Hello everyone! Today, I wanted to share my experience taking an adult jazz dance class!

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I’ve been taking ballet for a few years now, and even virtual ballet classes too! So I figured I’d share my experience taking a jazz class too!

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My Adult Jazz Dance Class Experience

So a few of us in the ballet class actually asked for jazz class! We wanted to try other types of dance, so we also said we’d like to try tap, if jazz wasn’t a good option. In the end, jazz was added in! I’ve given tips on finding adult ballet classes before, and I’d say that the same applies for jazz. Overall, I think ballet is a lot easier to find now as an adult than it was even a few years ago. With the rise in popularity for barre classes, ballet has also become more accessible. I think jazz actually isn’t as widely available in my experience. But I would say if you find a park district or studio that does offer some type of adult dance class, call them up and ask for your preferred dance type! They could be thinking about it and hearing there’s interest could convince them to offer it. I know there’s a few dancers in the class now that signed up for ballet and jazz, but only after seeing jazz offered for adults.

Now, we do have our classes back to back, so we have an hour of ballet followed by an hour of jazz. It’s a lot for one day, but not too bad actually! And both classes are full! Ballet is still the most popular, maxing out at 15 but jazz is full at 10 dancers!

So back to jazz! Like adult ballet and other dance/workout classes, we’re encouraged to wear workout clothing like leggings and workout tops so we can comfortably move around. I do have jazz shoes, but we’re not required to get them for class. Since this is an adult class for fun, our instructor is okay with us doing class in our ballet shoes if we want.

We always start with some warm-up exercises barefoot though, so that’s always fun! Then we put on our shoes and start with doing some basic jazz moves. After that, we spend the rest of class practicing our dance. It’s super different from ballet! While there’s still technique, it’s just different! I would say the most confusing part for me is that some of the moves have the same name as ballet, so then I get mixed up on what I’m supposed to be doing! Also, we don’t really do an “across the floor” portion of class or, of course, any barre work.

Overall, jazz is super fun! I love the class! Am I good at it? Oh no, not at all. I look insane! But it’s such a great time and we do have some dancers who have done jazz before so I love to watch how it’s actually supposed to look like. I do think that I’m much better at ballet but I have to remind myself that I’ve been practicing ballet for years now, and I was not as good as I am now when I first started either! I can’t wait to be a few years into jazz and be super good at it too!

Oh, another thing about dance class in general. I will say that those of us who are “regulars” in the ballet class try extremely hard to make it a supportive, positive, and fun class for everyone. No matter what, we try hard to get to know everyone and be encouraging. We all remember how scary it was to walk into dance class when we were brand new to dance! While I have heard other dance classes aren’t the same, I hope that anyone who goes into a dance class as an adult with or without prior dance experience will also have a good time.

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So that’s my experience so far in jazz class! I’m really loving it and fully plan to continue it as long as it’s offered.

Thanks for reading!

Pamela

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