Frank Hatchett's Jazz Dance - Frank Hatchett and Nancy Myers Gitlin

Frank Hatchett's Jazz Dance

by Frank Hatchett and Nancy Myers Gitlin

NEW, 192 pages

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About Frank Hatchett's Jazz Dance

A unique blend of energy, expressiveness, individual interpretation, and physical conditioning, VOP is the hot style of jazz dance that’s captivating dancers and audiences alike. Frank Hatchett—one of the most well-known, influential teachers and choreographers in the world—coined the term VOP while teaching his students how to accent a step and stylize a movement. Since that time, VOP has become synonymous with Hatchett’s style of jazz dance.

Hatchett perfected his unique style while teaching stars such as Madonna, Brooke Shields, Naomi Campbell, Vanessa Williams, Olivia Newton-John, MTV’s Downtown Julie Brown, Justine Bateman, and Savion Glover. All documented in this one-of-a-kind book, Frank Hatchett’s Jazz Dance gives you a behind-the-scenes look at Frank Hatchett and his exciting style of dance, with an in-depth look at what VOP is and where it came from.

After you gain a basic understanding of the Hatchett style, it’s time to lace up your jazz shoes. Warm-ups include rhythmic, center, floor, and isolation exercises that not only increase flexibility, strength, and control but also get you in the mood to move. Whether you’re a beginner or a professional, you’ll easily follow the step-by-step approach that’s accompanied by 242 photographs demonstrating the proper movements and techniques.

Frank Hatchett’s Jazz Dance is divided into four levels of difficulty, allowing you to easily progress through the stages of basic, beginner, advanced beginner, and intermediate/advanced. Hatchett hints accompany each step to address proper alignment, technique, common areas for improvement, and how to stylize the movement.

Once you’ve learned this unique approach, you can add your own artistic interpretation, creating jazz movements and combinations to make the style come alive. Then you will truly understand the innovation and spirit in this magnificent art form.

About Frank Hatchett

Loved and admired throughout the world for his unique style of jazz dance and inspirational teaching, Frank Hatchett is quite simply one of the legendary jazz dance masters. Hatchett is currently the dean of dance at the prestigious Broadway Dance Center in New York City where more than 250,000 dancers come to learn each year. He's had an impressive roster of students including Madonna, Brooke Shields, Naomi Campbell, Olivia Newton-John, Justine Bateman, Vanessa Williams, Julie Brown, Suzette Charles, Savion Glover, and dozens of Broadway and daytime television actors and actresses.

Dubbed “The Doctor of Jazz” by ABC's Good Morning America, Frank Hatchett has a very high-profile career. He's been featured on the Emmy Award-winning CNBC episode of Real Stories and spotlighted on MTV's show The Real World. He has also received the prestigious L'Hult D'Or Award from Paris. Hatchett teaches classes throughout the country at national dance conventions but calls New York City home.

About Nancy Myers Gitlin

Nancy Myers Gitlin has been a student of Frank Hatchett's for over 30 years. She graduated from the Boston Conservatory of Music with a BFA in dance and has taught at Broadway Dance Center, the Boston Conservatory of Music, Johnson County Community College, and numerous dance studios.

Gitlin has developed college dance curriculums and is currently on the dance faculty at Lake Michigan College. She is also dance/fitness coordinator at the YMCA Family Center in St. Joseph, Michigan, where she resides with her husband and two children.

Reviews

“I've been studying with Frank for almost 20 years. If you can't take a class with the man himself, this book is the next best thing.”
Tamara Tunie
Actor, singer, and dancer
Acted in Snake Eyes, The Devil's Advocate, The Peacemaker, and played Jessica Griffin in the CBS daytime drama As the World Turns for eight years

“A long overdue book from Frank! Excellent!”
Joe Tremaine
President, Tremaine Dance Conventions and Competitions

“Frank did it again. He is the master of VOP—and now the first book about contemporary jazz dance. He has helped so many young students in the art of today's dance, and now this magic book will inform all of the dance public. Way to go, Frank—5, 6, 7, 8, VOP!”
Gus Giordano, BA
Founder/director of Gus Giordano Dancer Center
Recipient of the Third Annual Katherine Dunham Award

“Frank Hatchett's life in the dance world is one of love and passion for art. By knowing the roots of art, or in this case one man's art, it gives us a true understanding of the art that Frank shares with dancers, actors, singers, models, and people from all walks of life. It is an honor to watch Frank Hatchett teach a class, and it makes me proud to know he is teaching not only dance, but also the need for positive reinforcement. Bravo to Mr. Hatchett.”
Chet Walker
Director of 8 & Ah 1 Musical Theatre Dance Company
Original creator of the Broadway show Fosse

“I love this book—it's honest. This book helps me to develop an “I can do it, too” mentality by sharing the keys to Frank's success. Frank Hatchett's Jazz Dance shows that having heart is very important for longevity whether you're a dancer, teacher, or choreographer.”
Pepper Von
Performer, Choreographer, Educator
Co-Owner and artistic director of Step One Dance and Fitness
United States National Aerobics champion

About Dance

Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting.

Dance may also be regarded as a form of nonverbal communication between humans, and is also performed by other animals (bee dance, patterns of behaviour such as a mating dance). Gymnastics, figure skating and synchronized swimming are sports that incorporate dance, while martial arts kata are often compared to dances. Motion in ordinarily inanimate objects may also be described as dances (the leaves danced in the wind).

Definitions of what constitutes dance are dependent on social, cultural, aesthetic, artistic and moral constraints and range from functional movement (such as folk dance) to virtuoso techniques such as ballet. Dance can be participatory, social or performed for an audience. It can also be ceremonial, competitive or erotic. Dance movements may be without significance in themselves, such as in ballet or European folk dance, or have a gestural vocabulary/symbolic system as in many Asian dances. Dance can embody or express ideas, emotions or tell a story.

Dancing has evolved many styles. Breakdancing and Krumping are related to the hip hop culture. African dance is interpretative. Ballet, Ballroom, Waltz, and Tango are classical styles of dance while Square and the Electric Slide are forms of step dances.

Every dance, no matter what style, has something in common. It not only involves flexibility and body movement, but also physics. If the proper physics is not taken into consideration, injuries may occur.

Choreography is the art of creating dances. The person who creates (i.e., choreographs) a dance is known as the choreographer.

Dance does not leave behind clearly identifiable physical artifacts such as stone tools, hunting implements or cave paintings. It is not possible to say when dance became part of human culture. Dance has certainly been an important part of ceremony, rituals, celebrations and entertainment since before the birth of the earliest human civilizations. Archeology delivers traces of dance from prehistoric times such as the 9,000 year old Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka paintings in India and Egyptian tomb paintings depicting dancing figures from c. 3300 BC.

One of the earliest structured uses of dances may have been in the performance and in the telling of myths. It was also sometimes used to show feelings for one of the opposite gender. It is also linked to the origin of "love making." Before the production of written languages, dance was one of the methods of passing these stories down from generation to generation.

Another early use of dance may have been as a precursor to ecstatic trance states in healing rituals. Dance is still used for this purpose by many cultures from the Brazilian rainforest to the Kalahari Desert.

Sri Lankan dances goes back to the mythological times of aboriginal yingyang twins and "yakkas" (devils). According to a Sinhalese legend, Kandyan dances originate, 250 years ago, from a magic ritual that broke the spell on a bewitched king. Many contemporary dance forms can be traced back to historical, traditional, ceremonial, and ethnic dance.

Frank Hatchett's Jazz Dance