Jazz Dance

Modern jazz dance can be traced to the 1950′s, when a new dance form emerged inspired by Carribean traditional dance. It is frequently influenced by other dance styles such as acro, ballet, contemporary, lyrical, and hip-hop. In turn, many other dance styles are influenced by jazz dance. This is especially true at JHDC, where jazz dance is infused with the influence of multiple genres.
 

Ballet

Contemporary ballet is a type of dance inspired by both classical ballet and modern dance. It takes its technique and body control utilizing abdominal power coming from classical ballet, even though it allows a larger range of motion which may not necessarily stick to the stringent body lines established by traditional schools of ballet technique. A lot of its ideas come from the concepts and innovative developments of twentieth century modern dance, such as floor work.
photo by CJ Leonard

The following video will tell you more about ballet at JHDC:

Hip Hop Dance

Hip Hop Dance is a form of dance based on a variety of styles including breaking, locking, and popping. The formative influences of hip hop dance today came about in the 1970′s; the work of dance crews in the early days of hip hop has since been refined and stylized by clasically trained dancers to create studio hip hop as we now know it.
 

Modern Dance

Modern dance shares a common history and technical foundation with ballet, but it came about in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a rebellion against ballet’s more controlled style. At JHDC, we teach the following styles of modern dance:

Graham

Graham-based modern dance is inspired by the work of Martha Graham, an American dancer who came out of the Denishawn school. Her highly expressive form of dance is noted for its use of sweeping movement and isolation, with inspiration from folklore and mythology. The below video is a Graham demonstration at JHDC:

Horton

Horton-based modern dance is based on the work of Lester Horton, an American dancer who created a technique intended to incorporate the entire body in the dramatic creation of shape and expression. Horton technique strongly emphasizes strength, flexibility, and coordination.

Humphrey-Weidman

Humphrey-Weidman technique was created in the 1920s by Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman, both students of the Denishawn school. This technique utilizes gravity to emphasize “fall and recovery” to create humanistic expression. The body creates a relationship to gravity through movement concepts such as suspension and succession.