Who is lindy hop

Jazz music had become extremely popular in the United States during this time, and dance fads emerged as a result. Like most developed dances, Lindy Hop was born from the influences of a variety of dance styles. The Charleston and Tap were two of the popular jazz dances that heavily influenced Lindy Hop. Lindy hop also grew from the blending of African rhythms and movements with European structured dance partnering. Ballrooms dominated Harlem in New York City during the s and s, but there was only one that became famous for hosting swing dancing.

The Savoy Ballroom became the place where Lindy Hop was fine-tuned, given a home base, and able to evolve. The Savoy was a very large ballroom. It took up an entire block at st Street and Lenox Ave. The Ballroom was very inspiring for dancers and was one of the few ballrooms at the time that allowed racial integration.

A bandstand at each end of the ballroom allowed for two live bands to play every night, 7 days a week! The Lindy then had an audience across the Nation, by which it inspired and influenced other dance styles.

And it is this film footage still amazes and inspires the dancers of today. Many may say that Lindy Hop was the granddaddy of them all, but that should not imply that no one was dancing any form of Swing before Lindy swept the country. People were already creating dances to their local bands. The variations in the music and the conditions they were dancing in impacted on the dance that was created in that region.

The performances that came out of the Savoy Ballroom however, must have rocked their world when they saw them on stage or at the flicks! They only had one chance to see a move before reinventing it for themselves, so the moves would evolve and become something new, and the dances would blend to accommodate the new fashion.

One such blending is the Jitterbug, which is so close to the Lindy hop that one might call it the same dance. The Jitterbug though, referred to a different styling, and may also refer to the way the white kids danced the Lindy Hop - as if they had been drinking an illegal moonshine called "Jitter juice". Nowadays, the term Jitterbug can be used to mean different dances in different places, but Lindy Hop still refers to the Savoy Style of dance.

Once in LA, Dean smoothed out the dance and put his own emphasis on it. This lead him to choreograph and perform in many films including "Lets make Music", "Chool Song" and "Buck privates". Dean also broke the dance into teachable components, Arthur Murray being one of his students. In more recent swing history, Sylvia Sykes and Jonathan Bixby rediscovered Dean Collins, and perfected the art of "smooth style" directly from its master. The swing revival has also prompted Erik and Sylvia Robison to coin the term "Hollywood Style", to refer to the style of dancing seen in movies of the era, including those starring Dean Collins.

An entertainment tax made live big bands expensive and as recorded music became affordable, dance halls became smaller and more crowded, and the style of dancing had to change to accommodate this. Since then, Frankie Manning has come back on the dance scene, teaching new Swing dancers around the globe. The retro dance returned, along with neo-swing bands and vintage fashion. The Lindy Hop is arguably bigger now than it was in its heyday.

Whitey's Lindy Hoppers never would have thought that their dance would be spread across the world via the internet, videos, workshops and classes. Today knowledge moves fast, but some things stay the same - Swing music still inspires the freedom of improvisation, a romantic style remains in the dance culture and, most importantly, dancers still love dancing with a partner.

Far from being just acrobatic antics, airsteps are in fact smooth, extremely precise, and perfectly in synch with the music. They require a superb degree of expertise and are not danced socially, but only for performance, if only inside a protective ring of spectators, as in the Cats' Corner jams at the Savoy Ballroom. Airsteps are impressive and spectacular, so that's what you see in the movies!

Savoy style Lindy Hop, as taught by Frankie Manning and Steven Mitchell, has the lightest, gentlest, and smoothest connection of all the common Swing dances! It is solid, low, relaxed and energetic. Lindy Hop is a Jazz dance.