Jazz Dance
 A Living, Evolving Tradition

I would like to honor the Jazz Dance makers of the past who have enabled us to practice this style today. In my class, we will be working on primarily concert Jazz technique, incorporating ballet, codified lines of movement, grooves, footwork patterns, leaps, and turns, all within a Westernized class format.

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I'd like to acknowledge that Jazz originally stems from the Jazz music evolution of the South and diasporic West African dances, brought to the Americas by enslaved people. Jazz is ultimately rooted in a culture that is not my own, and yet we are cultural surrogates of the style; it lives within us, and we can never leave it. As Jazz dancers, it is our responsibility to learn the history of the many people and cultures that have added to the legacy of Jazz, and to hand the gift forward. Jazz represents many, and passes few by.

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I hope my classes leave everyone with an appreciation for this space, this community, and for all the things that we are able to hold in common despite every uncertainty of the past, present, and future. If you have any questions for me, please ask them. If I do not presently have the answers, I will put in the work to find them.