About Jazz Roots Bucharest

Mission & Values

Jazz Roots Bucharest was created around the belief in the power of self expression and that of the community. 

Our purpose is to promote the dance styles that emerged from the swing era, while paying our respect to the African American people who created and to those who evolved this art form that we all love and cherish. 

We facilitate experiences around swing and jazz dancing with a strong motivation towards encouraging the members of our community to open up to discovering both themselves and the culture they are stepping into by bringing swing dancing into their lives. 

We work towards learning and actualizing our approach, as we continuously integrate new information about both the history and culture of the African American communities, both through the eyes of the past and the ways in which they continue to educate people in the present. 

We guide ourselves by our core values, which we try to put into practice every day:

  • inclusivity - we accept people’s identities as they are, we create space for people to express who they are and we try to continuously educate ourselves on the subject 
  • respect - we give credits where credits are due, we try to educate ourselves to be mindful of people’s uniqueness and we don’t bargain over effort, quality and value, especially when we are able to contribute
  • awareness - we focus on body movement awareness rather than learning dancing patterns, we embrace feedback and acknowledge our pain points, we are curious about other people’s perspectives and we are open to continuous learning

Troupe

We believe that at the core of the community, there stands the energy we all share. Our common values and principles, rules by which we guide our lives and the relationships we create with others. 

Around this energy and these values, we created the Jazz Roots Bucharest dance troupe. They are a group of people dedicated to learning, training and contributing to building the community. 

They do this through shows and increasing the visibility of the community and what it stands for, but also through active involvement in day to day activities, from class facilitation to practising in social dancing with all the other members of the community.