Jazz
Jazz dance roots spread back to the end of the 19th century, but, as one could expect, it wasn’t met with great enthusiasm. Ballet still reigned in theatres, not giving other styles of dance a chance to evolve. The end of the first half of the 20th century, when jazz music started conquering the world, was a turning point for jazz dance. It soon turned out that people welcomed with delight a new style of dance, which was allowing more free movements, expression and improvisation. As the time was passing by, jazz dance became more and more popular and evolved into several new genres, e.g. lyrical jazz, Latin jazz, modern jazz.
Jazz dance is based on the idea of ballet, but as it is a modern dance style, there are not as many restrictions. Its distinctive features are isolations (moving one part of the body while the rest of the body remains still) and contractions (accomplished by contracting the torso, with the back curved outward and the pelvis pulled forward). Jazz dance seems to be “light and independent” as the contemporary dance or modern dance, but right after ballet, jazz dance is one of the most difficult dance techniques and requires a lot of work from the dancer. Jazz dance can be seen in theatres. Dancers usually perform in tunics and bare feet or wearing special jazz shoes, which don’t restrict feet movement and allow unconstrained points.
