Hello all - I am new here but recognize Azlan's name from some of the VoD discussions.<P>Is anyone attending the Jazz Dance World Congress in August? Has anyone attended before? Perceptions, thoughts, and comments are welcome!<P>James<P>------------------<BR>My Home Page: <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/james+robey/" TARGET=_blank>http://www.geocities.com/james+robey/<BR></A> Got Jazz!?: <A HREF="http://www.danceart.com/gotjazz/" TARGET=_blank>http://www.danceart.com/gotjazz/</A> Choreography Talk: <A HREF="http://www.onelist.com/subscribe/ChoreographyTalk" TARGET=_blank>http://www.onelist.com/subscribe/ChoreographyTalk<BR></A> Manhattan Motion: <A HREF="http://www.manhattanmotion.com/" TARGET=_blank>http://www.manhattanmotion.com/</A> <BR>

Hello, James. Welcome!<P>As for the World Congress, Peggy's daughter is going as Joe Lanteri's assistant. You may want to read this thread:<P> <A HREF="http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/000041.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/000041.html</A> <P><BR>Were you planning to attend, James?

Thanks for the welcome Azlan. Yes I am attending. I am presenting a piece of choreography for the Leo's Choreography Competition. <P>I will give you more on my views after the first week of August.<P>About the thread discussing jazz dance's seriousness as an art... That is a loaded topic that is discussed quite commonly. Personally, I consider myself a modern choreographer with strong ties to jazz in my past jobs (I worked in the entertainment side of the field for my first few years). <P>Even within the jazz dance community itself it is split between the jazz as an entertainment form and jazz as an art form. With the popularity of commercial competitions - the entertainment form gets the most hype. Add in the visibility of music videos and commercials and young dance students come to look at jazz dance as a sanitized form of hip hop only. They are not exposed to the artistic forms.<P>Forerunners in the artistic jazz dance community are Billy Seigenfeld and his Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, Danny Buraczeski and his company, Bob Boross (who runs an impressive site on the internet devoted to artistic jazz dance), and Joe Orlando at SMU - just to name a few.<P>Unfortunately, as we all know, concert dance forms suffer from poor visibility compared to commercial dance forms.<P>Here is where the topic gets trickier and I would like to hear some feedback...Jazz dance is at its roots a popular dance form. This is similar to folk dance and character dance. What do you see as the limits and difficulties of a folk dance form or character dance form being approached as an entirely artistic dance form?<P>I will give my impression to get the ball rolling. As someone who choreographs in both the modern idiom and jazz idiom - it is in the established vocabulary that I find limits. I prefer to aim for original movement at all times. Resorting to named steps (lay out, pas de bourre, stag leap, pirouette) seems to bring weak points in the choreography. But how is this any different from classical ballet choreography which works within a set vocabulary?<P>I'm not making much sense - just rambling on here - but if anyone has an inkling of what I am getting at and would like to explain it to me please do!!<P>Muddled,<BR>James<P>------------------<BR>My Home Page: <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/james+robey/" TARGET=_blank>http://www.geocities.com/james+robey/<BR></A> Got Jazz!?: <A HREF="http://www.danceart.com/gotjazz/" TARGET=_blank>http://www.danceart.com/gotjazz/</A> Choreography Talk: <A HREF="http://www.onelist.com/subscribe/ChoreographyTalk" TARGET=_blank>http://www.onelist.com/subscribe/ChoreographyTalk<BR></A> Manhattan Motion: <A HREF="http://www.manhattanmotion.com/" TARGET=_blank>http://www.manhattanmotion.com/</A> <BR>

Part of the problem is these aren't just named steps, they're ballet steps. Not that one vein of dance truly and absolutely lays claim to an of the myriad of human shapes and movements, but if ballet hasn't been codified, what has? I'm not sure how we can expect to construct a jazz dance with ballet steps. Maybe kinda like building a log cabin out of PVC piping?<P>Um, I'll just kinda roll with it for a minute here...<P>There's so much more to a step than the outline a body makes in space. A pas de bourre at ABT is likely to be different than a pas de bourre a la Jeannie Hill (Jump Rhythm Jazz Project) - and much of that is the different rhythmic dynamic in jazz dance. <P>It's not so much named steps, it's the canned, over-processed combinations that get me. Something that looks like a compulsory in a dance team competition - what was so aptly called a "sanitized form of hip hop" - is just tiresome.<P>Now, I've also been bored out of my mind by classic, music-based, or artistic jazz too. Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally blind and deaf.(I'll get back to that deafness in a minute) There've been improvisations I could have lived without seeing (or doing, for that matter), I've done dance after dance with the same predictable structure, and I've performed with musicians who couldn't have cared less if we were there or not.<P>Which does bring me back to that deaf thing, which is basically that jazz dance doesn't simply have a movement vocabulary - there is a whole musical understanding which should go with it. With this musical understanding and involvement of improvisation and live musicians, tremendous, fresh, original movement can happen.<P>Ach - I could probably go one, but I'd likely wind up repeating myself or going off on some awful tangent. <BR>This is a nice ball, let's kick it around.<P>Hm - just came back to add some spaces to make this easier to read. - see you! P.<P>[This message has been edited by Prisanh (edited July 14, 2000).]<P>Oh, ok, I guess I wasn't quite done yet...<p>[This message has been edited by Prisanh (edited July 14, 2000).]

Hi I am a student at the University at Buffalo, and have attended the Jazz Dance World Congress in 1999. It was an absolutly wonderful expeirence and all should attened.

James-interesting question about jazz as an art form. I have been on all sides of the fence on this one....I am trained as a modern and ballet dancer. But have a little jazz background, and have judged at dance (commercial) competitions. Part of the issue to me, is the question as well of MUSIC. Choreogrpahers musical choices are quite telling and really set the tone, can often make or break a piece. Also, how they use the music they choose-sterotypically, ho-hum, against the music, what? Lighting,,,costume, all this has an influence. Also, jazz is a very senusal art form, undeniably. HOw a choreographer presents this is also telling...Fosse was very blatant and erotic about it....Hubbard Street sometimes goes more in the direction of modern dance and sometimes more "lyrical" and not so sensual...lots of choices...then there's classical jazz....like a Luigi, who goes in the direction of beautiful line and using the body in an anatomically correct, highly trained way...lots of choices in jazz!