Chapter Eighteen

Today we started our last portion of intro to Dance, Jazz. Our prof began to explain the basics of Jazz. We learned the differences between free-movement jazz versus broadway jazz versus lyrical jazz. Thankfully, we were learning free-movement. She explained how free-movement jazz is perhaps the 'easiest' because it was created for entertainment purposes only. Whereas lyrical jazz combined ballet like moves with jazz to convey emotions and a story plot. The dancers have to have an enormous amount of technical skill. Broadway jazz was what the old musicals employed in the middle of the play. The story line stopped for a huge dance number.

The prof explained the jazz dance positions. So far, this was already easier than ballet and modern. We only needed to know neutral, first and second position, and NO turn-out in the feet (aka duck feet) like ballet. Then we began with the typical jazz warm-up routine, which seemed rather easy, even for me. No crazy french terms to memorize either, which was another bonus.

Starting with our head, we rolled it around twice then up and down a few hundred times, then right and left, then ear to one shoulder and ear to the other. Next shoulders went up and down, up and down, left rolled forward, right rolled forward, left rolled backward, right rolled backward, rolled together forward and backward.

So far, so good, I think I can handle this. I thought to myself.

I'm not sure why, or even if something happened, perhaps the prof was just sick of seeing the same people in the front row, but suddenly she called out, "Line switch! That means front line to the back, you guys move forward!" Not that I enjoyed being in the front line this entire semester for all to laugh at, but I am all of five foot two and three-quarters, and I placed myself in the front for purposes of being able to see what was going on. Now I found myself in the back, and practically hopping up and down to see what the prof was doing next!

"Place your hands here at your hips and open your elbows to the side. I know the tendons here in your elbows are wigging out, but that's ok. You gotta try and keep them there like this. Now, without moving the elbows or arms, You're gonna keep your collar bone level, and move right and left, right and left. Good! Next, you're going to press your chest forward, again without moving your arms and elbows back and forth...ok, now center, then back, forward, center, back, forward, center, back."

My grandfather would be having a coronary right now, I thought to myself as we thrust our chests forward and back in a very suggestive manner. But that was only the beginning.

"Now we work the hips. To the left and right, left and right." I looked around and noticed the entire class' booty swaying back and forth. "Thrust forward, and Center, back, and center, and forward, center, back and center...now left, back, right, forward, left back, right, forward...REVERSE!" We gyrated our hips to the continuous pulse of the hip-hop playing on the stereo. "Double time!" She hollared. I was quite certain that the male population on campus would have gladly been audience material, had we needed volunteers for such a duty.

"Ok," the prof said as she turned off the music. I stood on my tippy toes, and practically fell into the girl next to me to see what was being demoed next. Is she going to do another line switch? I thought to myself, Or am I hopelessly doomed to stay in the back? I hate being in the back...somewhere in the middle... now, that's a great place...ya can still see...not out in front where everyone else can see you...nice and hidden...why can't I be in the middle? My mental whine was interrupted by our next set of instructions.

"We learned single isolations of various body parts. Next we're going to do some complex isolations, where one part of our bodies are moving one way and other parts of our bodies are moving another. First lets start with our hands."

We moved our hands straight up like the ref does for a touchdown in a football game, then out to the sides in a V pose, down by our sides in a "strong hand" pose, then hands in a neutral position by our thighs, arms down. After repeating this motion a few million times, we added our feet.

"Step to the right, plie your right leg, left leg straight, come together, again. Now to the left!" The Prof shouted above the music. "Double time! Ok, now, lets add the arms!" Suddenly I felt like I was in an aerobics class. It was only to get better. "Now lets add the head! Hands up, head straight, step to the right! Head up, hands V, feet together! Head straight, strong hands! Step to the right! Head down, hands down, feet together! Again! To the left!"

It IS an aerobics class! I thought. Then I heard the words the entire class just loves to hear, "Up to tempo!!!!!!!" Slowly, one by one we started falling apart, losing our coherency of one group moving in the same way in the same direction. I went left, for sure, when the rest of the group went right. My hands were up, the majority of the class had theirs down. The prof's back was towards us, so she wouldnt have known we were already faltering when she hollared over the noise, er I mean music, "DOUBLE TIME!" It was only then, when she heard the giggles, and saw in her peripheral vision that most of us had completely stopped "dancing" that she turned around and clapped her hands, turned off the music, and said "have a seat where you are."

We all sat down, not sure what was going to happen next since this was not a usual occurance up to this point. Our professor explained how Jazz was the only dance style to come from America, and that's why we "got it" so quickly. She explained she was able to take us through an entire warm-up in one class, a feat that took almost all five weeks for the other two styles. I looked around to see who must've been the ones who "got it" because I certainly didnt. Ok, I lied, I did find it easier than previous dance style learned up to this point. I started day-dreaming and dreading how on earth I was possibly going to pull of the choreography that was looming in the near future when she said, "Alrighty ladies, I'll see you next week!"

Two more weeks. Two more weeks till showtime. And yes, I still refuse to video tape it.