Revisiting Gus Giordano Jazz Dance
The problem with being successful and then living a long time is that people forget what dance was like before you made a difference. At 83, Gus Giordano can look back on an evolution of jazz dance that bears the stamp of his unmistakable technique and systematic teaching methods. The now-classic style of jazz dance is so standard that many contemporary teachers and students don't even recognize the heritage. That's where reunions come in; they spark the memory and shine a spotlight where credit is due.
Friends and former students came to Chicago's Harris Theatre and Evanston's Giordano Dance Center on October 27-29, 2006 for a weekend reunion with Gus Giordano.
Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago--fresh from its tour in Germany--kicked off a triumphant two evenings of jazz dance remembered and current. Two world premieres were bookended by works that are now company signature pieces. Associate Artistic Director of GJDC Jon Lehrer and Artistic Director and first daughter Nan Giordano had choreographed "Giordano Moves" (2005) to original music by George McRae. This piece is a compendium of uniquely Giordano, and now-classic, style jazz dance. It brought the house to its feet, honoring both the elegantly clean and heartfelt performance of this mature company and its founder. In a way, this work symbolized the entire weekend's tribute to Giordano and the four generations of students of the technique he originated and taught to so many. The program closed with "Prey," the Ron de Jesus-choreographed favorite. In between were revivals of Michael Rioux's "Punk You Very Much" (2004) and Mark Swanhart's "Sidecar" (2004), and the two premieres, which showed an entertaining breadth of approach by the company. Jon Lehrer's "Loose Canon" lent a charmingly comedic and most unfamiliar treatment to the Pachelbel music. Tony Powell's "Impulse" was an unremittingly calesthetic force filled with risky lifts, jumps, and throws. Today's clean lines and confident versatility are distant from the early days when the rep was exclusively Gus Giordano's Emmy-award winning choreography and the company earned its keep with industrials and fashion shows on Chicago's Miracle Mile.
Following Saturday evening's performance, Judi Sheppard Missett, much-honored founder of Jazzercise and a former Giordano dancer and teacher, hosted an Extravaganza Benefit Party at The Plaza Club atop Chicago's towering Prudential Building. Guests and many present and former company members arrived to see old friends and chat with the entire Giordano family. Nostalgia, snapshots and catch-up, and fine wine and food capped off the late evening.
Sunday's focus was on the Giordano Dance Center in Evanston, where walls of photographs documented five decades of classic jazz dance and Power Point letters of thanks and personal experience ran continuously on several computers. Jon Lehrer's East Coast Swing Dance class for youngsters and elders reminded everyone of the youth ballroom classes that first established the school with young teens and their parents. Then Susan Quinn, now a University of Arizona dance professor, introduced the Giordano Alumni Jazz Jamm. Former company members and other successful students from different eras led combinations of classic Giordano style jazz before the godfather himself. Patti Obey, now an international teacher of jazz dance, closed the Jamm with a moving musical theater combination to "Meet Me In St. Louis," Giordano's own birthplace.
It was easy to notice that jazz dance today shows little of its past weighted roughness, its passionate trial and error searching to communicate emotion and story. Just as today's Marsalis jazz musicians are trained in a classical vocabulary, so are contemporary jazz dancers well schooled in ballet and disciplines as diverse as competitive ballroom, acrobatics, and musical theater. Present Giordano company members are versatile, smart, and mature, most having already earned college degrees. They take risks onstage with awe-inspiring stamina, leaps and tosses, but they are well prepared against injury by daily technique classes, nutritional advice, yoga, physical therapy and Pilates. The men are athletic and strong, in the Giordano image. Jazz dance, in contrast to modern dance, has been a man's dance. Gus always admired women as well and choreographed handsome roles for them, but Nan Giordano's years as artistic director have enlarged the genre to an even playing field for strong women jazz dancers.
If you paged through Giordano's primer Jazz Dance Class, Beginning Thru Advanced, you would recognize postures, isolations, moves, and combinations that now form the basis of contemporary choreography and dance. Much of its wide spread is due to his years of tireless teaching of classes and workshops for every major U.S. convention and in Europe, Asia, North and South America, as well as from the company's international tours. Today's jazz dancers truly stand on the foundation he has made. The reason for the reunion was to remember that.
K.C. Patrick is currently at work on a biography of Gus Giordano and the evolution of American jazz dance.