Well for a start some would argue it’s not really a solo dance at all because you’re generally dancing on a floor with others, vibing off of and being inspired by each other and the music (including the musicians in the band when it’s live music). However, essentially you’re learning to dance ‘independently’ without direct lead/follow contact with a partner so … ‘solo’.
For those of you who come regularly to our Sunday Lindy Hop classes you’ll already have experienced a few solo jazz moves in the warm ups each week and in some of the Lindy Hop moves in class.
This video from Laura Glaess gives a little bit of background, history, and why it’s such an important improvisational skill. It’s also loads of fun and great exercise for bodies and minds. And you don’t need to want to Lindy Hop or Swing Dance to enjoy Solo Jazz, it’s its own thing.
What does this type of jazz dancing look like today?
Oh my! There are so many amazing videos on You Tube but it can be a bit of a minefield as there are also more ‘modern jazz’ dance examples on there too which are a little bit different.
Firstly here’s a recent performance ‘Jazz at 3’ by Remy Kouakou Kouame, Frida Segerdahl, and Skye Humphries at Uptown SwingOut. It’s a choreographed performance but it’ll give you a flavour of 3 different styles of amazing dancer vibing off the band and each other and also show how it can fit in with your partner dancing too.
Secondly, here’s a recent competition event ‘Invitational Solo Jazz’ at ILHC 2023(International Lindy Hop Championships) with some more top pro dancers, yes they’re competing so some of it’s fancy and high skilled, but they’re still vibing off each other and checking in with the band.
Also I strongly recommend getting to know these dancers and those above; they’re incredible.
And did you know there’s an ILHC Europe event you can book on to now with classes, talks, and competitions? The next is at beginning of November in Bulgaria (which is a little easier to get to than America).
And finally, for now, here’s a beginners level warm up video (from Laura Glaess and friends) showing a little bit of: how you might experience an actual class, how we often dance in a circle as a group (though not always), how although the steps everyone’s doing are the same on this occasion (because this is a called out warm up) everyone’s dancing them slightly differently in their own way, how we can dance slowly as well as fast, plus of course the names and examples of some basic steps.
A little bit more history…
Remember the roots of all our dances go all the way back to West Africa via America through a turbulent, difficult, but incredible history of human survival and resilience. This extra video below gives a brief history of the Charleston, a fundamental element of vernacular jazz dance
Of course it’s not just about looking back…
These jazz dances evolved into or influenced many others including hip hop, break dancing, northern soul, funk and soul, RnB line dancing, shuffling and more and making those connections and seeing the circular influence happening today from these dances and Afrobeats for example is really exciting.
Nottingham Lindy Hop 