Have you ever felt a deep connection to the universe when you move your body to the rhythm of music? Dance has been used as a spiritual act for centuries across cultures, including West African dance traditions and rituals. In these traditions, dance is not just a form of physical movement but is considered a means of connecting with the divine and aligning oneself with the energy centres (or chakras) of the body. While jazz dance is often associated with its technical and stylistic elements, it also has a rich spiritual dimension that is often overlooked. For me dance is a spiritual act. It’s ..read more

Have you seen that viral video with a crazy girl in a black and white stripy shirt and black skirt, smoking an imaginary cigarette and doing those crazy fast feet moves? Have you wondered what is this dance: jitterbug, shuffle, loose leg, lindy hop?  It's 20s Charleston and Ksenia Parkhatskaya with the undone belt and imaginary cigarette at the front of it. In this blog you will find out the 5 awesome move Ksenia does in this viral video and learn how to do them yourself.  TikTok viral fast feed video When 20s Charleston took over the world in 1930s it was a dance craze. In 2021 Char ..read more

One of the most common questions from my students in secrets of solo online dance school is how to make the dance more interesting. My advice is to work on contrasts! Contrast can be a quality applied to a single move or a whole dance, as well it is a tool for choreographing and instantly composing your improvisation. Contrasts as a tool to make your dance more exciting Imagine this, here you are swinging with the even rhythm, doing your swinging 8th notes and waking bass with constant bounce and all of the sudden you break and throw a couple of syncopation and explosive poses. We are thrown o ..read more

Apprendere la storia della danza jazz, del Lindy hop e delle discipline ad esso correlate, è fondamentale per poter riconoscere, accettare e rispettare la tradizione. Sapere da dove provengono il tap, il solo jazz, lo shag …, quali sono le loro origini e come si sono modificati nel tempo, è nostra responsabilità come ballerini e amanti della cultura jazz. Quando parliamo di “danza jazz”, dobbiamo tenere presente il contesto storico culturale, dobbiamo parlare di ballerini di colore e dunque dell’influenza africana che gioca un ruolo essenziale nello sviluppo di questa è inammissibile parlare d ..read more

The history of social dancing in the United States is very rich. Most of us heard of Lindy Hop or swing dancing. Though there were many amazing dance forms in combination with Jazz music, that dominated the cultural landscape in America in the first half of the 20th century. In this blog I will make a quick overview of the popular social partner dances during the first half of the 20th century such as Cakewalk, Two Step, One Step, Fox Trot, Charleston, Shag, St. Louis Shag, Balboa and Lindy hop (Jitterbug). Ragtime dances Ragtime was a highly rhythmic dance music that became an international p ..read more

Jazz dance is an umbrella term collecting many styles. Jazz dance has been constantly evolving, changing with time depending on who, where and to which music it was danced. In this blog we will overview 7 solo jazz dance styles and branches such as Buck and Wing, Strut, Eccentric dance, Charleston, Black Bottom, Broadway Jazz and Street Jazz. From vernacular to stage It is very interesting to discover how African cultural heritage shaped and influenced American dance today. From the early 18th West African traditions mixed up with the European ballroom dances and created the unique African-Ame ..read more

Solo jazz is one of the best ways to help you improve your Lindy Hop. Lindy hop is a partnered dance that gives a lot of freedom to each partner. Even when dancing in close position or in a break away or swing out, there is so much freedom to improvise and express the music with your feet. Every single great Lindy hopper in the old times and now are great solo jazz dancers. No wonder why? One truly can’t be without another. Have you ever been in the situation where your partner decides to break away for some solo jazz magic, and rather than free, you felt alone, and very unsure? Do you often f ..read more

Any of us that dance swing surely love the Charleston dance! But so few of us know the history, where the dance originated. Although we all have an image of white rich flapper girls, dancing the charleston, smoking cigarettes and smiling on screen, do we really know who invented the first steps that came to be The Charleston dance? How did the dance come to be? And how did it get its name? Why are there so few images of Black Charleston dancers?  I can tell you now, it may not be as simple as it was named after the city and popularised by flappers. Here I hope to answer some of those ques ..read more

(Solo) Jazz dance is an umbrella term collecting many dancing styles with different history. Let’s clarify a very common and equally most confusing topic of what is the difference between vernacular, authentic, modern and solo jazz dance. This way we can understand the characteristics and history behind each better. To be proficient in any specific or chosen art form, one needs to know the history, the journey of the specific creative expression and the aesthetic in question Dolly Henry According to Patricia Cohen, Master Registered Dance Educator, jazz dance evolved through the first half o ..read more

The Charleston dance was “The King of dances” in 20th century and had a huge influence on American culture.  In this blog you can find out different ways of how to do the dance, its technique and footwork. Charleston dance history Charleston is a name of the city, dance style, step and song. Scholars attribute the spread and invention of the geechee inspired Charleston dance to the Jenkins Orphanage Band boys from Charleston city, South Carolina. The Charleston song written by John P. Johnson, inspired by Gullah rhythms, became the signature tune for the dance. This dance has African root ..read more