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We began the lesson by doing a simple jazz warm up, honing in our focus on the lesson and allowing oxygen to reach our muscles more efficiently to prevent injury and soreness. We then learnt some simple choreography, and after practising the phrase the class split into two groups and we choreographed eight counts (two bars) leading up to the aforementioned phrase.  I did this in a group with Chloe and Sophie, and after using poses as a starting point we then created movements allowing us to travel between each pose. We then built on that further, changing and adding some steps to Amy's phrase such as step ball changes and flick kicks.
Something I found very challenging about this lesson was creating dance to fast, repetitive music. Many of the moves the three of us came up with when working as a team of choreographers were slick and smooth, inspired by some of the more traditional jazz style steps featured in the phrase we were taught. This would be bettered, however, if it was put to more suitable music, allowing the dynamic quality of the steps we were taught to be fully appreciated by responding to accents in jazz music.
I physically struggled today due to my reduced stamina and muscle tone as I have been unable to exercise for months due to breaking my right ankle last July. The worst part about an ankle fracture is that the joint has to be immobilised in a cast for six weeks, and this rendered me myself almost completely immobile for over a month, meaning all the muscles  in my right leg wasted away. This hugely affects almost all of my movements, especially my ability to jump, leap and balance.
In order to aid my recovery I regularly do physiotherapy exercises, and I have invested in a gym membership to regain muscular and cardiovascular strength.

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In response to Amy's feedback I have identified some key skills needed in jazz dance with examples.

Dynamics- it is hugely important to have a good dynamic range - especially in traditional jazz - with songs such as All That Jazz including several tempo changes, rhythms and accents. An example of when I use dynamics is during a phrase involving a step-ball-change, step kick, a contraction bringing my hands to hang just above my feet, and then a swaying hand gesture in time with the words "the piano's hot".

Core Strength- as the dancers pictured in the background of this blog are demonstrating, core strength is also very important in jazz. They are using their core muscles to bring all of their body up in a taught position, looking neat, precise and strong. Core muscles have a huge part to play in posture and movements in general, as when core muscles aren't used properly you slouch, and then your limbs follow suit being floppy and imprecise.

Musicality- an essential part of dancing to traditional jazz is musicality. Within this style, music, choreography and costume are all closely intertwined in creating a well known and unique representation of suggestive behaviour. In the case of Chicago, music and lyrics all reflect the themes - both through direct mentions in lyrics and through inferring from the music - of the underground nightlife scene in the 1920's during America's prohibition period. Being able to rhythmically relate the sensual movements to the style of music that was popular during this time is crucial to a convincing and enticing performance.

Stamina- stamina allows me to maintain a consistent level of energy and control within my performance. This is really important for my technique as without this I would lose the precision necessary for my movements. I demonstrate this skill by surviving rehearsals without collapsing from exhaustion.

Facial Expressions- Facial expressions play an important role when committing to the performance of a jazz dance. If you lack facial expression then all movements become insignificant as soon as someone observes your face - if it doesn't match the style then the effect is lost.

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We began by doing a simple jazz warm up involving parallel position with moving arms, transitioning between jazz third, left to right with feet in second position; jumping from parallel to second position; and jazz runs. Although it is very simple, I find this warm up really helpful for perfecting my technique. Using the mirrors in the studio I'm able to closely observe my extension, posture and expressions, and ensure that to start with I'm making strong, consistent lines and not pulling weird faces. I can then carry that forward into rehearsing the routine.
After warming up we proceeded to set the phrase that we learnt last week to All That Jazz from Chicago. This benefited the dance hugely as steps such as jazz walks and isolations like shoulder rolls now correspond to accents in the music. With this track being slightly slower the one we used last week as well, it enabled me to focus a lot more on being sexy and fluid in my movements to more accurately portray a traditional jazz style. This also increased the juxtaposition between fluid and sharp movements within the phrase - I felt I could really connect my dynamics to the rhythms in the song.
Another part of the lesson was a group pirouette exercise that I really struggled with. Bringing my feet behind, to the side and in front as a step to bring us from parallel position to jazz fourth, ready to pirouette, was hard. I found that I kept getting confused by overthinking and getting my legs tangled, but I'm starting to get the hang of it by practising at a slower tempo.

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In our second jazz lesson we began by looking into Bob Fosse and his role in shaping jazz dance as a style.
Robert Louis Fosse was born on the 23rd of June, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois. He and his five siblings grew up surrounded by dance and theatre. By the age of 13 he had teamed up with fellow young dancer Charles Grass, going on to tour Chicago's theatres as "The Riff Brothers". A few years later he was hired to star in a show called Tough Situation which toured several naval and military bases. Fosse accredits his performance technique to what he learnt when working on the show.
Fosse moved to Hollywood to act in films but found his screen career cut short due to premature baldness, so he turned to choreography. He choreographed several successful and iconic movies, including Cabaret and All That Jazz.
Fosse's style is unapologetically sexually suggestive. He tastefully borrows from tap dance, a style popular during the 20th century and uses the gracefulness of ballet. This together with his signature isolations  such as shoulder rolls; turned in knees and sideways shuffling, makes for a dynamic and exciting style of dance that's so pleasing to watch, it's still enjoyed by mainstream audiences today.

Fosse's show, Chicago has been running on Broadway for 21 years after it's revival in 1996.

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In this lesson we focused on the importance of extension. After watching a video of my performance in last week's rehearsal, it shocked me how often my posture sags or strong arms are instead floppy. What impacted me even more was how incredibly bad it looked.
I need to focus on doing every step with confidence, remembering that I remember the moves. I then used this lesson as an opportunity to over-extend on every move, throwing my limbs to where they needed to be with power and strength, showing myself as toned and graceful. Although obviously over the top, this helped me see how much better I can look when extending properly. Experimenting with this in a points and kicks warm up, followed by step-ball-change, step-leaps from the corner gave me a lot of new confidence, as although I don't have the flexibility to kick my leg as high as some, I can still look good by pointing my toes and extending properly.
Another thing I noticed after watching myself back was that I have good musicality and timing for the most part, except when doing more recent parts of the routine that I haven't practised as much. It's clear that again, the main problem is confidence and so I'm targeting myself to practise the moves until I'm totally confident with all of it.

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In this lesson we were tasked with creating choreography in small groups, my group consisting of Harvey, Megan, Emily, Chloe, Sophie and myself. We had to create a travelling phrase, moving across the stage and then back to where we started, leaving space for the other group to do the same from the opposite direction so we all weave into each other.
This was trying at times, as although Harvey's choreography at the beginning was clear and simple enough to understand, at the end of our short phrase Emily and Megan came up with a few moves, and when teaching them to us there was much confusion. It eventually became clear that both dancers cannot easily tell the difference between dancing on the beat, or off beat. The move in question is a slight swivel as you contract, bringing your knee up into your chest, right knee then swivel again and left knee.
The difficulty was that we'd be practising the phrase and I'd notice that they'd be doing the move on the beat, instead of off beat as I initially thought the move was. When questioned, they proceeded to say that it's ON the beat, whilst doing it off-beat. This made rehearsing the dance frustrating for a while but through practising we eventually found consistency in doing the move on the beat.

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In this rehearsal I really struggled with one particular move: a step over with the right leg to an inverted turn out with the left knee to the side, then repeating on the other side. Arms performing a high, circular suspended movement towards the opposite leg. Though theoretically it is not that hard, I kept getting mixed up and doing the step wrong, no matter how many times I practised and started to get it right. I wasn't the only person having difficulty with this move, so with the performance date fast approaching we decided to compromise the moves for the greater benefit of the class, and simplify it. We did this by just swapping the arm movement for a pose with the arms in a high jazz third, right then left.
Another quick fix that occurred in this rehearsal was some of our spacing, as you can see in the diagram below.

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Relationship-

There's a solo at the beginning, soloist begins to interact with other dancers who gradually come in

Trio of dancers in a close line performing synchronised movements

Ensemble syncopation

Actions-

Jazz hands

Kicks

Lifts

Lots of isolations- hips, arms, shoulders

Space-

Close proxemics at the start

Centre stage

Tight groups dotted across the stage- downstage, upstage, on the rostra

Dynamics-
The only thing that I felt was noticeably lacking in this dance is the dynamics. The choreography is a bit too samey and repetitive for my liking as it regularly repeats moves but the main problem is the same, slow rhythm is used throughout. There are very few moments where steps correspond to different accents and rhythms in the music, and in the entire overture (which is very fast) almost all the dancing is at half speed.

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Choreography by Mackenzie Lewis. Featured in "The Phipps Dance Theater's: This is Cabaret 2013."

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William Ivey Long's costume design for Roxie Hart in Act One

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After a short and fast paced rehearsal process, our end product was a tight, neat jazz dance to All That Jazz from Chicago.  This was of course heavily influenced by practitioners such as Bob Fosse and Jerome Robbins, looking at key movements and gestures such as clicks, jazz hands, leaps, jazz walks and runs, chasses, pirouettes, pivot steps, step-ball-changes and body isolations. Our aim for this dance was to create a sexy, stylish and bold number showing our confidence and strength as performers. After working on the dance intensively over several weeks, in our final dress rehearsal we began with an intense warm up featuring lots of jogging on the spot and squats. This long and incredibly energetic and fast warm up helped us prepare for the morning of polishing and finalising, with a lot of focus firstly being dedicated to spacing, as this was the first time we had moved out of our rehearsal room and into the performance space. This proved difficult as there was now a much greater need to be spatially aware, and with many travelling steps in the dance and with the way every individual does the step being slightly different,  the company did occasionally drift out of tight formations and into slightly messier ones.
As we neared the time of the scheduled performance, emphasis was put on practising moves within some of the smaller groups to ensure we were all confidently doing the same thing. Concentration was at its peak thanks to adrenaline and I made sure I stayed hydrated. Despite organising spacing not going as well as it could have due to some people not listening / forgetting their places, in terms of performance we were all working really hard to dance together as a company, each of us putting in as much enthusiasm as the next. One of the things I think really helped with this step up in performance energy was costumes. With a dress code of all black there was quite a lot we could do, so I decided to look at original Chicago costume designs for inspiration and accuracy.
I found the common thread between a lot of Chicago and Chicago inspired costumes being that they are slinky and show a LOT of skin, with a lot of them not more than leotards with a looser, bigger garment draped over the top. Therefore I opted to wear black shorts and a black bustier, fishnet tights and a long, sheer sleeveless black shirt that flows gracefully as the fabric is so light. This paired with my character shoes gave me the perfect Chicago themed costume and made me feel sultry and confident.
We did three final performances, two to a small audience and the final one in front of only Amy. I must say that after all the preparation, the first time I stepped out in front of an audience I felt complete. The hard rehearsal process was all worth it, as I had confidence in the moves and my performance and I just wanted to shine in front of the spectators. However, I know that for many of the company the first performance was the worst - with the pressure of performing in front of an audience feeling overwhelming, many people began to overthink and make mistakes. This began to be rectified in the second performance and by the third, everyone was virtually perfect although some a little exhausted. The only problem that I personally experienced was that some point during the end of the first performance I must have pulled or jarred my back, with movements becoming painful and uneasy after this. Still, I powered through, and despite tensions being high for many of us under the pressure, we performed wholly successfully.
In this final performance I personally showed brilliant interpretive skills through creating my character. I really felt that I could have been a dancer performing in a shady nightclub in 1920's America, focusing on my posture and facial expressions to create a truly jazz dance demeanour of myself. In terms of physicality I gave my best performance yet, by putting in full energy and really not holding back I had the power to create a strong, snappy dynamic quality in all of my moves. After receiving feedback that I needed to use more facial expressions I took that on board and made a conscious effort to make my face as vibrant as the dance moves, making eye contact with audience members wherever I could. Something that I feel I need to improve on in the next assignment is my precision, doing this through practise and improving my balance and muscle tone. I feel exceptionally accomplished after this assignment as in many rehearsals early on I have been kicking and screaming in frustration due to the pain and difficulty my injury has given me. To make it through that and come out the other side as a jazz dancer has been a great achievement.