Comments on: What is the Difference Between Jazz Dance and Contemporary Dance https://worlddanceheritage.org/jazz-contemporary-difference/ World Dance Heritage. Traditional dance, tourism and preservation. Wed, 02 Jul 2025 10:36:22 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.2 By: Kathleen O'Donoghue https://worlddanceheritage.org/jazz-contemporary-difference/#comment-1767 Wed, 02 Jul 2025 10:36:22 +0000 http://www.danceperception.com/?p=55#comment-1767 This is a great article. Having worked as a Jazz Dancer ( in my youth!) I have watched the development and fusion of these forms and it has fascinated me. Personally I can see why I was more attracted to Jazz at the time as it is more connected to and has a direct relation to music and found Contemporary too ‘intellectual’ and ‘middle class’ in the sense we use that term in the UK, though I greatly appreciate now it has ‘cheered up’! . At the time of my training we danced and trained a great deal more to Jazz music. I regret that Jazz became associated firmly with ‘Commercial’ dance and was, in certain circles, to be seen as a ‘lower’ form compared with Contemporary. The flow and ballet elements, more prominent in Jazz, require serious training if you are to be any good.

]]> By: Bella Wiley https://worlddanceheritage.org/jazz-contemporary-difference/#comment-1061 Wed, 06 Jul 2022 10:28:53 +0000 http://www.danceperception.com/?p=55#comment-1061 We are looking for a dance studio that explicitly teaches jazz classes; I’m glad I came across this article and learned more about contemporary jazz dances.

I like how you mentioned that it came from the social dances of African Americans and was connected to jazz music.

I will share this with my husband and see how it can help us who and where to reach out to enroll our daughter in dance classes

]]> By: Valeria https://worlddanceheritage.org/jazz-contemporary-difference/#comment-809 Mon, 08 Mar 2021 12:59:48 +0000 http://www.danceperception.com/?p=55#comment-809 In reply to Paulina.

Hi Paulina, there are many different styles of jazz dance, so the answer is a long one. I would need to write another article about this. If you would like to read more, there are two good articles on different styles of jazz dance, one on Dance Spirit and one on anther site about vernacular and modern jazz

]]> By: Paulina https://worlddanceheritage.org/jazz-contemporary-difference/#comment-808 Sun, 07 Mar 2021 21:37:39 +0000 http://www.danceperception.com/?p=55#comment-808 Thank you for this article, it was really helpful, but there is still something very unclear to me. Where does modern jazz/dance fit here? What is the difference between modern jazz and contemporary?

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