Our jazz dance program is based on a variety of jazz styles: Broadway, Lyrical, Contemporary, Hip-hop. Jazz, as a dance form, is the product of the cultural melting pot that is America. It is based on social dance styles from the early twentieth century to present. Jazz dance is a classification shared by a broad range of dance styles. Prior to the 1950s, jazz dance referred to dance styles that originated from African American vernacular dance. In the 1950s, a new genre of jazz dance “modern jazz dance” emerged, with roots in Caribbean traditional dance. Every individual style of jazz dance has roots traceable to one of these two distinct origins.