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This chapter offers a brief overview of jazz dance styles. Styles that are defined include authentic jazz dance, tap dance, club jazz dance, jazz-influenced dance, rhythm-generated jazz dance, theatrical jazz dance, Afro-Carribean jazz dance, Broadway jazz dance, classical jazz dance, commercial jazz dance, concert jazz dance, contemporary jazz dance, Latin jazz dance, lyrical jazz dance, pop jazz dance, West-coast jazz dance, vernacular jazz dance, hip-hop dance, funk, and street jazz dance. Styles are grouped in a way that suggests shared roots and aesthetic principals. Readers are encouraged to refer to this section as a glossary but to keep in mind that many of the styles fall into more than one category and can even overlap with other styles in its group.

The manifold varieties of jazz dance have always dominated dance in mainstream American cinema. Given jazz dance’s African roots and its many manifestations in the African-American vernacular, it is not surprising that its use in film almost always implicates issues of race and racism. This article looks at vernacular jazz dance in mainstream American cinema as a focal point of American race relations, focusing on two particularly influential areas of popular vernacular jazz dance: first, the authentic jazz dance developed alongside the jazz music of the 1920s to 40s and featured prominently in films of the same period; and second, the hip-hop dance which first appeared in film in the 1980s and which continues to be hugely popular in contemporary commercial cinema (as well as music television). Early jazz tap figures discussed include Bill Robinson, Jeni LeGon, and the Nicholas Brothers.

What connects African-American concert dance and jazz dance? On the one hand, both forms derive from the same root: African vernacular dance. It is easy to identify elements of African aesthetics in both genres. John Perpener contends that African-American concert dance was created to “effect socio-political change for African-American people, bring together aesthetic and cultural elements that had, previously, been posed as polar opposites, forge a positive identity for black people in the midst of a hostile environment, express a contemporary ethos, and create work that was multi-vocal, articulating simultaneously different worldviews.” Jazz dance, on the other hand, has usually been seen as a form of entertainment. Pearl Primus, Talley Beatty, Alvin Ailey, Chuck Davis, Diane McIntyre, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar are African-American concert dance artists who are discussed within the chapter.

In the 1980s, a few young DJs began playing jazz music in English clubs and at all-day dance events. Jazz music, with its complex layering of rhythm and phrasing, presented a challenge to dancers more familiar with disco and funk. The search for a dance style that fit the music resulted in a return to jazz dance. It is more specifically called either “street jazz” or “club jazz,” and was inspired by the rhythm tap and vernacular dance that the dancers saw in the musical films of the 1930s through 1950s. The author studied dancers at the Dingwalls club in northern London and noted that their movement included fast, intricate footwork interspersed with glides, spins, drops, splits and nerve shakes. An important group emerging from this scene was The Brothers in Jazz, a trio from northern England consisting of Wayne James, Irven Lewis, and Trevor Miller.