Jazz Is: Masterclass

Melanie George:
Jazz History Tree – Jazz Dance

Melanie George is an educator, choreographer, scholar, and certified movement analyst. As a curator and dramaturg specializing in rooted jazz dance and adjacent dance forms, and contemporary dance-theatre, she has worked on projects for Urban Bush Women, Raja Feather Kelly, Helen Simoneau, Michelle Gibson, Dormeshia, Machine Dazzle, Susan Marshall, Alice Sheppard/Kinetic Light, Ephrat Asherie, Kimberly Bartosik, and SW!NG OUT among others. Melanie is featured in the documentary UpRooted: The Journey of Jazz Dance and a contributing scholar to Jazz Dance: A History of the Roots and Branches and Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty-First Century (University Press of Florida). She is the Associate Curator and a Scholar in Residence at Jacob’s Pillow, Assistant Professor of dance at Rutgers University, and has guest lectured at Harvard University, the Yale School of Drama, and The Juilliard School. Named one of Dance Magazine’s 30 over 30, she is the recipient of the Outstanding Leadership Award from the National Dance Education Organization. In 2024 she curated the American Dance Platform for The Joyce Theater, featuring the platform-within-a-platform, Jazz at The Joyce. Melanie is currently touring as emcee/dramaturg/dancer with LaTasha Barnes Presents The Jazz Continuum.

Session 1

Roots and Fruits

  • African Roots
  • Physical and Social Elements of Jazz
  • Lindy Hop and Solo Jazz
  • Iconic Performers of the early jazz

Session 2

Colonization and Codification of Jazz

  • Authentic Jazz and Ballet influenced Forms
  • Jazz Music and Rock and Roll
  • Katherine Dunham & theatrical jazz
  • The white males of jazz dance - Cole, Mattox, Luigi, Giordano

Session 3

Jazz/Not Jazz

  • The splintered jazz tree
  • A new Framework - Jazz to Not Jazz
  • Where is Jazz today? Who is jazzy now?

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