An Introduction to Street Dance and Street Jazz

Learning Outcomes All pupils must: Understand the origins of street dance Understand that the term street dance covers a large number of specialist styles

Most pupils should: Try to understand the stylistic elements of this discipline and try to incorporate this in their work Perform with accuracy key steps taught as part of the warm-up sequence

Some pupils could: Recall a short routine in a Street Jazz Style

Street dance is an umbrella term, used to describe dance styles that evolved outside of dance studios at more everyday spaces such as streets, school yards and nightclubs. They're often improvisational and social in nature, encouraging interaction and contact with the spectators and the other dancers.

Street dance is also commonly used specifically for the many hip hop dances and funk dance styles that began appearing in the United States in the 1970s, and are still alive and evolving within the hip hop culture of today, such as break-dance, popping, locking, hip hop new style and house dance. These dances are popular on all levels, as a form of exercise, an art form, or for competition, and are today practiced both at dance studios and more freely arranged spaces. Some schools use street dance as a form of physical education.

Many street dance styles are African American dances as they first appeared within African American communities, using such key characters such as strong rhythms, bent knees and low levels.

Characteristics

Unlike many other dance forms, most street dances encourage individuality and originality, and that dancers interpret the existing moves freely and even invent new ones to create a personal style of their own. Improvisation is the heart of most street dances, though choreography is also seen, mostly mixed with improvisation or used for prepared shows. This is normally referred to as street jazz.

Generally, street dance is based on a unique style or feel that are expressed through the dance, usually tied to a certain genre of music. As new moves evolve based on this feel, the dance is under constant development, and if the feel starts to change it might give birth to a completely new dance form.

Battles

Battles are an important part of break-dance, a well-known and popular form of street dance.

Many street dances involve battles of some sort (known as jamming in other dance cultures), where individuals, couples or groups of people (called crews in hip hop contexts) dance against each other, with the observing crowd or a group of judges deciding the winner. Battles normally take place on a prepared stage or in a circle of free space on the dance floor, with the dancers taking turns to enter and executing their moves. Normally, if the street dance style is not a partner dance, only one dancer performs at a time, except when people from the same crew perform a choreographed routine. There are some exceptions to this, such as up rocking, which uses a line formation with the dancers facing each other on fixed positions on a straight line, dancing simultaneously.

Battles are very improvisational in nature, and the winners are often those who best manage to adapt to the music, their opponents and the current atmosphere. Though battles can become quite energetic, most dancers consider it important to show respect to other dancers, even to adversaries. To let the feelings in a battle become too personal is generally frowned upon.

Competitions

Today, serious street dance competitions are getting increasingly popular, and a number of large reoccurring international events are taking place around the world, such as Battle of the Year and Juste Debout. These contests focus mainly on judged battles but also on choreographed shows.

Styles

Some of the most famous street dance styles of today, such as break-dance, popping and locking, began appearing around the 1970s, and hip hop new style and house dance around the 1980s. Though some of these styles originally evolved separately from each other, most of them are today associated with the hip hop scene in one way or the other, as they share many street dance elements.

More recently, new street dance styles are emerging that are further inspired by hip hop and its music. Krumping, with its focus on highly energetic battles and movements, is an example of such a style that just recently became publicly known. It's also common to see some characteristics of street dance being mixed with other more traditional dance forms, creating styles such as street-jazz, a mixture of modern hip hop styles and jazz dance. Such styles are generally focused more on choreography and performance and less on improvisation and battles, and are not always considered pure street dances, though a popular alternative to the more traditional and classical styles of studio dancing.

Source: www.wikipedia.com

Reflection on 1st Street Dance

1. What were the key features of the style that you saw and participated in? (What made it unique?)

Homework Task

Watch an example of street dance. This could be an example of break-dance from you tube or a music video. Watch it a few times and make notes on the use of the following.Name and source of piece

Action

Space

Timing

Dynamics

Emotions

Use of technical Features (Control, Focus, Suppleness, Stamina, balance, strength)

Reflecting on Street Dance

Learning OutcomesAll pupils must: Understand some of the basic elements of break dancingMost pupils should: Be able to reflect upon the learning that has taken place so far with good level of

consideration.Some pupils could: Perform moves with a high level of technical accuracy

You have now been studying street dance for a few weeks. Answer the following questions.

1. Identify and describe some key steps from street dance

2. Discuss the stylistic qualities of the style