Dance History Foundations: Jazz, Hip Hop, and European Ballet Pioneers

Posted on Nov 29, 2025 in Art History

Jazz, Tap, and Hip Hop Dance History

Movement Characteristics of Jazz Dance (Myron Howard)

Describe 5 out of 7 movement characteristics of jazz as described by Myron Howard:

  1. Gliding, dragging, or shuffling footwork often in low, crouched attitudes.
    • Associated with slaves’ barefoot dancing.
    • Very similar to “getting down tapping.”
  2. A tilting and fluid spine.

    This changed the European upright stance and allowed for fluctuation of individual body parts (shoulders, ribs, torso, and pelvis) and a lower, sometimes crouched, stance.

  3. Animal Dances.

    Inspired many of the ragtime dances (Turkey Trot, Bunny Hug) and the mime dances of the 1960s (The Monkey, The Pony). Associated with isolations such as skull on spine.

  4. Propulsive, swinging, loping, and hard-driving percussive gestures.
  5. High energy movements and dynamics.
  6. Centrifugal, outward exploding movements.
  7. Often initiated in the hips with the pelvis becoming the means of scattered, controlled, or convulsive follow-through.

Origin of African American Dance and Music Culture

  • African American music and dance culture initially emerged when multiple forms of West African culture mixed in the slave ships and plantations of the American South.
  • In these horrific circumstances, music and dance were one of the few forms of expression available to slaves who had lost their identity, culture, and rights, and often could not speak the language of the other slaves they found themselves with.
  • The functions, rhythms, instruments, and movements of a variety of African traditions were mixed together and modified in ways that helped the slaves endure terrible working conditions, maintain hope, and communicate with each other. Think here of the call and response of ‘hollar shout’ working songs and the lively musical embodiment of faith in the gospel tradition.
  • The communicative function of rhythm and the continuing evidence of a vital community music, dance, and oral culture remains a force for hope and identity building in African American culture today.

Impact of Segregation on African American Dance

  • Initially, African culture was appropriated by white producers and choreographers. Shows were developed and performed for either a white or black audience in segregated theaters. African American performers were generally limited to vaudeville theaters.
  • By the middle of the 20th century, and with the help of modern choreographers and teachers, both white and black dancers began to train together.
  • Nonetheless, it was white men such as Jack Cole and Bob Fosse that pioneered the form of commercial jazz associated with theater dance practices, while black choreographers tended to be associated with either ‘traditional’ or modern dance forms.

Early Types of Tap Dance

Name and Describe 1 of the 5 early types of ‘tap’ dance:

  • Buck and Wing
  • Flash Acts
  • Soft Shoe
  • Eccentric
  • Burlesque

Social Dance Styles Influenced by Ragtime Dancing

  • The Charleston
  • The Lindy Hop
  • The Jive
  • The animal dances of the 60’s (The Monkey, The Pony, etc.)
  • Rock and Roll
  • Hip Hop

Alvin Ailey: Choreographer Inspired by African American Culture

Alvin Ailey is a choreographer inspired by Afro-American culture.

Origins of Hip Hop

  • It began in the early 1980s in the run-down ghettos of New York where African American and Latino cultures came together and mixed.
  • This highly expressive cultural movement began spontaneously as a type of street party, developing into a way to celebrate and speak about urban culture as lived by repressed minorities.
  • It involved exhibitionist forms of music and dance making that included the manipulation of beats using record players (DJ’ing), rhythmic texts (MC’ing/Rapping), and movements (breakdancing and beatboxing), and was sometimes centered around contests between individuals.
  • Hip Hop as a totality was based on the development of signature styles by influential individuals around which communities of meaning coalesced.
  • Equally, it was an anti-authoritarian statement disrupting and contesting the status quo of a capitalist society that either ignored or exploited communities of color.

The Five Forms of Culture Associated with Hip Hop

  • DJ’ing
  • MC’ing/Rapping
  • Breakdancing
  • Graffiti
  • Beatboxing

Modern Ballet in Europe: Key Choreographers

Characteristics of Roland Petit’s Ballets

  • An increased focus on psychological struggle.
  • The inclusion of everyday gesture and acrobatic facility.
  • Iconic and erotic characters that called on a similar aesthetic to film musicals.
  • Use of music from the ‘canon’—Bach, opera music from Bizet, etc.

Maurice Béjart and Ballet du Vintième Siècle (1960–1987)

Maurice Béjart’s company in Brussels (1960–1987) was called the Ballet du Vintième Siècle (Ballet of the 20th Century).

Choreographic Characteristics of Béjart

  • A focus on men.
  • Erotic themes.
  • Theatrical and physical intensity.
  • Exotic influences such as Indian dance forms (Kathak and Bharatanatyam) and Iranian music.

Schools Founded by Maurice Béjart

  • Mudra (Brussels)
  • Rudra (Current school in Switzerland)

The Stuttgart Ballet Under John Cranko

Describe the atmosphere in Stuttgart Ballet during John Cranko’s directorship and list 3 choreographer/directors that danced under Cranko.

The atmosphere was characterized by inclusivity and inspiration, based on the fact that stylistic influences were not judged, but there were high expectations about the expressive potential of dance and the need to create technical rigor.

Choreographer/Directors Who Danced Under Cranko

  • Jiří Kylián
  • John Neumeier
  • William Forsythe
  • Glen Tetley

Ballet History in the Netherlands

Importance of Court Ballets in the Netherlands

Why were court ballets of less importance in the Netherlands than in other European countries?

Because the monarchy traditionally had less power than in other countries and did not need to establish or maintain their image through dance.

First Public Theatre in Amsterdam

The first stadsschouwburg (civil or public theatre) in Amsterdam was built in 1638.

First Professional Dutch Dance Company

What is considered to be the first professional dance company working in the Netherlands?

  • Ballet Yvonne Georgi

Performances and Director’s Background (Ballet Yvonne Georgi)

  • The performances were a theatrical mix of Ausdruckstanz and ballet, initially commissioned by the Wagner Society in Amsterdam and inspired by (or including) many of the art-inspired works of Ballet Russes.
  • The dance pieces of Ballet Georgi are therefore considered a good example of Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art).
  • Yvonne Georgi was a student of Mary Wigman and had toured America with Harald Kreutzberg in theatrical versions of Ausdruckstanz.

Fate of Ballet Yvonne Georgi

What was the ultimate fate of this company and school?

The company was brought under the control of the Nazi-controlled Dutch government during the Second World War and was subsidized by Nazi money. This included tours to Germany. As a result, after the war, Georgi was banned from working in the Netherlands, and Mascha ter Weeme took over the company and Neel Roos the school.

The ‘Ballet Wars’ in the Netherlands

What were the ‘Ballet Wars’ in the Netherlands about?

Multiple ballet companies set up after the war were fighting for public support, government funding, and ultimately for the title of the national ballet company.

Origin of Scapino Ballet

Describe where the name ‘Scapino’ as in Scapino Ballet comes from. Include information about the first director and the goal of the company.

Initially, it was a dance group that performed for children, run by Hans Snoek. The performances had a commedia dell’arte character as a mascot that explained what was happening to the children—this was Scapino.

Netherlands Dance Theatre (NDT) Establishment

When was the Netherlands Dance Theatre established? Who set it up? What was its initial mandate?

  • Established: 1959.
  • Founders: A group of dancers and other employees from Sonia Gaskell’s Nederlandse Ballet broke from her group in order to create a company where there would be greater artistic freedom.
  • Initial Mandate: NDT was meant to be a company that only performed the work of living choreographers (Contemporary Dance).

NDT Director (1960s–1970s)

The director of NDT during the 1960s and early 1970s was Hans van Manen.

External Influences on NDT Repertoire (1960s)

During the 1960s, what were the two main external influences on the repertoire of NDT?

  • Modern Dance from America: Specifically Martha Graham and her ex-dancers such as Anna Sokolow.
  • The work of George Balanchine: This particularly influenced the look of Hans van Manen’s creations, featuring Balanchine’s stripped-back, iconographic, often more democratic, use of ballet.
  • Additional Influence: Plus more psychological content that often seemed to deal with the traumas of the 20th Century.

The ‘Three Vans’ of Dutch Dance

Who were the ‘three vans’ and why are they important for the Dutch dance scene?

  • The Three Vans: Hans van Manen, Rudi van Dantzig, and Toer van Schayk.
  • Importance: They directed and choreographed for the two largest Dutch dance companies over a long period.
  • Hans van Manen created a new ‘formal neo-classical style’ that was informed by changes in artistic movements and technology.
  • Rudi van Dantzig and Toer van Schayk developed their own emotionally sensitive and socially focused style.
  • All three made use of classical and modern dance idioms in a way that led to a remarkable and varied Dutch version of neo-classicism.

(Note on theatrical influences, e.g., West Side Story)