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Lindy Hop . Aerials . Blues . Shag . Balboa . Jazz . Tap
Lindy Hop . Aerials . Blues . Shag . Balboa . Jazz . Tap
About the Dances
Lindy Hop
Lindy Hop is the name for the a dance that was invented around 1927, and has been danced since then, with major periods being 1927-1945 and around 1992-Present. Lindy Hop is primarily constructed of 6 and 8 count movements and "Lindy Charleston", which is Charleston danced with the low, wide staance of Lindy Hop, and the rhythmic pulse if Lindy Hop. Although these are the major building blocks, you'll find movements of all numbers of counts, as well as acrobatic steps called aerials or "air-steps".
Lindy Hop can be danced to Jazz music, Rock and Roll that swings (like Bill Haley or Elvis Presley) and some other kind of music that are reminicient of Jazz, although the vast majority of dancers enjoy the improvisation and movemements inspired by 30s and 40s hot small group or big band jazz. Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton and Ella Fitzgerald are some common artists you will hear at a Lindy Hop dance, but there are thousands of great musicians whos music will inspire swingouts, passes, charlestons, airsteps, and all the wacky "made-up-on-the-spot" kind of steps you see a typical Lindy Hopper doing.
It is worth noting that although many performances, competitions and movies feature the flips, throws and acrobatics, as they demonstrate the feeling of swing very well, but it is not common that people will be led or asked to do these steps in a social setting. It is reserved for people who have worked out the step with their partner. So even if you feel that airsteps aren't a part of your capability, come out and learn swing dancing anyway. Its a social activity that never requires a partner. Just come, dance and there are always plenty of other beginners just figuring it out too, as well as many experienced dancers who love dancing so much, they are always willing to lend a hand.
Savoy Style Lindy Hop; Modern vs. Traditional
Lindy Hop originated in the Savoy ballroom in Harlem, thus the traditional variations being called Savoy Style. It is a dance of African and jazz roots, heavily relying on a grounded, relaxed posture and crazy movements. This is the dance that Frankie Manning danced, and it was the style in which air steps were first developed. Traditional Savoy Style dancers, inspired by Frankie Manning and the many movies and clips of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, try to keep it this way. A style evolving from Traditional Savoy Style is known as Modern Savoy or "Groove". It is usually done to smoother. later styles of Jazz music, and the dancers often incorporate movements from other dances including modern dance, jazz, hip hop, ballet and Tango.
Both styles emphasize improvisation with the music and your partner.
Hollywood Style Lindy Hop
The term "Hollywood style" is actually a modern term to differentiate the style that Dean Collins and other Hollywood movie dancers were doing in the 1940's. Although these days most people tend to dance their own style and don't make the effort to differentiate, we mostly just call it all "Lindy Hop". It is characterized by an anchored pike position and what we call the "whip" basic. Flashy routines and showmanship is the focus and it can often be seen being danced to later swing era music, boogie-woogie and rock and roll style music.
West Coast Swing
This is the modern evolution of Lindy Hop. It is danced to Top-40-type music, Blues, Country and more. It is a very versatile style, relying more on grace and technique, and is done at a more moderate tempo, and excludes most Charleston type movements, or kicks. Its about partner connection, musicality and party atmosphere. Definitely worth a try for any dancer, as it is also very popular the world over.
Big Apple
Big Apple based on individuals dancing jazz steps in a circle. There is a famous choreography that many dancers learn from an old movie called "Keep Punchin'" but the dance can also be called out.
Balboa
Balboa originated in the crowded ballrooms of California in the 1930s. It is composed mainly of fast and flashy footwork, which gives the dance a very smooth look. Complicated footwork is stressed because the dance floors were too crowded for large movements. This dance is usually done to very fast music.
Collegiate Shag
Shag is much like Balboa in that the frame is very close to conserve floor space. It is also done to fairly fast music. Shag is unique because "trucking", or breaking away from your partner and traveling all over the floor, is part of the dance along with crazy-legged footwork and other silly variations.
English Jive
This dance originated in the late 1950s and is done to rock and roll and Rockabilly music. It is a very bouncy dance in a simple 4 count pattern. Don't think it too easy though! Complicated patterns and spins are included with jive, making it a dance all its own. In Europe they call it Le-Roc or Cerock!
The Blues
This section courtesy of Kelly Porter
What is the Blues?
At its heart, it is a kind of joy manufactured from insurmountable human tragedy. Historically, this is the tragedy of blacks as they met mistreatment in the New World, but also sorrows common to us all: death, disappointment, injustice; loss of love, money and dignity. In this sense it is both the property of a specific people and a specific time, but it also translates something universal in the human experience. It is a creative force that seeks to transcend and transform trauma into music and dance, truth-telling, humor. It is what we make of our sorrow so that we don't die of it.
What, Then is Blues Dance?
Historically there is no such term. Dances and figures were named individually-snakehips, shake, ballroomin', grind-or not at all. Loosely you can use the term to encompass any dancing that was done to the blues as a music, or to the blues as a feeling. In this sense it's hard to find just one attitude or common expression embodied in these many forms, as 'blues dance' enfolds the whole content of the human tragedy: sex, heartbreak, desolation, abandonment, diaspora, poverty, loss, labor, fear . . .
So What Does a 'Blues Dance' Look Like?
When you look at paintings, photographs and film of the dances done to the blues at the beginning of the 20th Century, you find a sort of weighty sweetness, heavy both of limb and of heart. While many of the basic dance steps in these partnered dances were shared with white ballroom and adagio dancing, the blue iteration of these dances are not made to appear weightless, effortless or precise. This is not because black dancers were incapable of such a technical feat, for certainly the technical prowess of the best dancers at the famous black ballrooms both rivaled and frequently exceeded their white counterparts, but because the blues always originate from a place of weariness, no matter how graceful, joyful or humor-filled. When these people dance you can see them clinging hard with hearts and muscles to the joy and abandon produced in the dance. It's a grit that's part sugar and part sand- grace effused with gravity. Even in its most jubilant figures it lags and scrapes a little. Some people have called this the 'blues aesthetic,' but whatever you call this gestalt, it is this sense that defines 'the blues' in dance far more than any discrete set of steps.
