance). This branch of dance development places a great emphasis on expression in
movement and making dance more accessible to the general public (at least that was the
intention).
Nowadays contemporary jazz dance performances range from the more
traditionalist and modernist ones with virtuosity in movements and traditional settings
such as theatres, to more experimental forms (for example Wayne McGregor in the UK),
using every day movements, unusual settings and more audience engagement. The
panorama is very vast and wide ranging but usually expression and concept are very
important (whether it is an abstract or narrative performance, political and
antiestablishment or not, the depth of concept is still essential).