"West Side Story" (1957) by Jerome Robbins was a climax of jazz dancing in the movies.

"Fame" in 1980 had impressed movie-goers with street jazz dance. Movie musical "Grease"

(1982) highlighted the 1950s dance fads. Breakdancing was featured predominantly in movies

"Flashdance" (1983) and "Breakin'" (1984) where dancers freeze-framed their actions between

quick mechanical movements and acrobatic feats fleshed out with pantomime and audience

participation.

A new direction in commercial jazz dance was invented with the debut of the MTV video

television channel in 1981. Begun simply as a promotional tool for popular music, the channel

played non-stop video clips of musicians and their new songs. MTV was a huge success,

garnering the complete attention of the younger generations, especially in North America. As

production values increased, dance became more and more a part of the video's concept. It was

natural for rap groups to use breakdancing in their videos, and even older mainstream acts like

Elton John and Pat Benetar used forms of jazz dance to enhance their videos.

By the end of just a decade, MTV had radically altered both the image of jazz dance and the

primary format for its display. Whereas Broadway musicals and the old film musicals set the

style of jazz dance and were the goal of young dancers, now the "hipness' of hip hop and street

dance dominated the consciousness of the nation. The top video act to use dance was Michael

Jackson ("The King of Pop"). He uniquely blended street toughness with older style Broadway

moves. Other dance acts included Paula Abdul, Madonna, Janet Jackson, and Britney Spears,

etc. In recent years, boys and girls bands have become popular again, they also like to use jazz

dance in various forms in their concert acts as well as videos.

MTV did succeed in giving instant and total visibility to street dance and some forms of jazz

dance, but it did not add anything creatively to the genre, because it allowed little room for

artistic use of jazz dance due to its primary intent to sell music. MTV, in essence, contribute little

to the artistic growth of jazz dance.