Advanced Solo Jazz Dance How-to #1: The John Bubbles Charleston Routine

Decided to make some instructional videos for all my swing dance friends out there who are interested in advancing their solo jazz dancing. These videos are based off of real routines performed by dancers from the Swing Era. I’ve tried my best to copy these routines nearly verbatim based off of vintage clips of these routines. Hopefully, these instructional videos will be useful in levelling up your solo jazz, showing you some variations you can do to classic steps, introduce you to steps you never knew existed, address some mistaught moves, and various concepts like having tap dance aesthetics to your solo jazz.

In this video, I will be breaking down a routine performed by John Bubbles from the American Theater Revue show. This video will demonstrate variations in the basic Charleston, the Jump Charleston, and some new moves combining the Cross-step, Windmill, and Squat Charleston. Lastly, I hope to demonstrate some tap dance-esque transition steps that give your solo jazz a more grounded and less lofty look.