The story goes, a reporter visiting the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem asked one of the dancers what was the name of the dance everyone was doing there.  It didn’t really have a name, since it was a fusion of many different dances done at the time.   “Shorty” George Snowden recalling the headline of the biggest news story at the time “LINDY HOPS THE ATLANTIC”, simply replied “Lindy Hop”.  The dance actually has no “hop” in it, but the name stuck.

Lindy Hop, also known as Jitterbug or Swing, is the authentic Afro-Euro-American Swing dance—truly an American dance form.  Lindy Hop has its roots in Harlem, New York back in the 1920’s and 30’s.  In places like the Alhambra Ballroom, Small’s Paradise, the Roseland Ballroom and the granddaddy of them all, the block-long Savoy Ballroom, thousands would gather each night to listen to live bands and dance the night away.

Lindy Hop (sometimes called “Lindy” for short) takes elements from European partner dances and African dance rituals. Lindy infused breakaways, fancy footwork, jazz steps and a more grounded posture to become a dance all its own.  The dancers’ movements reflected that of the music, Jazz, Swing and Big Band, the music popular back in the day.

Lindy Hop is a social dance. While many dancers dance with the same person all night, it wasn’t uncommon to dance with many people throughout the evening.  While most people associate Lindy with blazing fast speeds, most of the music was in a more comfortable 120-180 beat range.  Of course, every so often the bands would really kick it up a notch with speeds well over 200 beats a minute.  The studios all had dance contests and the best dancers would come out and try to outshine the competition.  The most famous competition at the time was the Harvest Moon Ball at which the studios sent their best dancers to compete head to head.

In 1935, young dancer, Frankie Manning was credited with doing something never done before, an air-step or aerial—a move where the girl was thrown, lands on time with the music, and then keeps dancing.  In this particular move that he and his partner unveiled in a dance contest at the Savoy, Frankie and his partner got back to back and he flipped her over his head so she landed on her feet.  Soon after there were all kinds of air-steps as the dancers tried to outdo each other.

That is typically what you would see done in choreographed performances back then and today and what most people tend to associate with Swing or Lindy.  In general, aerials were done just for show and were rarely if ever done when social dancing.  Keep in mind dancing like that requires expertise and lots of practice, not to mention a lot of space.

You can see some great examples of air-steps in films from the 1940’s and 1950’s, such as Hellzapoppin’, Day at the Races, Hot Chocolate and Groovy Movie.  In the 1990’s Swing had a revival and made its appearance as Swingkids, Swingers, and Malcolm X to name a few. In 1998, Swing blew onto the scene with “The Gap Commercial”.  Dancers in Khaki pants and t-shirts did Lindy and Charleston with plenty of aerials to Louis Prima’s version of “ Jump, Jive, and Wail” (No kids, the Brian Setzer Orchestra really didn’t write it first).  Many consider this commercial to be a huge factor in the revival of Swing in the late 1990’s.  Swing clubs popped up all over the country as thousands flocked to studios and clubs to “learn how to do that.”

Today, you will find swing dancing and Lindy Hop in most major metropolitan areas in the US and around the world and in some small communities as well.  The world’s largest Swing Dance Camp happens in a small fishing village in Herrang, Sweden, two hours north of Stockholm.  Every July thousands of dancers flock to this town to learn, dance and compete.  Depending on where you live you can still find studios that teach nothing but Lindy and related swing dances.

So what are you waiting for?  Come on out and join us and see what the fun is all about!