Street Jazz

During the late 1970’s and early 1980’s there was something about to change the way modern young people would dance forever!
Up until then the classics and Jazz were being taught in Dance studio’s across the globe and were widely thought of as the most modern style of dance; hence the term ‘modern’ or ‘contemporary’ and the style of Jazz had been develped from classical dance, but using more free flowing, funky, unconventional and less rigid movements, incorporating the hips and arms – whilst retaining the element of precision used in ballet.
meanwhile…
In the streets of New York and London, young, non-conformist gangs were developing robotics, break dancing, body popping, locking and the hip hop movement was born.
Choreography in the main needed to develop and evolve with these new styles and indeed the new music trends from Rock & Roll, Punk and Disco to Break Beats and Hip Hop (or what we would today call R&B). Artists such as Michael Jackson & Madonna lifted these moves directly from the streets and clubs, fusing them together with the precicion of modern Jazz forming ‘STREET JAZZ’ -the modern day term for dance seen in todays Pop music industry.