JAZZ

Jazz has become one of the most popular dance styles in recent years, mainly due to its popularity on television shows, movies, music videos and commercials. People enjoy watching jazz dancers, as the dancing is fun and energetic.

Jazz dancing is a form of dance that showcases a dancer's individual style and originality. Every jazz dancer interprets and executes moves and steps in their own way. Jazz dancing is energetic and fun, consisting of unique moves, fancy footwork, big leaps and quick turns. To excel in jazz, dancers need a strong background in ballet, as it encourages grace and balance.

TAP

Tap dance began in the 1830s in New York City and today is popular all around the world. The name comes from the tapping sound made when the small metal plates on the dancer's shoes touch a hard floor.

Tap dance is a fusion of Irish jig and African shuffle. This fusion developed when the different immigrants groups in New York would get together and dance, showing off their best moves and having fun competitions. As the dances fused, a new American style of dancing emerged.

Tap flourished in the United States from 1900 to 1955, when it was the main performance dance of Vaudeville and Broadway. Vaudeville was an inexpensive form of entertainment before television, and it employed droves of skilled tap dancers.

BALLET

Ballet is the art of dance requiring strength, resilience, elegance and grace all at once. It may be difficult to master and takes lots of patience and practice to learn. If ballet is fast becoming your passion and you are prepared to put in the hours of practice, then it may just be that you are prepared to aim for a career in ballet. Ballet can be studied at any age. Girls who study ballet develop strong bodies, special and temporal awareness, and improve their coordination. A proved scientific, long-term bonus is that, it has been shown that girls retain the flexibility brought about by ballet throughout their adult lives. Ballet technique is considered to be the basis of training for all types of dance.

CONTEMPORARY

The name "Contemporary Dance" describes a range of techniques and styles used in classes, workshops and dance choreography. Contemporary dance was developed in the early 20th century as a reaction against the rigid techniques of ballet. Pioneers such as Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham searched for ease of movement using the body's natural lines and energy, allowing a greater range and fluidity of movement than conventional dance techniques.

Contemporary dance is characterised by its versatility: contemporary can be danced to almost any style of music, or united with other dance forms to create new styles of movement. Contemporary seeks to work with the natural alignment of the body, and is therefore safe and accessible for beginners. At the same time, the ease of movement promoted by contemporary dance technique allows experienced dancers to push new boundaries of body movement.