What is Classical Ballet?
Classical Ballet is the most formal of the dance styles, it adheres to traditional ballet technique. There are variations relating to area of origin, such as Russian ballet, French ballet, British ballet and Italian ballet. Classical ballet is best known for its unique features and techniques, such as pointe work, turn-out of the legs, and high extensions; its graceful, flowing, precise movements; and its ethereal qualities.
Ballet strengthens the entire body and it substantially increases flexibility. Besides the obvious workout for the legs, it helps develop muscle tone in the abdominal, arms, back and hips. As proper body alignment is essential to successful dance, ballet training improves posture. Ballet combines an inspiring mix of commitment, discipline and artistic expression. It also improves balances and adds grace and fluidity to the movements.
A typical ballet class begins at the barre, a long rail attached to the wall. Students perform a series of leg and arm movements while holding the barre for support. After the barre, students progress to the middle of the floor for center work. In the center, dancers work on balance and footwork. Quicker movements, turns, and jumps, as well as stretching and body conditioning can be also done.
Read more about classical ballet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_ballet
What is Jazz Dance?
A very short history…
Until the mid 1950s, jazz dance referred to the dance styles that originated from the African American vernacular dance of the late 1800s to mid-1900s. Jazz dance often referred to tap dance because tap dancing, set to jazz music, was one of the predominant dances of the era. Jazz dance evolved over time to spawn a diverse range of social and concert dance styles like the Cakewalk, Black Bottom, Charleston, Jitterbug, Boogie Woogie, Swing and the related Lindy Hop.
After the 1950s, pioneers such as Katherine Dunham and Jack Cole took the essence of Caribbean traditional dance and made it into a performing art. Katherine Dunham is recognized as the 'Grandmaster of Jazz Dancing' the world over, while Jack Cole is considered the 'Father of the Jazz Dance Technique'. In 1950s Jazz dance moved from dance halls to the stage, becoming prominent in Broadway shows and movies. At that time jazz dance became influenced by ballet and modern dance as it became more professionalized. Jazz choreographers developed specific techniques to train dancers for shows. These choreographers (Jack Cole and Katherine Dunham) were key inspirations to other exponents of the art such as Matt Mattox, Jerome Robbins, Gwen Verdon, Bob Fosse and Eugene Louis Facciuto (Luigi).
The performance style of jazz dance was popularized to a large extent by Bob Fosse's work, which is exemplified by Broadway shows such as Chicago, Cabaret, Damn Yankees, and The Pajama Game. This modern jazz dance continues to be an essential element of musical theatre, and it can often be seen in music videos and competitive dance.
Read more about Jazz Dance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_dance
Modern jazz dance technique
Jazz music is known for being heavily syncopated and unpredictable, thanks to its African influences, and jazz dance is the same way. Jazz dancers may be slow, dreamlike, and graceful, or they may move abruptly and sharply, executing fantastic leaps, quick turns and other feats. As a result, they must be physically very flexible, and very attuned to the music they dance to.
The technique encompasses strength, flexibility, endurance, extension, and placement. The jazz class includes warm-up, stretching and strengthening exercises, isolation movements, center work and floor exercises, ending with a short dance routine. The music in jazz class can vary from “traditional” jazz to bossa nova, funk, Latin jazz and today’s pop music.
What is Contemporary Dance?
Contemporary dance is the name given to a group of 20th century dance forms. It is a collection of systems and methods developed from modern and postmodern dance, even though contemporary dance is not one specific dance technique.
Read more about the history of Modern and Contemporary Dance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_dance
Contemporary dance places a heavy emphasis on the connection between mind and body, with dancers being encouraged to explore their emotions through dances which push against traditional boundaries. This style of dance often involves a great deal of playing with balance, floor-work, fall and recovery, and improvisation.
Contemporary dance is characterized by its versatility: it can be danced to almost any style of music, or united with other dance forms to create new styles of movement. Contemporary dance seeks to work with the natural alignment of the body, and is therefore a safe and accessible dance form for beginners as well as a very creative form of dance for experienced dancers and choreographers.
About my contemporary dance classes
Both in Sweden and in Finland I´ve trained contemporary dance techniques which have had influences of Limon, Horton, Cunningham, Release and Klein techniques. The contemporary dance technique that I teach is a combination of what I have learned from my different teachers.
In my teaching I focus on alignment, kinetic awareness and placement of the body, encouraging freedom of movement, coordination, and inner creativity. Trough technical and creative exercises I explore the basic elements of contemporary dance (space, shape, time and dynamics).
The contemporary dance class consists of structured technical exercises that condition the body for strength, coordination and flexibility as well as structured improvisations and creative exercises. The music in the class varies from classical to contemporary music.
