Gus Giordano - Career

Career

After college, Giordano moved back to New York City. After six months of auditioning, Giordano landed a job in the Broadway musical Wish You Were Here. He also performed in Paint Your Wagon, On the Town and several television variety shows. Giordano enjoyed the work but did not find it fulfilling. He said once "If you were in Oklahoma and it ran nine years, you made that your career." Giordano did not want this kind of lifestyle, so when Peg got pregnant they decided to move out of the city.

Giordano found out that the equity office was in need of someone to stage a film festival in Chicago; he applied and was accepted. In 1953, Gus Giordano moved back to Chicago and opened a dance studio where he could teach and choreograph. His students included many people from Northwestern University. Giordano taught dance at his studio and staged the film festival at the same time. Giordano's technique was based in modern, learned from his teacher Dunham, his class begins with strong floor work gained from another of his teachers Hanya Holm. He emphasizes strength from the start of class. He adds his own "undulating movement that emanated from the pelvis and rolled through the chest and arms." In the mid 1970s, Giordano complied his teachings and techniques into what is now considered one of the most influential books on jazz dance. Gus Giordano is considered one of the forefathers of jazz dance. His technique and style have shaped today's modern jazz dance.

Ten years after his studio opened, a dance critic asked Giordano to perform with his classes for visiting Bolshoi Ballet dancers who wanted to see what jazz dance looked like. Giordano took his senior students and choreographed a number for them to perform. The students did such an amazing job that they were invited to tour Russia the next year. Thus, Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, his company, was born in 1962. Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago is one of Chicago's top professional dance companies and is run by his daughter Nan Giordano. It currently performs at the Harris theater. To become part of the company, it is recommended to spend apprenticeship time with the company and then be invited to join the first company. The apprenticeship time is spent in Giordano's ‘second’ company. The second company travels with the first company and performs in large pieces. They also put on community outreach programs and travel on their own.

In 1980, his television show The Rehearsal won an Emmy, the PBS award and the Ohio State award. In 2005 he received the Heritage Award from the National Dance Association for his contributions to dance education.

He died on March 9, 2008 of what his family says was pneumonia. He was 84 years old. He has four children, Nan, Amy, Patrick, and Marc.

Giordano was also founder of Jazz Dance World Congress (JDWC)a five-day event celebrating the uniquely American art form of jazz dance. Since its inception in 1990, Congresses have been held in Phoenix, Ariz. (1998), San José, Costa Rica (2004), Chicago (2002, 2005, 2007, 2009), Evanston, Ill. (1990, 1992, 1994), Wiesbaden, Germany (1997), Nagoya, Japan (1995), Monterrey, Mexico (2001), Buffalo, N.Y. (1999, 2000, 2003) and at Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center (1996). Giordano's daughter Nan is the artistic director to the Congress. Held in the summer, the Congress gathers dancers, teachers, and performers from across the United States and other countries. At the Congress, these jazz dance enthusiasts take classes from world-class Master Teachers, see performances by internationally-known dance companies, witness the judging of new jazz dance choreography in competition for the Leo Award, and discuss any topic of interest to jazz dancers in formal panel discussions and informally throughout the Congress. The Congress also includes a professional public performance segment, the Jazz Dance World Festival, attracting some of the most acclaimed modern dance companies from across the US and around the world.