Jazz dance has two meanings, depending on the era.
Until the middle of the 1950s, jazz dance in shows meant mostly tap dance, because jazz was the music and tap was the main dance of the era. Also, during the jazz era, a popular form of jazz dance was Swing dancing and its related dances Cakewalk, Black Bottom, Charleston, Lindy Hop, all forms of dance commonly danced to jazz music. Another essential root of jazz dance comes from the [African American Vernacular Dance] from the late 1800's up until the mid 1900's. After the 1950's, pioneers such as Kathrine Dunham took the essence of Caribbean traditional dance and made it into a performing art.
Since the fifties, with the growing domination of other forms of entertainment music, jazz dance evolved with Broadway choreography into a new, smooth, modern Broadway style that is taught today and known as Modern Jazz, while tap dance continued to evolve on its own. Jazz is more a contemporary kind of dance as compared to ballet, for instance.
Both Jazz and Modern techniques arrived from the basics of the old ballet tradition, even though both forms where considered a form of rebellion against ballet. To excel in jazz dance, the dancer must master ballet techniques. Wikipedia®
    
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Ledgends of Jazz
LUIGI: “NEVER STOP MOVING”
Luigi’s dance career can be summed up in one word: perseverance. After surviving a life-threatening car accident, Luigi went on to perform in Hollywood films and develop the world’s first comprehensive jazz dance technique. Always content out of the spotlight, Luigi was an extraordinary teacher and trained many famous dancers to use their bodies to the fullest capacity.
GUS GIORDANO: A MIDWESTERN MAN
Gus Giordano, who passed away on March 9, 2008, was the leading proponent of jazz dance in the Midwest. Although he built his career thousands of miles from Hollywood or Broadway, Giordano was a successful choreographer, teacher and advocate for jazz dance. At five years old, Giordano was introduced to jazz music on a trip to experience Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Instantly hooked, he returned home to study ballet and theatre dance.
JACK COLE: THE FATHER OF THEATRICAL JAZZ
Arguably, Jack Cole did more to popularize jazz dance than anyone else. Working in Hollywood films, Cole inspired Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, Tommy Tune and many other choreographers of the 1960s and 1970s. With an undeniably sexy style, Cole developed a technique that draws from modern East Indian and Asian dance styles—and red-hot jazz music.
BOB FOSSE: ART IMITATES LIFE
Bob Fosse’s simple seductiveness is instantly recognizable—a swivel of the hip, a shoulder roll, the bat of an eyelash—and still noticeable in today’s music videos and nightclubs. Fosse’s choreography dominated Broadway during the 1960s and 1970s and his work was widely celebrated. In 1973 he was awarded Oscar, Tony and Emmy awards all in the same year. Despite his great success, Fosse led a tumultuous life—afraid of failure and prone to addiction and depression. However, it may have been the combination of triumph and breakdown that was responsible for Fosse’s genius.
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