An Abbreviated History of Concert Jazz Dance

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An Abbreviated History of Concert Jazz
Dance Molly Stoltz, Karla Grotting, and Heidi
Geier Department of Theater Arts and Dance,
University of Minnesota TC
Mura Dehn 1902-1989

• Jazz performer, choreographer, archivist,
  producer, and historian
• Russian immigrant who moved to Harlem to
  study jazz
• Began the Traditional Jazz Dance Company
  in 1932, which included the Savoy Ballroom
  Harlem Dancers and was possibly the first
  concert jazz company
• Frankie Manning, James Berry, Pepsi Bethel,
  Sandra Gibson
• and others
• Filmed The Spirit Moves in 1950, which
  archived traditional
• jazz dances from the 1900s to post WWII.
• Only one of her articles on African
  American jazz dance is published, which is
  problematic as it erases traditional jazz dance
  history and does not include it in the jazz
  dance genealogy.

My life has been very fulfilling. I guess the
best way for me to sum it up would b for me to
call myself a disciple of jazz. Gus Giordano
Other Contributors

• Jack Cole (1930s-1950s)- Chorographer at
  Columbia Pictures, used modern, East
  Indian, and Savoy to choreograph to jazz music.
• Luigi, Matt Mattox, Danny
  Buraczeski(1960s-present) others followed
  Giordano and began companies.
• Katherine Dunham, Alvin Ailey, and Daniel
  Nagrin choreographed to jazz music but are
  claimed by modern dance.