Jazz dance has developed through the years because of a number of factors such as culture, events in history, pioneers and other styles. My personal opinion of jazz is that it is a fusion of various dance styles and has developed amongst styles such as ballet and hip-hop. Moves from these styles have been developed into the jazz technique. For example pirouettes in a turned out position have been developed into a parallel pirouette starting from a turned out jazz forth. Another factor that has had an effect on the development of jazz is culture and the history of jazz. Every culture around the world over the years have added their style of dance into a this fusion that has over the years evolved into one technique. Also, referring back to my American timeline we can see that certain events may have had an impact on jazz dance. One big example is when disaggregation was put into place, this meant blacks and whites could dance together initially meaning cultures could interact and fuse their differences in movement together. All these pioneers had a massive influence on commercial dance as all the different styles make it up! wihtout all the different styles and aspects of dance evolving by what these pioneers did, commercial wouldnt be as varied and well known as it is today! 

Jerome Robins was known as the ‘ballet man’ and ‘broadway man’, he is most known for choreographing the famous musical ‘West Side Story’.  Jerome was born in 1918 in New York and has choreographed a number of famous ballets as well as successful musicals such as ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ and ‘The King and I’. His first work was a ballet called ‘Fancy Free’ which was created in 1944 and turned into the musical ‘On the Town’ later that year. Other works of his included ‘Billion Dollar Baby’, ‘The Pyjama Game’ and ‘Gypsy’.  Jerome also had his own company which he created a lot of ballets for and all in all won many academy awards for his work.  He sadly passed away in 1998 but leaves behind a tremendous legacy.

Jamie King is a choreographer and director in the pop music industry. He has worked with celebrities such as Madonna and Michael Jackson and has been the named the ‘Jerry Bruckheimer of tent-pole concert tours’. He has directed many celebrities’ tours such as Avril Lavigne, Rihanna, Bruno mars, Britany spears and many more as well as choreographing for a number of music videos. He has also choreographed for some adverts and won awards for most his works. Jamie was born in 1972 in Verona U.S and has grossed over 2 billion dollars from directing pop stars concert tours.

..Wade Robson was born in 1982 in Australia. Wade didn’t do much classical training and was more of a hip hop dancer and breaker. He has worked with a huge number of famous celebrities and choreographed and featured in a lot of music videos as well. He has worked with people such as NSYNC, Britany Spears and Mandy Moore. He also had the opportunity to dance in Michael Jackson’s music video, happy feet and you got served. As well as being a successful choreographer he got the opportunity to direct Britany spears tour ‘dream within a dream’ in 2001.

Alvin Ailey was a choreographer and activist born in 1931. Alvin Ailey was inspired by the church services he attended and the music he heard at the local dance school. He went on to found the Alvin Ailey American Dance theatre and toured over the world. His most famous dance was revelations which were a ‘celebratory study of religious spirit’. He performed for the president and accomplished a lot as well as touring with his own company and studying with Martha Graham. As an activist most of his dances were about slavery and escaping slavery which gave the dances intention and meaning. His technique is very different and cultural in my perspective it’s a fusion of contemporary and jazz. He sadly died in 1989 from an aids related illness.

Jack Cole was known as ‘The Father Of Modern Dance’,he was born in 1911 in New Jersey and died in 1974 at age 62. Jack Cole began his training at Denishawn without any previous dance training.  He trained in modern,etnic dance and ballet which merged to ‘theatrical jazz dance’ which was later names as ‘urban dance’. He was influenced my Doris Humphrey and worked with people such as Marliyn Monroe.

Catherine Dunham was an American dancer/choreographer who was known for her interpretations of ethnic dances. She was born in 1909 in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She has quite a few childhood achievements such as opening a school for black children at 15 and wrote a story when she was 12. Her technique is a fusion of different cultures and is known for ’ propelling awareness of the cultures of the African Diaspora’ . As well as a dancer and choreographer she was a producer and much more and had her own company who toured frequently.

Fosse was born in Chicago Illinois in 1927. He was a trained dancer, choreographer and director and began dancing professionally in nightclubs. His first choreographed show was pyjama game which won him his first tony award. He choreographed and directed famous musicals such as Chicago and cabaret which are still extremely famous today. He won many awards for his work on Broadway but sadly dies from a heart attack in 1987.