Ballet dance at its inception was developed as a performance dance in the fifteen century. With time, however, music and choreography was incorporated and the dance itself became popular as a concert dance. In the contemporary times, the Ballet dance has since developed to a level where companies with professional composers and orchestras are trained to perform this kind of dance. On the other hand, Jazz dance was developed many years subsequent to the invention of Ballet dance. Particularly, this dance was developed in the 1900s as a vernacular dance that was performed by the African Americans who were in America as slaves. By amalgamating the Caribbean dance style into Jazz dance, the dance was developed to become a modern day Jazz in 1950s (Nelson 37). In essence, Jazz dance is an energetic dance that involves fancy footwork, big leaps and quick turns. In the hereunder, this paper will compare and contrast the two dance styles aforementioned. Essentially, similarities and differences between these two dance styles will stem particularly from the way music is performed during dance and the consequent the mode of movements.
After attending two different performances where Jazz dance and Ballet dance were performed, I realized that the two dance styles differ visually. In essence, Jazz dance is more relaxed because it gives the dancer lots of freedom unlike Ballet dance where definite movements are required from the dancer (Ellis 47). In Ballet, a certain set of body positioning is required of the dancer. One is bond to become uncomfortable before getting used to these defined body positioning. In Jazz dance, everything is done in parallel.
Apparently, Ballet dance is renowned for its development as a classical dance, which took quite a number of years before it became what it was today. This dance style evidently underwent a series of alterations prior to its onset in 1500s to become a modern day refined dance style (Ellis 48). The points of prominence in this dance style include the emotional content, the quality of movements, and its aptitude to present a storyline beautifully. Contrary to Ballet dance, Jazz dance is perceived to be a modern form of dance albeit this dance underwent a series of amalgamations with other forms of dancing styles that includes the Caribbean dance. This dance is also deeply rooted into the classical techniques. In addition to the above, the development of its versatile form of music through many subsequent generations succeeding the 1900s makes Jazz dance contemporary compared to Ballet dance. In essence, the evolution of Jazz dance is concurrent with the development of the popular cultures renown in the contemporary times. Unlike Ballet dance, Jazz dance style can easily be amalgamated into other dancing styles that include the hip hop break dance.
Despite the fact that these two dancing styles differ in many apparent ways, these two types of dancing styles have a similarity that lies in the technique used in these dances. Though Jazz dancers have the freedom of movement in action, as opposed to Ballet dance where the movements are defined. Jazz dance style follows certain forms that originate from Ballet dance that was developed beforehand. In essence, toe rise, pirouette, and straddle split leap incorporated in Jazz dance were borrowed from Ballet (Nelson 38). It is also imperative to denote that Jazz in some way has influenced Ballet music subsequent to it greater range of fluidity and movement. Another apparent similarity between these two dancing styles is the need of balance. While Ballet dancers need balance to make perfect dances using their toes stretched, Jazz dancers need balance to execute leaps and kicks.
In a nutshell, the two aforementioned dancing styles have some differences that particularly stem from their mode of movement and the type of music incorporated into the dance. Additionally, the two have similarities that stem from the techniques used in the dance and the need of balance in both the two dancing styles.
Works Cited
Ellis, Roger A. "Teaching the musical theatre dance repertory: a study in style." (2012).
Nelson, Robin. Dance is Fun!. Lerner Publications, 2013.
