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Jazz dance is shared by a large range of dance styles. Before the 1950s, jazz dance relating to dance styles that originated from African American vernacular dance. Jazz dance was an integral part of jazz until the end of the swing era in the late 1940s. In the 1950s, a new genre of jazz dance — modern jazz dance — emerged, with roots in Caribbean traditional dance. Every individual style of jazz dance has roots traceable to one of these two distinct origins. Jazz was a big hit in the early '50s and it is still a well-loved style of dance all over the world.

 

The term "jazz" was first applied to a style of dance during World War I. Jazz in a dance form, however, originates from the vernacular dances of Africans when they were brought to the Americas on slave ships. Jazz dance first appeared in African American culture in the United States. The dance form is linked with native music of African slaves, featuring "free conversation-like style of extemporaneous improvisation."  Beginning with slavery, the constant mockery of different cultures, portrayed through dance, created new styles and genres that continued to evolve. After the end of Minstrelsy and vaudeville shows, dance as entertainment took two routes: jazz-as a popular social dance- and burlesque-a non-reciprocal form of dance- but both had a huge presence in the social and entertainment life within New Orleans. Jazz dance in particular developed alongside jazz music in New Orleans in the early 1900s.

 

New Orleans was an incubator of dance because of the many cultural clashes that took place in the history of the city. Beginning in the 1930s and continuing through the 1960s, jazz dance transformed from this vernacular form into a theatre-based performance form of dance that required trained dancers. During this time, choreographers from the modern and ballet dance worlds experimented with the jazz dance style. These included choreographers such as George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, Jack Cole, Hanya Holm, Helen Tamiris, Michael Kidd, Jerome Robbins, and Bob Fosse. All of these choreographers influenced jazz by requiring highly trained dancers to perform a specific set of movements, which differed greatly from the colloquial form of New Orleans in the 1900s. Also during this time period (circa. 1950) jazz dance was profoundly influenced by Caribbean and other Latin American dance styles introduced by anthropologist and dancer Katherine Dunham.

 

Jazz dance is still a popular form of dance, and many dancers have flocked to New Orleans, Louisiana for the connection the city has with music. With the prominence of jazz music and the laid-back attitude of the city, many professional swing-dancers have moved to New Orleans in an attempt to kick-start a revision of the neo-swing dance movement. People can find many opportunities in New Orleans to show off their jazz dance skills or get the opportunity to learn, including programs like the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown, January Jump' n' Jive, or with schools such as Dance Quarter, which hosts both events and dance classes.