Merle Scheff School of Dance teaches Jazz dance and provides jazz history and jazz music with its class Instructions for the Creve Couer and St. Louis MO area. Jazz dance originated from the African American vernacular dance of the late 1800s to the mid-1900s. An early popular "jazz dancer" was vaudeville star Joe Frisco in the 1910s. He danced in a loose-limbed style close to the ground while juggling his derby and cigar. Until the middle of 1950s, the term "jazz dance" often referred to tap dance, because tap dancing ( set to jazz music ) was the main performance dance of the era. During the later jazz age, popular forms of jazz dance were the Cakewalk,,, swing dancing and the related Lindy Hop.