ERIC Number: EJ1084873
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 5
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1529-0824
EISSN: N/A
It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got Musicality: A Music-First Method for Teaching Historically Rooted Jazz Dance
Liebhard, Erinn
Journal of Dance Education, v15 n4 p159-163 2015
This article proposes a method for teaching jazz dance technique according to music concepts and prioritizing deep embodiment of music. This method addresses what can be seen as a disconnect between current practices and historical understanding in jazz dance today, a gap that can be bridged with education empowering students to make innovative choices about how they exist within historically rooted styles. By delivering content according to musical elements, students explore a wide variety of jazz and American vernacular music styles in conversation with one another, an approach that emphasizes individuality and musical understanding as a way to relate to history. This article outlines an eight-unit course that can be adapted to various ages, abilities, class sizes, and term lengths. By finding historical roots and contemporary relevance through individual understanding of music, this approach highlights how jazz and American vernacular dance forms are moving, shifting, and alive. In this approach, the author positions the embodiment of jazz music and its offshoots as the main priority of jazz dance education, a focus that allows for both historical contextualization and contemporary relevance within the classroom. This article outlines an eight-unit method that uses basic musical elements as groundwork for delivering historical information alongside movement training.
Descriptors: Teaching Methods, Dance Education, Music, Dance, History, Course Descriptions, Units of Study, Movement Education, Relevance (Education), Creative Activities
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A