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Master Juba
Master Juba was an African-American dancer active in the 1840s. He was one of the first black performers in the United States to play onstage for white audiences and the only one of the era to tour with a white minstrel group. His real name was believed to be William Henry Lane, and he was also known as "Boz's Juba" following Dickens' -
Minstrelsy
the form of entertainment associated with minstrel shows, featuring songs, dances, and formulaic comic routines based on stereotyped depictions of black Americans and typically performed by white actors with blackened faces: -
Tango
Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. It was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries, in neighborhoods which had predominantly African descendants. The tango is the result of a combination of Rioplatense Candombe celebrations, Spanish-Cuban Habanera, and Argentinean Milonga. -
Ballin the Jack
"Ballin' the Jack" is a popular song from 1913 written by Jim Burris with music by Chris Smith. It introduced a popular dance of the same name with "Folks in Georgia's 'bout to go insane." It became a ragtime, pop, and traditional jazz standard, and has been recorded hundreds of times. -
Music videos
lthough the origins of music videos began with “musical short films” that first appeared in the 1920s, they really came into prominence in the 1980s when MTV created their channel -
Tap Dance
Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses on dance; it is widely performed in musical theater. Rhythm tap focuses on musicality, and practitioners consider themselves to be a part of the jazz tradition. -
Shim Sham Shimmy
The Shim Sham Shimmy or Shim Sham originally is a particular tap dance routine and is regarded as tap dance's national anthem. -
Charleston
The Charleston is a dance named after the harbor city of Charleston, South Carolina. The rhythm was popularized in mainstream dance music in the United States by a 1923 tune called "The Charleston" by composer/pianist James P. Johnson, which originated in the Broadway show Runnin' Wild and became one of the most popular hits of the decade. -
Vaudeville
Vaudeville is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition or light poetry, interspersed with songs or ballets. -
Bill Robinson, nicknamed Bojangles
Bill Robinson, nicknamed Bojangles, was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer, the best known and the most highly paid African-American entertainer in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. His long career mirrored changes in American entertainment tastes and technology. His career began in the age of minstrel shows and moved to vaudeville, Broadway theatre, the recording industry, Hollywood films, radio, and television. -
Nikolas Brothers
The Nicholas Brothers were an entertainment act composed of biological brothers, Fayard (1914–2006) and Harold (1921–2000), who excelled in a variety of dance techniques, primarily between the 1930s and 1950s. Best known for their unique interpretation of a highly acrobatic technique . -
Big Apple
The Big Apple was an American dance craze by the end of 1937 with Life magazine referring to this time as “the year of the Big Apple.” Something special about the Big Apple is the way it helped people take their mind off of wartime and the Great Depression. Combined with fine big band music, it brought people together. This is another reason why we love everything that is jazz…let’s remember to dance to the music. -
Broadway
New York's first significant theatre presence arose about 1750 when actor-managers Walter Murray and Thomas Kean established a resident theatre company at the Theatre on Nassau Street, which held about 280 people. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggar's Opera. -
Broadway and Rhythm Tap
Musical or Broadway tap means the fusion of tap forms that include Hollywood and traditional Western influences.
Broadway tap is more focused on the way a dance looks and rhythm tap is more focused on the way a dance sounds, however those are only broad generalizations -
African Dance
African dance originated from Sub- Saharan Africa which teaches social issues and values. These dances are closely connected with the traditional rhythms and music traditions of the region. -
Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins was an American choreographer, director, dancer, and theater producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. Among his numerous stage productions were On the Town, Peter Pan, High Button Shoes, The King and I, -
Fancy Free
In 1944, Jerome Robbins — then a young dancer with Ballet Theatre (now American Ballet Theatre)— choreographed his first ballet, a collaboration with up-and-coming composer Leonard Bernstein. The two wanted to bring a modern American sensibility to ballet, and they hit on the perfect concept: sailors on shore leave in New York City, a common sight in those days. The premiere performance of Fancy Free has become legendary -
Gentlmen Prefer Blondes
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a 1953 American musical comedy film based on the 1949 stage musical of the same name. It was directed by Howard Hawks and stars Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe, with Charles Coburn, Elliott Reid, Tommy Noonan, George Winslow, Taylor Holmes and Norma Varden in supporting roles.
The film is filled with comedic situations and musical numbers, choreographed by Jack Cole, -
African Diaspora
The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from native Africans or people from Africa, predominantly in the Americas. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the West and Central Africans who were enslaved and shipped to the Americas via the Atlantic slave trade between the 16th and 19th centuries. -
Micheal Kidd
Michael Kidd was an American film and stage choreographer, dancer and actor, whose career spanned five decades, and staged some of the leading Broadway and film musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Kidd, strongly influenced by Charlie Chaplin and Léonide Massine, was an innovator in what came to be known as the "integrated musical", in which dance movements are integral to the plot. -
Jack Cole
Jack Cole, Pioneer of Jazz Dance Jazz dance today has remnants of a few jazz dance pioneers who made their mark on the jazz technique; we often use the technique of Bob Fosse, -
Bob Fosse
Robert Louis Fosse was an American actor, choreographer, dancer, director and screenwriter. He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Sweet Charity, Pippin, and Chicago -
Musical
a play or movie in which singing and dancing play an essential part. Musicals developed from light opera in the early 20th century:
Plays such as Lion King, Hairspray, Fiddler on the Roof, Rent, Bye Bye Birdie, and Beauty and the Beast. -
Urban Dance
The Urban Dance style or choreography is influenced mostly by hip-hop and street dance genres (house, funk, pop, lock, and breaking) but also by other dance forms such as jazz, contemporary. It is a genre, community, and lifestyle revolving around choreographed pieces and performances by a dancer or groups of dancers. -
Gus Giordano
Gus Giordano, born August Thomas Giordano III, was an American jazz dancer, teacher and choreographer. He performed on Broadway and in theater and television. He taught jazz dance to thousands in North America, Europe, Asia and South America. -
Eugene Louis Faccuito
Eugene Louis Faccuito, known professionally as Luigi, was an American jazz dancer, choreographer, teacher, and innovator who created the jazz exercise technique. The Luigi Warm Up Technique is a training program that promotes body alignment, balance, core strength, and "feeling from the inside." It is also used for rehabilitation. This method became the world's first standard technique for teaching jazz and musical theater dance. -
DJ KOOL HERC
Clive Campbell, better known by his stage name DJ Kool Herc, is a Jamaican-American DJ who is credited for originating hip hop music in the Bronx, New York City, in the 1970s. -
House Dance and Music
House dance is a freestyle street dance and social dance that has roots in the underground house music scene of Chicago and New York. It is typically danced to loud and bass-heavy electronic dance music provided by DJs in nightclubs or at raves. -
Disco Music
Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, horns, electric piano, synthesizers, and electric rhythm guitars. -
Waacking and Vogue
Waacking is a form of street dance created in the LGBT clubs of Los Angeles during the 1970s disco era. The style is typically done to 70s disco music and is mainly distinguishable by its rotational arm movements, posing and emphasis on expressiveness. -
Breaking
Breaking – the original Hip Hop dance. Breaking or Bboying, sometimes called “breakdancing” in mainstream circles, is a dance that originated in New York in the 1970s and was a cornerstone of the original Hip Hop Culture. It was brought to media attention in the 1980s with films such as Beat Street and Wildstyle. -
Dj'ing
As rap evolved in the 1970s, so did Djing (or deejaying). DJs (disc jockeys) like Clive Campbell loved to please their audiences. Knowing which records would fill the dance floor and which techniques wowed the most were critical the success of a party. -
MC
MCing is another term given to someone known as the “Master of Ceremonies.” MCing is seen as the oral aspect of Hip Hop, and the MC typically presents performers, and keeps the audience engaged.
This is the title typically given to the person commonly called the rapper in today’s times. The MC is known for using rhythmically intense verses or freestyles in order to introduce a DJ he or she is partnered with or in order to get the crowd “lit.” -
Grafiti
About ten years after its inception around 1970, graffiti culture started to be linked with hip-hop -
Savion Glover
Savion Glover was born on November 19, 1973 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. He is known for Happy Feet (2006), Sesame Street (1969) -
Hip hop
Hip hop or hip-hop is a culture and art movement that was created by African Americans, Latino Americans and Caribbean Americans in the Bronx, New York City. The origin of the name is often disputed.
Some terms include djing, MC who controls the music and graffiti. -
MTV
MTV is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a division of Paramount Global. -
Micheal and Janet Jackson
Smooth criminal 1981 and Rhythm Nation -
Gregory Hines
Gregory Oliver Hines was an American dancer, actor, choreographer, and singer. He is one of the most celebrated tap dancers of all time, and is best known for Wolfen, The Cotton Club, -
Animated Musicals
"Snow White" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world loosely based on earlier version Italian fairy tale The Young Slave literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, -
American School Dance
The dance program at the 1993 Festival explored social dancing traditions in five communities - an Appalachian community in southwest Virginia, Iroquois communities in upstate New York, and African American, Bolivian, and Cambodian American communities of Washington, D.C. -
Krumping
Clowning
Krumping evolved from the clowning dance style that emerged in the ‘90s. In 1992, Thomas Johnson, also known as Clown Thomas, formed a group of dancers who danced the so-called clowning dance. The style was especially popular among child…
The Origin of Krump
Tight Eyez (Ceasare Willis) and Jo'Artis "Big Mijo" Rattionce joined Thomas' band. Their movements were filled with aggression and anger, and they were m…
