Notes · DanceUK · A-Levels

Optional: American Jazz Dance 1940-1975 / Singin' in the Rain

American jazz dance 1940-1975 is one of the four optional Areas of Study for Section B, focused on the named work Singin' in the Rain (1952). This topic teaches the roots and features of American jazz dance - its African-American vernacular origins, its isolations, syncopation and rhythmic drive, and its move from social to theatrical dance on Broadway and in Hollywood; the named film Singin' in the Rain (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, 1952); the named practitioners Agnes de Mille, Jack Cole, Jerome Robbins and Bob Fosse; and the style, context and significance of the period's theatrical jazz dance.

5 sections~19 min reading time2 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 2 · Advanced 2

T·131313 / 15

Exam profile

AO3 · Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of American jazz dance 1940-1975 and Singin' in the Rain, using appropriate terminologyAO4 · Analyse, interpret, evaluate and critically appreciate the works and practitioners of the area of study

Operators:identifydescribeanalyseinterpretevaluate

basic level

AS-Level study of this optional area expects accurate knowledge of jazz dance's features, Singin' in the Rain and the named practitioners.

higher level

The full A-level expects analysis, interpretation and evaluation of Singin' in the Rain and the practitioners, linked to the roots and context of American jazz dance, in essay form.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

Optional: American Jazz Dance 1940-1975 / Singin' in the Rain

American jazz dance 1940-1975#

FoundationAQA 7237 Component 2 Section B (American jazz dance)Ofqual GCE Dance subject content

American jazz dance 1940-1975: milestones

Fig. 1Milestones of American theatrical jazz and musical dance 1940-1975, from Oklahoma! and Singin' in the Rain to the Fosse musicals.

American jazz dance grew from the vernacular and social dance of African-American culture and developed, across the twentieth century, into a distinctive theatrical form. The Area of Study covers the period 1940-1975 - the golden age of the American musical on Broadway and in Hollywood - during which jazz dance was shaped by choreographers into a sophisticated theatrical art. Its roots, however, lie earlier and deeper, in the rhythms, social dances and improvisational spirit of African-American music and movement, and understanding those roots is essential to understanding the theatrical form.

The DEFINING SOURCE of jazz dance is African-American vernacular dance and jazz MUSIC. From this source come its most characteristic features - a strong relationship to rhythm and syncopation, a grounded and flexible use of the body, isolations of individual body parts, and an improvisational, rhythmic energy. Social dances of the earlier twentieth century (the Charleston, the Lindy Hop, swing dances) carried these qualities, and it is these that theatrical choreographers drew on and refined. Jazz dance is thus rooted in a living popular and social tradition, not invented in the theatre.

The KEY DEVELOPMENT of the period is the move from SOCIAL to THEATRICAL jazz dance - the transformation of vernacular movement into a codified, choreographed form for the concert stage, Broadway and Hollywood. Choreographers such as Jack Cole developed jazz dance into a demanding theatrical technique; others such as Agnes de Mille, Jerome Robbins and Bob Fosse integrated dance into the musical and created highly individual styles. This period is when jazz dance became a major force in American musical theatre and film.

The Area of Study is anchored by the named film Singin' in the Rain (1952), a classic of the Hollywood musical, and by the named practitioners de Mille, Cole, Robbins and Fosse. Studying it means knowing jazz dance's roots and features, the named film, and the practitioners' distinct contributions, and being able to analyse and evaluate them. The following sections cover the features of jazz dance, the named film, the practitioners, and the period's style and significance.

Worked example

Explaining the roots of jazz dance

Where does American jazz dance come from, and why do its roots matter for understanding the theatrical form?

Name the source
Jazz dance grew from African-American vernacular and social dance and from jazz music, carried in social dances like the Charleston and Lindy Hop.
Identify the inherited features
From this source come jazz dance's defining features - syncopation and rhythmic drive, groundedness, isolations, and an improvisational energy - all rooted in the music and social dance.
Explain the theatrical development
Theatrical choreographers (Cole, Fosse and others) drew on and refined these vernacular qualities into a codified stage technique for Broadway and Hollywood.
Why it matters
So the theatrical form cannot be understood without its roots: its rhythm, isolations and energy are inherited from African-American vernacular dance, not invented in the theatre.

Result: Jazz dance's roots are explained as African-American vernacular dance and music, and shown to be the source of the theatrical form's defining features - essential context for the Area of Study.

Typical mistakes

Forgetting jazz dance's roots in African-American vernacular dance and music, treating it as a purely theatrical invention.
Not knowing the period's focus (the golden age of the American musical) or the named film and practitioners.

Active revision

Explain in a short paragraph the roots of jazz dance and the key development of the 1940-1975 period (social to theatrical), and name the period's named film and practitioners.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Dance (7236 / 7237) specification (AQA)

The features of theatrical jazz dance#

StandardAQA 7237 Component 2 Section B (features of jazz dance)Ofqual GCE Dance subject content

Features of jazz dance

Fig. 2The characteristic features of theatrical jazz dance - isolations, syncopation, groundedness, energy and its relationship to jazz music.

Theatrical jazz dance has a set of characteristic features, most inherited from its vernacular roots and refined for the stage. The most distinctive is the ISOLATION - the ability to move one part of the body (the head, shoulders, ribcage, hips) independently of the rest. Isolations give jazz dance its sharp, articulate, rhythmic quality and are central to its technique and its look. A jazz dancer can drive a rhythm through the hips or ribcage while the rest of the body stays still - a defining jazz skill.

Rhythm is at the heart of jazz dance, and its key rhythmic feature is SYNCOPATION - accenting the off-beats and the unexpected parts of the bar rather than the strong beats, creating the characteristic 'swing' and rhythmic surprise of jazz. Jazz dance has a strong, driving relationship to its music (jazz and popular music), catching and playing with its rhythms. Its use of the body is typically GROUNDED, with a low centre of gravity, flexible spine and bent knees, giving it weight, drive and a close relationship to the floor - very different from ballet's vertical lightness.

Jazz dance also has a characteristic ENERGY and attack - a projected, confident, often 'cool' or sharp quality - and a repertoire of recognisable movements: sharp kicks, turns, contractions, struts and gestures, sometimes with props (hats, canes). Because it grew from social and improvisational dance, it retains a sense of rhythmic play and individual style even when choreographed. Different choreographers developed these shared features in very different directions, so 'jazz dance' covers a wide range of individual styles.

Knowing these features - isolations, syncopation, groundedness, rhythmic drive, energy and attack, and the relationship to jazz and popular music - lets you recognise and analyse jazz dance and distinguish it from ballet and other modern dance. When you analyse the named film and the practitioners' work, these features are your analytical vocabulary: identifying an isolation, a syncopated accent, a grounded quality or a particular energy, and explaining its effect, is how you write precisely about jazz dance for AO3 and AO4.

Worked example

Analysing a jazz phrase through its features

A dancer performs a phrase with sharp shoulder and hip isolations accenting the off-beats, knees bent and body low, with a cool, confident attack. Analyse it as jazz dance.

Identify the isolations
The sharp shoulder and hip movements independent of the rest of the body are isolations - a defining jazz feature giving the phrase its articulate quality.
Identify the syncopation
Accenting the off-beats is syncopation - the rhythmic feature that gives jazz its swing and surprise, so the phrase plays against the strong beats.
Identify the groundedness
The bent knees and low body are the grounded body use of jazz dance, giving weight, drive and a close relationship to the floor, unlike ballet's verticality.
Identify the quality
The cool, confident attack is jazz dance's characteristic energy and projected style - part of what makes the phrase read as jazz.

Result: The phrase is analysed through its jazz features - isolations, syncopation, groundedness and attack - showing how the features provide a precise analytical vocabulary for jazz dance.

Typical mistakes

Not knowing the specific features (especially isolations and syncopation) that define jazz dance technically.
Describing jazz dance vaguely as 'lively' or 'showy' rather than in terms of its actual features.

Active revision

List five features of jazz dance and, for each, note one way it differs from ballet; then identify an isolation and a syncopated moment in a jazz number you know.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Dance (7236 / 7237) specification (AQA)

Singin' in the Rain (1952)#

StandardAQA 7237 Component 2 Section B (Singin' in the Rain)Ofqual GCE Dance subject content

Singin' in the Rain at a glance

Fig. 3The essentials of the named film Singin' in the Rain - its directors, subject and famous numbers - a classic of the Hollywood musical.

Singin' in the Rain, released in 1952, is the named work for this Area of Study and one of the most celebrated films of the Hollywood musical's golden age. It was directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, with the dance numbers led by Gene Kelly (who also stars), alongside Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds. Its story is a comedy set in late-1920s Hollywood about the film industry's difficult transition from silent films to sound ('talkies') - so the film is partly about show business and performance itself, which its song-and-dance numbers celebrate.

The film is famous for a series of brilliant dance numbers that exemplify the athletic, entertaining American musical dance of the era. The title number, 'Singin' in the Rain', in which Gene Kelly dances joyfully through a downpour with an umbrella, is one of the most iconic sequences in film. 'Make 'Em Laugh' is a virtuoso comic solo by Donald O'Connor; 'Good Morning' is an exuberant trio; and the extended 'Broadway Melody' sequence is a large-scale production number. These numbers show the range of Hollywood musical dance - romantic, comic, ensemble and spectacular.

The dance in Singin' in the Rain belongs to the broad tradition of American theatrical and film dance within which jazz dance flourished: it is athletic, rhythmic, buoyant and entertainment-driven, fusing tap, musical-comedy and jazz-influenced movement with acting and comedy. Gene Kelly's style is notably athletic and grounded, using the whole body with energy and precision, and the numbers are closely bound to their music and to the storytelling. The film shows how dance functioned in the Hollywood musical - as spectacle, character and joy - during the period the Area of Study covers.

Analysing Singin' in the Rain means reading its numbers as constituent features in the context of the Hollywood musical: the movement (athletic, rhythmic, tap- and jazz-influenced), the performers, the music and songs, the film setting (which can create effects a stage cannot, such as dancing in real rain), and the way the numbers serve character, comedy and celebration. As a named work it rewards knowing its directors, stars, subject and famous numbers, and being able to analyse how its dance communicates and entertains. It is the Area of Study's window onto Hollywood musical dance of the period.

Worked example

Analysing a number's function

How does the title number, 'Singin' in the Rain', use dance to communicate, and what does the film medium add?

Describe the number
Gene Kelly dances joyfully through a downpour with an umbrella, splashing in puddles, swinging from a lamppost, with buoyant, athletic, rhythmic movement.
Analyse the expression
The exuberant, energetic dance expresses the character's overflowing happiness (he is in love) - the movement communicates pure joy through its buoyancy and freedom.
Analyse the music relationship
The dance is closely bound to the song's rhythm and mood, catching its lightness and swing, so movement and music together create the number's joy.
What film adds
The film medium adds what a stage cannot - real rain, a real street, close-ups and camera movement - so the number's effect depends partly on the cinematic setting.

Result: The title number is analysed as dance communicating joy through buoyant, rhythmic movement bound to the music, with the film medium adding cinematic effects - showing how to analyse a Hollywood musical number.

Typical mistakes

Not knowing the directors, stars or subject of the film, or its famous numbers.
Treating the film's dance as pure concert jazz technique rather than the broad Hollywood musical dance (tap, musical comedy, jazz-influenced) of the era.

Active revision

Write a short profile of Singin' in the Rain (year, directors, stars, subject, two famous numbers); then analyse how the dance in one number serves the film (character, comedy or celebration).

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Dance (7236 / 7237) specification (AQA)

Practitioners: de Mille, Cole, Robbins and Fosse#

AdvancedAQA 7237 Component 2 Section B (jazz dance practitioners)Ofqual GCE Dance subject content

American jazz dance practitioners

Fig. 4The four named practitioners of the American jazz dance Area of Study and their contributions - de Mille, Cole, Robbins and Fosse.

AGNES DE MILLE was a choreographer who transformed the American musical by INTEGRATING dance into its storytelling. Her choreography for the musical Oklahoma! (1943), especially its 'dream ballet', showed that dance could advance the plot and reveal a character's inner life rather than merely decorate the show. Drawing on ballet and American folk idioms, de Mille made dance a serious dramatic element of the musical, a landmark that shaped musical theatre for decades and set the stage for the integrated dance of the period.

JACK COLE is often called the 'father of theatrical jazz dance'. He forged a demanding jazz technique by fusing jazz rhythm with movement from other traditions (including East Indian and Afro-Caribbean dance), developing the isolations, groundedness and precision that became the foundation of theatrical jazz. He worked extensively in Hollywood and on Broadway and taught and influenced a generation of dancers and choreographers. Cole represents the codification of jazz dance into a serious stage technique.

JEROME ROBBINS fused ballet, jazz and theatre into powerful dramatic works, moving between the Broadway musical and classical ballet. His choreography for West Side Story (1957) is a landmark: it uses jazz- and ballet-influenced dance to tell a dramatic, socially charged story (rival gangs in New York), with dance carrying character, conflict and emotion. Robbins showed how theatrical dance could be both entertaining and dramatically serious, integrating jazz movement into narrative theatre at the highest level.

BOB FOSSE developed the most distinctive personal style in theatrical jazz. Influenced by Cole, he built a highly individual vocabulary - inward-turned knees, rounded shoulders, precise small isolations, angular and sensual movement, and the use of hats and gloves - instantly recognisable as 'Fosse'. His musicals (such as Sweet Charity, 1966, and Chicago, 1975) show this style, which turned jazz dance's isolations and cool into a unique theatrical signature. Together, de Mille (integration), Cole (technique), Robbins (dramatic fusion) and Fosse (personal style) chart the achievement of American theatrical dance in the period, and their differences are the material for comparison essays.

Worked example

Explaining a practitioner's distinctive contribution

Explain what made Bob Fosse's contribution to jazz dance distinctive.

Name the style
Fosse developed a highly individual jazz style with inward-turned knees, rounded shoulders, precise small isolations, angular and sensual movement, and props like hats and gloves.
Explain its origins
Influenced by Jack Cole's technique, Fosse turned jazz dance's isolations and cool into a unique, instantly recognisable personal vocabulary.
Give evidence
His musicals - such as Sweet Charity (1966) and Chicago (1975) - showcase this style, which became so distinctive that 'Fosse' names a whole way of moving.
State the contribution
So Fosse's distinctive contribution was to create a singular, personal theatrical jazz style - proof of how far an individual choreographer could develop the form.

Result: Fosse's distinctive contribution is explained through his recognisable vocabulary, its origins in Cole, and his signature works - modelling how to write about a jazz dance practitioner's individual style.

Typical mistakes

Confusing the practitioners' works or styles (for example attributing the Fosse style to Robbins).
Not being able to characterise each practitioner's distinct contribution for comparison essays.

Active revision

For de Mille, Cole, Robbins and Fosse, write one line on each practitioner's contribution and name a representative work; then note what makes Fosse's style instantly recognisable.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Dance (7236 / 7237) specification (AQA)

Style, context and significance#

AdvancedAQA 7237 Component 2 Section B (style, context, significance)Ofqual GCE Dance subject content

From social to theatrical jazz dance

Fig. 5The development of jazz dance - from African-American vernacular and social dance, through codified theatrical technique, to the Broadway and Hollywood musical.

The STYLE of American theatrical jazz dance in the period is defined by its vernacular roots refined into a theatrical form: isolations, syncopation and rhythmic drive, grounded body use, energy and attack, and a close relationship to jazz and popular music, developed by choreographers into a range of individual styles. It is entertaining and virtuosic, but in the hands of its leading practitioners it also became dramatically serious and technically demanding. There is no single jazz style but a family of styles sharing these rooted features - from de Mille's Americana to Fosse's angular cool.

The CONTEXT of the period explains this style. American jazz dance developed within the golden age of the Broadway musical and the Hollywood film musical (roughly the 1940s to the 1970s), which gave it a stage, an audience and a commercial engine; it drew on the African-American vernacular tradition and on jazz music; and it flourished in a culture of popular entertainment. The integration of dance into musical storytelling (de Mille, Robbins) and the codification of jazz technique (Cole) were responses to the demands of this theatrical and commercial context.

The SIGNIFICANCE of the period is that it established jazz dance as a major theatrical art form and shaped American musical theatre and film. It refined a vernacular tradition into a codified stage technique; it produced landmark works (Oklahoma!, Singin' in the Rain, West Side Story, the Fosse musicals) and iconic choreographers; and it created styles - above all Fosse's - that endure in musical theatre today. Jazz dance is now a core discipline taught worldwide, and much of its theatrical form was defined in this period.

For the highest-level essays, bring style, context and significance together and support them with Singin' in the Rain and the practitioners. You can evaluate the period as the age in which jazz dance became a major theatrical form, integrated into and shaping the American musical, illustrating the claim with the film, de Mille's integration, Cole's technique, Robbins's dramatic fusion and Fosse's style. Linking the features and works to the context of the American musical and reaching a judgement about the period's importance is exactly the analysis, interpretation and evaluation the Area of Study rewards.

Worked example

Evaluating the significance of the period

An essay asks you to evaluate the significance of American jazz dance 1940-1975. Outline a strong answer.

State the claim
Argue that the period established jazz dance as a major theatrical art form and profoundly shaped American musical theatre and film.
Support with development
Support this with the refinement of a vernacular tradition into a codified stage technique (Cole) and the integration of dance into musical storytelling (de Mille, Robbins).
Support with works and figures
Support it with landmark works (Singin' in the Rain, West Side Story, the Fosse musicals) and enduring choreographers whose styles (especially Fosse's) still shape musical theatre.
Reach a judgement
Conclude that the period's codification of jazz dance and its landmark works and choreographers make it decisive for theatrical jazz and the American musical - a major and lasting significance.

Result: The evaluation states a claim and supports it with the period's development, works and figures before judging - the evidenced, evaluative essay the Area of Study requires.

Typical mistakes

Describing the style without linking it to the context of the American musical and jazz dance's vernacular roots.
Asserting the period's significance without supporting it with the named film and practitioners.

Active revision

Write a paragraph placing American jazz dance in the context of the golden-age American musical, then evaluate the period's significance, supporting your judgement with Singin' in the Rain and one practitioner.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Dance (7236 / 7237) specification (AQA) · Ofqual - GCE AS and A level qualifications (Ofqual)

References & sources

Sources

AQA

AQA AS and A-level Dance (7236 / 7237) specification

Ofqual

Ofqual - GCE AS and A level qualifications

Optional: American Jazz Dance 1940-1975 / Singin' in the Rain

5 sections~19 min reading time2 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 2 · Advanced 2

Optional: American Jazz Dance 1940-1975 / Singin' in the Rain

Key points

Explaining the roots of jazz dance

Key points

Analysing a jazz phrase through its features

Key points

Analysing a number's function

Key points

Explaining a practitioner's distinctive contribution

Key points

Evaluating the significance of the period

Sources

Optional: American Jazz Dance 1940-1975 / Singin' in the Rain

Key points

Explaining the roots of jazz dance

Key points

Analysing a jazz phrase through its features

Key points

Analysing a number's function

Key points

Explaining a practitioner's distinctive contribution

Key points

Evaluating the significance of the period

Sources