When I was a young dancer studying in England and then New York, I was introduced to Isolation work by my first Jazz teacher, a gentleman by the name of Ivor Meggido. Ivor used isolation work in his warm ups and also extensively in his choreography. It was, in fact Ivor Meggido, who really got me interested in the whole concept of isolation work and why it was so important not only for my dance training but really for any dancer. He had studied with Matt Mattox and utilized the isolation work that Matt also used in his classes. Jack Cole, a famous dancer and choreographer was the Master of isolations and used that concept in much of his choreography by learning movements commonly used in East Indian and Oriental styles of dancing. Mastering isolation work definitely requires a good amount of focus but once you have gained control of the different parts of the body and you are able to isolate each area it adds dimension and more than anything else angles and interesting shapes to choreography.
So how relevant is isolation work in today’s dance training? More than ever, isolation work is being used in popular dance styles and even in contemporary, modern and the classics. Hip Hop done without isolating the shoulders, head, ribcage and hips is simply not dynamic or exciting. This, of course, also applies to Jazz; The Fosse style is a perfect example. Contemporary work to really be effective uses a number of isolations and the same goes for Modern. Even Ballet uses isolations in different ways. So, yes! Isolations are used and because of that there is a definite relevance for teaching isolation work in your classes.
If you are not currently making isolation work part of your Jazz and Hip Hop classes then I would heartily recommend that you start soon. This doesn’t mean that you have to create an entirely new warm up; you could start adding exercises one by one until you are covering all the pertinent areas. You can start with the head and neck, then the shoulders, ribcage and hips. I recommend that you use a syllabus to help you with exercises, especially if you have no prior experience. Matt Mattox has some wonderful exercises as does Charles Kelley and Steve Sirico both of whom have comprehensive and extensive syllabi that are available.
Working on isolations with your students can be a lot of fun and the rewards will be amazing. It will however take concentration so obviously you will only need to give very basic types of isolations to your once a week students. Just getting them to understand the concept of moving the head forward and back and side to side will be good in the beginning but then try to go a step further by placing the palms of the hands together with the elbows bent over their heads and push the side of the jaw from side to side keeping the head level. Your students will be able to have fun with a movement as simple as that, from there you can progress to easy shoulder isolations such as lifting them up and down and moving them forward and back. Ribcage isolations are easier to teach and do if the hands are placed on the hips so that the dancers can really concentrate on only moving that part of the body. Shifting the ribs from side to side and forward and back is a good way to start. Hip isolations always need to be done in a demi plie as it is extremely difficult to move the hips side to side and forward and back with straight legs. In all of these movements I always recommend stopping in the center in between forward and back or side to side movements as this promotes control.
For your more advanced students combining isolations with arm movements is both interesting and challenging. Just getting the mind to be able to do two things simultaneously is stimulating and fun and really gets the minds working. Once your students gain confidence with their isolation work you will see their technique developing to a higher level and also, in my experience I have found that students will generally be able to pick up choreography much more rapidly once their minds get used to working with isolations. Somehow they just seem to get the mind to work faster and more efficiently.
When you teach isolations it is advisable to keep the movements fairly small and tight until the dancers understand how to control the movements. So often a student will want to make the movement big and then the whole idea of isolation goes out the window. If you can get them to keep it small in the beginning, the end result will be terrific.
