At Jet's Academy, we offer the following classes:
Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Hip Hop, Contemporary Jazz, Adult Dance and Adult Yoga
When dance is taught correctly it can only do good. It can help children develop co-ordination, rhythm, and can improve posture. Learning to dance is a great confidence builder and promotes self-discipline. It also gives children a sense of movement and an appreciation of music.
The children follow a graded syllabus through the grades, from Preparatory to Grade 5 and then continue
on to the major exams of Intermediate Foundation, Intermediate, Advanced Foundation and Advanced.
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TAP
Tap dancing has a number of ancestors; most notably Irish step dancing, English clog dancing and African dancing (particularly something called “juba”), all of which were brought over to the United States through immigration and slavery. Irish step & English clog dancing came to the US with the immigrants; whilst the African slaves would stamp out rhythms with their feet in order to create percussive beats.
It seems that when wooden shoes were used these made more prominent sounds and then once metallic soles were added to the shoes to add noise to rhythmic movements, and other minstrel and vaudeville actors immediately followed suit, a new style of dancing was born – TAP! Tap dancing spread wildly, and soon became popular. The famous African American tap dancers known for their style & energy were William Lane, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson & the Nicholas brothers. Eventually it was not only the black Africans who were the tops at tap – Gene Kelly & Fred Astaire came along to show us how wonderful tap is in a musical show.
Tap is now performed by people of all ages for fun & fitness. If there are enough budding tappers out there, then an adult tap class will be set up!
The birthplace of jazz has various origins: New Orleans, St. Louis, Memphis and Kansas City are just a few. But New Orleans was and still remainders a main jazz centre. It was this amazing style of music which inspired the moves & rhythms of jazz dance at this time.
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Until the middle of 1950s, the expression "jazz dance" frequently referred to tap dance, because tap dancing (set to jazz music) was the major performance dance of the era. During the later jazz age different popular forms of jazz dance were the Cakewalk, Black Bottom, Charleston, Jitterbug, Boogie Woogie, Swing dancing and the related Lindy Hop.
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Its presentation into show business, during exposure in films, on television, and on Broadway, guaranteed it a huge and continuing audience. Today, jazz dance is presented in different shows and different forms. Jazz dance flourishes in dance schools and remains an important part of musical theatre choreography; it is sometimes mixed with other dance styles as suitable for the particular show.
JAZZ
HIP HOP
The word 'hip' was a part of the African American Vernacular English language since 1904. It meant ‘current’. It was a derivative of the word ‘hep’. The South Bronx community leader Afrika Bambaataa used the term ‘hip-hop’ for the first time. In the 1970s, the hip-hop music came up. It was based on turntablism, the art of manipulating sounds to create music and the simultaneous looping of the break, an upbeat drum. Later this technique was combined with the rapping of MCs.
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Hip-hop dance is an art form that is primarily performed on hip-hop music. Hip-hop is danced on the streets. The styles that developed in the later years are known as the New School. The older ones involve break dances and funk styles. The period between 1970 to 1985 marked the old school era of hip-hop. The period between 1985 to 1993 was believed to be the golden age of hip-hop. Some of the different forms of hip-hop dance include Harlem shake, snap dance, gangsta walking.
Ballet originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th and 16th centuries, when the music and literature were used in ballet to primarily entertain the aristocrats of the time. It quickly spread to France, where it reached its height under the reign of King Louis XIV who adored this style of dance and he founded the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opera) within which emerged the first professional theatrical ballet company, the Paris Opera Ballet in 1672. The predominance of French in the vocabulary of ballet reflects this history. However, although “Ballet” is a French word its origins are found in Italian - “balleto”, (a little court dance) a diminutive of “ballo”, (a dance) and from the Italian “ballare” meaning “to dance”.
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Theatrical ballet soon became an independent form of art, although still frequently maintaining a close association with opera, and spread from the heart of Europe to other nations all over the world.
In the 20th century styles of ballet continued to develop and strongly influence other dance forms for example modern dance and contemporary dance. However, ballet still remains a strong and fundamental technique as a foundation for other dance techniques and is still popular now as it was 500 years ago!
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So at Jet’s Academy, we are starting off teaching the very young dancers all about having fun with ballet by creating poses, positions and movement and learning all about the body. Baby ballet starts at 3 years.
BALLET
NEW CLASSES FOR ADULTS!
Yoga
Hatha Yoga focuses on strengthening the body, increasing concentration and flexibiltiy. Any age can come along and have a go at our new yoga class - beginners and more experienced - come for a free try out.
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Dance
Anybody can dance and have fun. This is the core principle behind our dance for adults classes. We will cover posture, rhythm and many other aspects of contemporary jazz.
Any age/experience can come and have a go at our new Adult Dance class. Join a dance class that is fun and keeps you fit! Free try out!