jazz dance

¹

noun

1. a dance form or dance that is matched to the rhythms and techniques of jazz music, developed by African Americans in the early part of the 20th century.

jazz-dance

²

[ jaz-dans, ‑-dahns ]

verb (used without object)

, jazz-danced, jazz-danc·ing.

1. to perform jazz dance.

Other Words From

• jazz dancer noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of jazz dance¹

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

Sometimes, she would accompany her students to jazz-dance competitions and wonder where the serious ballet students and teachers were.

From New York Times

Later, she immersed herself in the Lindy Hop, a jazz-dance form born in Harlem in the 1920s, which, along with tap, is her current focus.

From New York Times

But it was Ms. Mitchell, a former public-relations director working as Schramm’s assistant, who pushed the squad to new heights and refined its jazz-dance style.

From Washington Post

Some routines were merely dumb, unmusical and sloppily danced: a bobble-headed, mock-Baroque romp to Bach’s Prelude in C minor; a vapidly acrobatic love duet for a beach fantasy to a Chopin nocturne; a debased cross of fake-Greek poses and jazz-dance accents for nymphs and satyrs cavorting to Debussy; an ensemble piece to Bach’s third Brandenburg Concerto that managed to borrow from Paul Taylor, “Stomp” and commercial hip-hop in a way that canceled out the virtues of each.

From New York Times

An astonishing vocalist of haunting emotional power, To has applied those skills to a variety of experimental work, from audiovisual projects to solo ventures and collaborations with the likes of Robert Wyatt and jazz-dance collective Homelife.

From The Guardian