Dawson City's jazz dance scene is small, scrappy, and unexpectedly serious. In a town better known for gold rush history, can-can revues, and the Sourdough Rendezvous, three dedicated studios keep jazz technique alive through long winters and brief, busy summers. Classes draw a mix of local kids, aspiring performers, seasonal workers, and tourists looking to stay active between hiking trails and riverboat cruises.
If you're new to the form—or new to town—this guide breaks down where to study, how the studios differ, and what actually happens inside a jazz class.
What Is Jazz Dance, Exactly?
Jazz dance sits at the intersection of concert dance and popular movement. It borrows from African diasporic rhythms, Broadway staging, and mid-century innovators like Jack Cole, Luigi, and Bob Fosse. A good class builds technique through isolations (moving individual body parts independently), stylized walks, and across-the-floor progressions, then layers in performance quality: attack, musicality, and personal interpretation.
Unlike swing dance—a partnered social dance often confused with it—jazz dance is typically studied in a studio setting, in lines or groups, with choreography set to jazz, pop, or musical theater soundtracks.
The Three Studios: How They Compare
Dawson City's jazz options are concentrated in three schools. Each has a distinct identity, though all welcome beginners.
The Swingin' School of Jazz
Founded: 2003
Location: Second Avenue, above the hardware store
Best for: Dancers who want a structured track toward performance
The Swingin' School runs the most formalized level system in town. Classes progress from Primary Jazz (ages 6–8) through Junior, Intermediate, and Senior levels, with an adult stream split into Beginner and Advanced Beginner. Students must pass a mid-year assessment to move up.
Director Miriam Cho trained at the Edge Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles and maintains a Fosse-influenced aesthetic in her choreography. The school mounts a full spring recital at the Palace Grand Theatre and sends a small competition team to Whitehorse each February. Drop-ins are allowed only in the adult beginner class; all other levels require semester enrollment.
Pricing: ~$180 per 12-week session; adult drop-in $22
Rhythm & Moves Dance Academy
Founded: 2011
Location: Industrial district, near the dike road
Best for: Adults returning to dance or trying it for the first time
Rhythm & Moves cultivates a low-pressure, community-first atmosphere. Owner Jake Tootoo, a self-taught dancer who later certified in the Giordano technique, emphasizes accessibility. "We get a lot of people who haven't taken a class since high school," he notes. "The goal is to leave feeling better than when you walked in."
The schedule is flexible: multi-level jazz runs three evenings a week, with no required enrollment period. Tootoo also books guest instructors two or three times a year—recent visitors have included a Montreal-based commercial choreographer and a tap-jazz fusion artist from Vancouver. There is no annual recital, but informal studio showings happen in December and June.
Pricing: $20 drop-in; $165 for a 10-class pass
The Jazz Junction
Founded: 2017
Location: Downtown, behind the visitor information centre
Best for: Dancers interested in contemporary and hybrid styles
The Jazz Junction takes the least traditional approach of the three. Founder Asha Morris, who trained at York University's dance program, structures classes around jazz technique as a foundation for contemporary and hip-hop fusion. Expect less Fosse, more isolation-driven commercial choreography.
The studio offers Teen Jazz (ages 13–17), Adult Jazz Foundations, and a Pre-Professional Stream for students considering post-secondary dance programs. A unique feature is the Summer Repertory Project, a three-week intensive in July that culminates in a site-specific performance—past editions have unfolded on the Dawson City waterfront and inside the SS Keno.
Pricing: $190 per 11-week session; summer intensive $450
Inside a Typical Jazz Class
A well-taught jazz class follows a predictable arc, though the energy and music change dramatically from studio to studio.
Warm-up (10–15 minutes): Students work through the spine, hips, shoulders, and feet to build heat and mobility. Isolations are central—ribcage slides, head rolls, and shoulder pops performed in sequence.
Technique and across-the-floor (20–25 minutes): This is where jazz vocabulary gets drilled. You might practice stylized walks (think shoulders back, hips leading, deliberate foot placement), battements, pirouette preparations, and
