Jazz dance is in Nan Giordano’s blood—and so is leadership. In her four decades at the helm of Giordano Dance Chicago, the company founded by her father, jazz luminary Gus Giordano, she’s worked hard to balance legacy with innovation. “We stand on the foundation my father built, but we don’t live in the past,” she […]
This sequence takes dancers through several foundational poses of the Giordano jazz technique. These positions aren’t stagnant—they flow together with continuous energy. Nan Giordano stresses that the dancer’s powerful gaze is quintessential to authentic technique. “That’s my dad’s look—the Giordano eyes,” she says. “All the intensity comes through the eyes, focusing and imagining, but not […]
When Joel Hall enters a studio, students fall silent and rise in respect. He can command a room from its corner with merely a facial expression, but more often, he takes charge by getting into the thick of the dance, letting the beat of the house music move him and pulling meaning and emotion from […]