From Intermediate to Pro
Essential Drills and Choreography Concepts for the Aspiring Advanced Jazz Dancer
You've mastered the basics. You can execute a clean pirouette, hit a sharp jazz square, and your isolations are clean. But something feels missing. That effortless flow, that explosive power, that storytelling quality you see in professional dancers—it feels just out of reach.
Crossing the bridge from intermediate to advanced isn't about learning more steps; it's about deepening your understanding of how movement originates, connects, and communicates. It's about training smarter, not just harder. This blog post is your guide to that transition.
Part 1: The Drills — Building a Pro-Level Foundation
Advanced movement requires an advanced foundation. These drills target the specific muscle groups and neurological pathways that professional dancers rely on.
1. Dynamic Spinal Articulation
The Goal: To move your spine as a connected, expressive unit rather than rigid segments.
The Drill: "The Wave" with resistance bands. Place a light resistance band around your head and anchor it to a pole or door behind you. Practice your spinal rolls and waves against the resistance. Remove the band and execute the same movement—you'll find new freedom, fluidity, and control.
2. Multi-Directional Balance & Weight Shifts
The Goal: To make any transition, no matter how off-balance it looks, feel stable and intentional.
The Drill: "The Clock Relevé." Stand on one leg. Execute a relevé, and then slowly and with control, tilt your torso and extended leg to point toward 12, 1, 2, 3 o'clock, etc., all the way around your standing leg. Maintain a high relevé and a strong core. Repeat on the other side.
3. Polycentric Isolation Stacking
The Goal: To independently control body parts with precision while adding layers of complexity.
The Drill: "The 4-Point Isolation Sequence." Set a metronome to a slow tempo (60-70 BPM). On beat 1: Isolate your head to the right. Beat 2: Layer your rib cage isolation to the left. Beat 3: Layer your hips forward. Beat 4: Layer a right shoulder roll. Reverse the entire sequence to return to center. Increase speed as you master it.
Part 2: Choreography Concepts — The Mind of a Pro
Executing steps is one thing; dancing is another. These concepts will change how you approach and perform choreography.
1. Motif and Variation
Professional choreography is often built on this principle. A motif is a simple, recognizable movement phrase. Throughout the piece, this motif is repeated but varied—changed in size, direction, rhythm, or energy. As a dancer, your job is to identify the core motif and understand how each variation relates to it. This creates a through-line that makes your performance cohesive and intelligent.
2. Phrasing Beyond the 8-Count
Intermediate dancers think in 8-counts. Advanced dancers think in phrases. A musical phrase might be 7 counts, 12 counts, or 20 counts long. Practice listening to jazz music (especially bebop and contemporary jazz) and identify where the musical phrases begin and end. Your movement should follow these phrases, not the predictable 8-count structure. This creates a more organic and musical performance.
3. Intentional Oppositions
Advanced jazz is full of contrast and opposition. This is the concept of simultaneously executing opposing qualities:
- Groundness vs. Lightness: Driving powerfully into the floor with your legs while reaching lightly and expansively through your arms and head.
- Sharp vs. Smooth: A sharp, hit accent with the arms while the lower body continues a smooth, sustained glide.
- Internal vs. External: A small, intricate hand gesture (internal focus) paired with a large, commanding positional change (external focus).
Practice these dichotomies in isolation to make them a natural part of your movement vocabulary.
"Jazz dance is the edgy, rhythmic, and grounded conversation between body and music. To master it, you must first become a great listener."
Your Practice Plan
How to integrate this into your daily routine:
- Warm-up (15 mins): Incorporate the Dynamic Spinal Articulation and Polycentric Isolation drills.
- Technical Drill (10 mins): Focus on the Clock Relevé for balance.
- Choreography Analysis (10 mins): Take a piece of professional choreography (find it online). Watch it and identify: a) the movement motif, b) its variations, and c) one example of intentional opposition.
- Phrasing Practice (15 mins): Freestyle to a jazz song with an irregular structure. Focus on hitting the beginnings and ends of musical phrases, not counts.
The Final Leap
The journey from intermediate to advanced is the most rewarding and challenging phase. It's where you stop being a student of steps and start being a student of dance. It requires mindful, consistent practice of both your body and your artistry.
The drills sharpen your instrument. The concepts give you the music to play. Combine them with passion, patience, and perseverance, and you won't just be executing advanced jazz—you'll be living it.
