Dance training in the open class format is constantly evolving.  And as I’ve discussed in previous posts, I find that today’s ballet classes (with the exception of very few) are focused almost entirely on technique while today’s jazz and theater dance classes (with the exception of very few) are focused almost entirely on choreography. Although I am primarily ballet trained and although I spend most of my professional life teaching ballet, I really owe most of my success to the 23 years that I spent under the tutelage of Luigi.  Luigi created the first codified technique for teaching jazz dance and his training method created some of the most astonishing dancers the industry has ever seen.  And within the scope of the jazz classes that I teach, I am committed to keeping his technique alive and passing on this training.

Luig’s jazz classes began with a set series of “technique exercises”.  He preferred this term to “warm up” because these exercises were designed to do much more than warm up the dancer.  The exercises build a technique; a technique that is specific to jazz. The exercises teach how the body works, how to use epaulment, how the torso is carried, how the rib cage is held, how the arms connect to the back, how to create a beautiful and rich port de bras, or a long line that goes on forever. The exercises teach placement, turn out, alignment, weight transfer and weigh distribution. The exercises teach how to “dance from the inside”, how to “feel first, then do” and how to “NEVER STOP MOVING”.

When we studied with Luigi at his school we were committed to learning and hopefully mastering his technique. We progressed through Luigi Jazz Technique classes in graded levels from “Intro” to “Advanced”. But we also took classes called “Style” and “Technique” and it was in the style and technique classes that the real training occurred. The Style class consisted of a very detailed breakdown and explanation of what he considered to be the most important of the technique exercises, followed by a slow combination designed to work on musicality, artistry and personal style.  The Technique classes were a 90-minute breakdown and explanation of all of the exercises with no choreography at all. Just the exercises.

Most jazz classes today in the “open class” system in New York City begin with a short “follow along” warm up designed to get the body warm and then the majority of the time is spent working on choreography. I am currently teaching only one “open” jazz class per week. It is impossible, in one weekly, 90-minute class, to pass on this technique; to teach the work the way Luigi taught it. I am committed to presenting the technique exercises in their entirety, so my strategy has been to give a brief technical introduction to each exercise, have the students then follow along, while I explain as much as I can over the music. And I believe, for the most part, this has been a valuable experience for my students.  Many of the students have been asking if it would be possible for the class to run twice a week. Joffrey has no open studio space at a time that I am available to teach a second class, so I have decided to rent a room at a commercial studio rental facility to teach this second weekly class.  Since I am renting the room, I can control the length of the class, and so I have decided to run the class for two hours. 

The two-hour format will allow me to really TEACH.  My plan is to select one or two of the technique exercises each week to really explore in detail.  I will break down the selected exercises in depth, as Luigi did, explaining not just what to do but how to do it, what to feel when doing it and why we are doing it. The rest of the exercises will be performed as I do in the 90-minute class with a narration over the music.  Since different exercises will be broken down and explained each week, over the course of a month, all of the exercises will receive this detailed explanation. It is only through careful detailed break down and explanation of these exercises that the technique can be truly understood and acquired. The additional time will allow me to teach the exercises in this way and still have plenty of time to work on choreography. The two-hour class will also allow me to explore musicality, phrasing, movement quality, style and performance quality as well as simply teaching steps when working on the combinations.

I know that this kind of class is not really “what’s happening today”. I know that most younger dancers have never worked in this way and have never even heard of this technique.  But when I walked into Luigi’s studio as a 25-year-old absolute beginner, my life was changed forever. Luigi took the training that he received from his legendary teachers (Bronislava Nijinska, Michio Ito, Edith Jane, Eugene Loring) and created his brilliant technique. He then passed all of this knowledge to me (and countless other students) and this work has lived in my body, my mind and my soul for decades. It is a privilege to pass this work on to my students. It is a thrill to be able to pull back a curtain and show them a world of dance that they never even knew existed.

And so it is through this new class that I hope to be able to introduce dancers to this brilliant technique, a technique that was built out of the great training of almost a century past, a technique that was developed to combat paralysis after the tragedy of a near-career-ending accident, a technique that was responsible for the creation of generations of compelling, uniquely astonishing dancers.  

Every Saturday I will guide my students through this journey. Every Saturday I will echo Luigi’s words: “To dance, put your hand on your heart and listen to the sound of your soul”. Every Saturday, as he most famously said, we will “Never Stop Moving”.

My new 2-hour Jazz Class will be held every Saturday at 1:15 PM at the Joffrey Ballet School, 434 Avenue of the Americas, NYC. https://www.joffreyballetschool.com/open-classes