Embracing the Conflict and the Aesthetic of the Cool While Promoting Jazz Dance as a Foundational Technique in Dance Education

Dance programs across the United States offer an array of dance genres as part of their curriculum. It is common knowledge that Ballet, a highly codified European system of movement and dance, is a genre that is presented to the dance community as a foundation for dance training. Many programs require Ballet because it supposedly assists a dancer's success in the development of other dance techniques and, therefore, is at the forefront of dance curriculums. As a result, the Ballet technique and aesthetics have influenced the course of Jazz dance's natural development, straying it from the elements that could very well further train a dancer towards versatility: juxtaposition, improvisation, ephebism, embrace the conflict, aesthetic of the cool, and according to some scholars, polyrhythm and polycentrism. In a field that hires versatile dancers, I question why a genre that was born and developed in the United States is not considered a foundational technique in its own country? Through this research, I will discuss Jazz dance's history up until the 1950s, what influenced the trajectory of Jazz dance's evolution, how did its trajectory changed Jazz dance's original form and the components of an authentic Jazz aesthetic, and discuss its significance to a dancer's foundational training. As a result of my research, I would like to see dance programs consider Jazz dance as an equal in foundational training while making more authentic choices of this aesthetic.