Beginning Jazz Dance

Human Kinetics’ Interactive Dance Series includes Beginning Tap Dance, Beginning Ballet, Beginning Modern Dance, and now Beginning Jazz Dance and Beginning Musical Theatre Dance. These titles are the traditional dance courses taught through dance, physical education, and fine arts departments for general education students, dance majors, and minors. Using the steps to success model and adaptations from the Outdoor Adventure series, these beginning dance titles contain components from these previous series.

Beginning Jazz Dance is the perfect resource for helping students gain a strong foundation of beginning jazz dance techniques. Written by jazz dance choreographer and professor James Robey, this text

• prepares students to have a successful experience in a beginning jazz dance technique course;

• includes 80 photos accompanied by descriptions that visually present the beginning jazz dance technique and dance concepts that will reinforce and extend classroom learning; and

• introduces students to the history, artists, significant works, styles, and aesthetics of the genre so they understand dance as a performing art.

In addition, Beginning Jazz Dance comes with a web resource that includes 55 photos and 125 video clips of basic jazz dance technique. Students can access these photos and videos at any time for their study or practice, and instructors and students alike will benefit from the wealth of resources on the website, including assignments, worksheets, glossary terms with and without definitions, interactive chapter quizzes, and web links to help students develop their basic knowledge and skills. (The web resource is included with all new print books and some ebooks. For ebook formats that don’t provide access, the web resource is available separately.)

Through the text, students learn these aspects of jazz dance:

• The core concepts of jazz dance, the value of studying jazz dance, and class expectations

• The structure of a jazz dance class, the roles of everyone in the studio, and how to be physically and mentally prepared for class

• Tips on injury prevention, nutrition guidelines, and basic anatomy and kinesiology as applied to movement in jazz dance

• Basic body alignment and positions in jazz dance

• Jazz walks, kicks, turns, leaps, and floor work

Beginning Jazz Dance provides students with the context, background information, and basic instruction they need in order to understand the genre and appreciate jazz dance as a performing art. This text, with its companion web resource, is ideal for dance majors, dance minors, and general education students enrolled in beginning jazz dance technique courses. It is also suitable for students in performing arts and magnet schools and high school dance programs.

Author Biography

James Robey, MFA, is assistant professor of dance and department chair at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he received the Messing Faculty Award in 2015. He was director of the prestigious Ridgefield Conservatory of Dance for 10 years, during which he also created the Robey Jazz Dance Technique and Syllabus. He has taught as faculty or adjunct faculty at numerous universities, schools for the performing arts, and dance studios.

Robey was artistic director and company artist for James Robey Dance for 14 years. He has danced for many companies, beginning his dance career in 1990. He has also acted as choreographer for numerous ballets and dance ensembles over the years, and he has presented at conferences and written numerous articles on jazz dance and related topics. Robey is on the board of directors of the American College Dance Association and is a member of the National Dance Education Organization, National Association of Schools of Dance, and Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.