The question, Where’s the Jazz?, asks us to search for qualities that are present, to any given extent, in the many iterations of the jazz continuum. The jazz family tree has many branches. Its ancestry…, and its roots, are in West African dance practices. 

In this brief presentation, we will search for those social and kinetic elements in jazz dance rooted in the Africanist aesthetic, with attention to cultural and historical context. We will explore the jazz dance continuum via a PowerPoint and live discussions – after all, jazz is a participatory practice.

Patricia Cohen is an adjunct faculty member in NYU/Steinhardt’s Dance Education program, which prepares candidates for the MA degree in dance education. In the program, she created and teaches a required course, History, Culture and Pedagogy of Jazz Dance, which roots jazz dance in the Africanist aesthetic. In addition, she teaches a culminating internship course. She also facilitates the program’s internship and professional development courses.