Quote:
Originally Posted by ZTABullwinkle
After watching Hok and Jaimie's jazz routine, I am not sure that I noticed a difference between contemporary and jazz. Can anybody explain the difference?
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OK, here's my attempt at quick explanation...
Contemporary (which as I've ranted before is actually called "modern" in the real world of dance): It started as the antithises (sp?) of ballet - the innovaters took their shoes of and danced barefoot and in parrallel instead of turned out, it's very grounded - dancing into the ground, not up and light like ballet often is. It's a lot about moving from your core, using contract and release in your center, rise and fall (of body parts and/or whole body). It used to be less technical, but as the years have gone on it's become very technical and it is well recognized that most modern dancers could benefit greatly from some serious ballet training (and in fact, most of today's great modern dancers began in ballet). (Most ballet dancers would also benefit from some good modern classes, too!)
Jazz: Jazz dance is a lot like ballet in basic movements, but they are often faster and more stylized - there are more hand and arm positions used, legs are kept parrallel more often, etc. But you will often see multiple turns, big leaps, etc that you wouldn't ever see in modern. It's also known for syncopated movement - much like jazz music is syncopated.
Also, the lines between jazz and modern are starting to blur a bit. For instance the last company I danced with was a "modern jazz" company. A typical modern company wouldn't generally do triple pirouettes in their pieces, and a typical jazz company would dance in jazz shoes and do leaps and turns. In this company, we did leaps and turns in our bare feet and also did a lot of grounded, parrallel floor work. Does that make any sense?
ALL that said!
I would call Wade's piece modern in every sense of the word. It wasn't "jazz" to me at all.
And I really like Jesus but I'm not such a fan of his partner. I also felt really bad for Pasha, but he worked that lady like he was really into her - ya gotta give him that!!!
Hybrid Mode
