Jazz Hayes
For this week’s Nomadic Soundsters post, we are excited to be featuring Jazz Hayes (they/them/theirs), a dancer, choreographer, and actor based in Los Angeles, CA.
Jazz grew up in a very artistically encouraging environment that allowed them to explore a variety of creative pursuits from acting to music to painting. “Art is in my family - both of my parents are actors. I grew up with a lot of different art forms, [my parents] never forced anything.” Throughout this exploration, Jazz was always naturally drawn to dance saying that “it was the only art form that I didn’t consciously go into. I’ve just always been doing it. At Jazz’s dance studio, they put a lot of focus on having diverse dancers, and Jazz took this opportunity to explore everything they could - jazz, broadway, tap, flamenco, West African, Limón, Graham. And by high school, Jazz had already determined that they wanted to focus on dance seriously.
When asking Jazz what area of dance they gravitate most towards, they replied, “modern techniques, because each style is completely different in its origin, its inspiration, and its history.” Jazz has recognized that through dance, they have been able to explore their own family history and cultural heritage. As Jazz said, “The Dunham technique is sort of like the gumbo of dance.” It was created by Katherine Dunham, a dancer and anthropologist, who spent years in the Caribbean and West Africa closely studying their culture and weaving these movements and teachings into her own style. With Jazz’s grandmother being from Saint Lucia in the Eastern Caribbean, they have a particular closeness to the Dunham technique and Jazz has been able to acknowledge and appreciate their own biracial identity through dance and movement. They have come to realize that Dunham is something that they can connect to and really feel a sense of place, exploring a world of themself that is a part of their identity.
From speaking with Jazz, they noted that “every part of the body can be used in dance, depending on the intention that one has for it.” A practice that Jazz uses that has allowed them to find their natural movement is to “spell out your name in movement. It pushes you to explore new movements to something that already has a space, in your own handwriting.” This has allowed them to discover groundedness, fluidity, and natural movements in their own work. Also adding that “if I know how my body is working, I know how I can mimic it perfectly or alter it just enough to do it better.”
Jazz joined the Nomadic Soundsters Residency program because of the opportunity to work with people in different art forms and to create something completely unexpected. For them, it was an opportunity to take a break and do something that they love doing with people who are equally as passionate about their art forms. It has given them an opportunity to see more into the intention of their own movement and in their collaborative experience, they have found “an endless circle of inspiration where they’re all feeding off of each other and leading at the same time.”
