ABSTRACT
The jazz dancing that is the focus of this chapter emerged in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and early 1980s. What has become collectively known as UK, or sometimes ‘old school’, jazz incorporated a range of styles that developed around a network of ‘underground’ clubs. In contrast to much previous jazz dancing that was performed by, or emulated, African Americans, these styles, even whilst recognising American inuences, are also self-consciously British and, by virtue of the important part played by the children of immigrants to Britain from the Caribbean, have a sense of connection to African diasporic traditions that are not solely reliant on those transmitted via America.
