According to Dancing USA magazine (Kerchmar, NOV.1994 P.3),traditional closed couple dancing began in the United States after 1860, when young people moved from the rural environments to cities looking for employment. Alone for the first time, many young adults sought public meeting and dancing places. Because the newer dances, the waltz (Vienna) and polka (Czech), allowed closer-than-usual spacing between partners, large segments of the public condemned this behavior.
Closed couple dancing became acceptable after 1912 when the dance team of Vernon and Irene Castle began performing the waltz, the one-step, the tango (Spain), and other dances. Among the Castle's many pupils was a young entrepreneur named Author Murray. In 1920, Murray marketed dance lesson through the mail making them affordable and standardizing dance steps.
Another major influence to social dance was a new style of music (ragtime), emphasizing syncopation in melody line. The early jazz sounds originated as a result of Irish and African-American music forms, much of which originated from the Louisiana bayous and New Orleans. Harry Fox fashioned a dance called the fox trot in 1912, which lead to the development of the Charleston in the Roaring 1920's. The music evolved into swing-jazz during the 1930's, and attracted big bands, large dance halls, and acrobatic dancers called jitterbugs, lindy-hoppers (named after pilot Charles Lindbergh), and swingers. By 1936 the swing was popular throughout the United States.
Swing dancing continued to grow, but took on unique styles of each geographic areas. The diversity in the evolution of swing dancing is reflected in its names: Jive, Jitterbug, Lindy, Push, Whip, Shag, East coast swing, West coast swing, Imperial, Jamaican, Bop, etc. The music for swing dancing is as diverse as the dance styles. The Shag dancers dance to "Beach" music, the Boppers dance to rhythm and blues, push dancers like blues and classic disco music, lindy dancers like faster big band swing music. South Florida is a reflection of our cultural diversity. We have a tri-ethnic community with a mix of Hispanic, Anglo, and African-Americans. The dancers who come to our dances are ballroom dancers, country western dancers, Latin dancers, hustle dancers, shaggers, boppers, etc. But what are swing dancers? Is there only one kind of swing dance music? Is there only one correct style of swing, shag, bop, or push? How come there is so much intolerance to the other dance styles and music?
Thus, the purpose of the Presidential Summit is to discuss the threat to our very being in the dance world - the threat that has been splitting up clubs around the country, like our nation during the civil war! What is SWING (and its derivatives, shag, bop, etc.)? Some dancers are quite "dancist" about their insistence that only one style of swing music and dancing is proper for their club. As past president of the SFSDS and Chairman of the Swing Into Spring event, it is my view that the music should reflect the diversity of all our members and quests, not limited to the view of a few vocal persons. So next time you are cursing the DJ for playing something different, think about your own intolerance. Diversity in music and dances provides a richness in variety, and allows the most personal freedom to dance and have fun. And that is the prime directive here in South Florida - to DANCE and Have FUN!
Many of these dances became popular due to some special event. The Texas Tommy appeared on Broadway in "Darktown Follies" in 1913; the Turkey Trot appeared in Vernon and Irene Castle's Broadwayshow "Sunshine Girl" in 1913, the Charleston appeared in a black Broadway musical "Running Wild" in 1923 and the Black Bottom appeared on Broadway in George White's "Scandals of 1926."
These early dances of the century were usually not accepted by white society
because of their black origins and influences. Not until 1927, when Charles "Lindy"
Lindbergh made his historic solo flight to Paris, was the black dancing accepted by
the white society. Legend has it that one young man at the Savoy Ballroom in New
York's Harlem was overcome with the thrill of the flight and joy in his dancing;
when asked what he was doing on the dance floor he replied, "I'm flying just like
Lindy," thus the Lindy Hop. Another legend has it that at a dance marathon at
New York City's Manhattan Casino Ballroom on July 4, 1928, one of the
surviving dancers was George "Shorty" Snowden, who did a breakaway or let his
partner out and improvised a few solo steps. When asked by an interviewer with Fox
Movietone News what he was doing with his feet, Shorty replied, "The Lindy."
1) The word Jitterbug came from a radio announcer cover-covering the 1936 or '37
Harvest Moon Ball. It was on Movietone news and he said, referring to the Lindy
dancers, "They look like Jitterbugs." And so it caught on.
2) At the Savoy Ballroom in New York City's Harlem, all Lindy dancers were called
Jitterbugs.
3) Jitterbug was a derogatory term used to describe white dancers who weren't very
good.
4) Jitterbug is the white man's version of Lindy Hop as rock 'n' roll is the white
version of rhythm and blues. It's bouncier and faster and does not necessarily
contain aerials.
5) In the 1930's, Cab Calloway had a hep cat trombone player in his big band that
nipped the sauce too much. Cab would tell him, "Better quit drinking that bug juice, man or you'll shake and jitter to death." Soon the guys in Cab's band were calling the trombone player a jitterbug, which was picked up by the dancers.
6) The term Jitterbug was first used in the southern part of the country to describe people who displayed the symptoms of secondary syphilis, uncontrollable jerking and trembling and lack of muscular control. It was used in reference to people dancing Lindy Hop.
7) Encyclopedias and dictionaries give various definitions of Jitterbug. One dance
encyclopedia defines it as "a generic term now almost obsolete for unconventional,
often formless and violent social dances to syncopated music, generally in 4/4 time. The best known forms of Jitterbug were the Black Bottom, Charleston, Shag and
Lindy Hop, dances of the 1920's and 1930's."
Movies of the 1930's such as "A Day At The Races","Sister, Swing", "The Prisoner Of
Swing" and "I'm Just A Jitterbug" helped to popularize Jitterbug. It seems most
everyone has a different interpretation of the word, depending on what part of
the country they are from, and what time frame in this century they were exposed to
it. The overall consensus appears to be that Jitterbug is a newer variation of the
Lindy Hop, and people doing it are called Jitterbugs. [More]
Although they employ a similar basic step pattern, there is a difference in those
basic patterns, necessitating a definite change in the overall technique. Though
each version of the "Bal" allows for ad-lib step patterns relative to its own "basic step pattern,"these ad-lib steps cannot be applied from one "basic step pattern" to the other; so, in effect, dancers changing from one basic step pattern to another go into another dance.
The Balboa is a complete and very versatile dance most often seen where swing, jazz
or Dixieland music is being played. It canbe performed to exceedingly slow music
(30 beats per minute), extraordinarily fast music (over 300 beats per minute), or
anywhere in between.
Even though they took the back seat to the "fad" dances, the die-hard swing dancers
continued swing dancing through this period, using some of the new music. By the
end of the 60's, swing dancing was firmly established as part of the ballroom dance
family.
In the early seventies, there were the abundant freestyle dances, holdovers from the sixties, many of which remained popular with a lot of dancers through the decade. With the advent of the disco movement, however, dancing reverted to the formal tradition of touch dancing.
TV dance shows such as Dancing Disco in Boston, Disco Magic in Miami, Disco
Fever, American Bandstand, and Soul Train in Los Angeles helped to popularize
Hustle dancing from coast to coast. The song "The Hustle" by Van McCoy in 1976
followed by the movie Saturday Night Fever with John Travolta in 1977 really set off the popularity of Hustle dancing.
Dance studios also promoted Hustle dancing and helped to create new variations
such as the Rope Hustle, American Hustle, Triple Hustle,Disco Swing, Latin Hustle,
Street Hustle, Sling Hustle and Line dances.
One of the first songs to become popular in the Disco Era was George McCrae's Rock
Your Baby," in 1974. Many followed, Such as "Turn the Beat Around" by Vickie Sue
Robinson, "Love to Love You, Baby" by Donna Summer, "Disco Duck" by Rick Dees,
"Youand I" by Rick James, "Shame" by Evelyn "Champagne King, and "YMCA" by the
Village People, to name a few.
The basic steps in Hustle are 6-count patterns and they use all three rhythm
units-single, double, and triple rhythm (a rhythm unit being two beats of music).
Different parts of the country had their own variations of Hustle, and this
non-standardization may have been what led to its decline in popularity by the end
of the decade. All the while Hustle dancing was flour-flourishing so was swing
dancing, especially West Coast Swing. Dancers used the new music which was
great for West Coast Swing and more and more dance contests were won with swing
moves. [More]
Country Western dancing was originally partner style dances like the Schottische
and Cotton Eyed Joe with very little lead and follow. It did not have a highly stylized
form and you didn't have to be in closed position.
During the 1930's, Bob Wills' Band developed different instrumentation than the
popular Swing Bands, using mandolins and fiddles. His fiddle style of music became
the backbone of Country Western dancing, and people would dance simple couple
dances, two-steps and Lindy Hop, with a few country turns in between. Their styling
included many arm movements, which was influenced from the Latin American
dances that came through Mexico and into the Southwest. Country Western dancing
is a -count pattern using single, double and triple rhythms traveling in a circle.
There is an offshoot called Cowboy Swing which is a 4-count reminiscent of the
Hustle of the70's and '80's.
In the late 1970's, Country Western dancing started to make a change, adapting a
West Coast style of Swing into the two-step with a quick-quick, slow-slow rhythm.
When the movie Urban Cowboy came out in 1981, starring John Travolta, Country
Western music and dancing spread like wildfire throughout the country.
Ballrooms, barrooms, basements and school gymnasiums across America started
teaching the dance and people who never danced before caught the fever. Country
Western music has grown ever since in popularity because artists like Dolly Parton
and Garth Brooks had top hits on both the pop and country charts.
The basis for change in the dancing has been competition. Major Country Western
events include contests in several divisions in dances, such as Two-Step, Waltz,
Cha Cha, and West Coast Swing. Their West Coast Swing reflects a lot of Country
Western styling, but we're starting to see less difference between their West Coast
Swing and the hardcore West Coast Swing dancers.
Acknowledgement: This file is copied with permission from the (lately unstable) web site of The South Florida Swing Dance Society Inc. The only modification we made is the addition of several hyperlinks and credits.
The Lindy Hop
The Lindy or Lindy Hop has relatively few things written about it and what there is
provide conflicting stories, usually based on the personal involvement of the dancers relating the stories. There are some films of the 30's, 40's and 50's that show Lindy Dancers, such as A Day At The Races, Hellzapoppin, The Savoy Ballroom of Harlem, The Spirit Moves, Swing Sister, Swing and The Prisoner of Swing. The Lindy is primarily a creative, expressive jazz rhythm dance and an official social
ballroom dance. The Lindy came from street social dancers and has African;
Tooted movements connected with the earth, a vertical bounce, side hip
movements and a relaxed, not rigid torso. The essential characteristics of the
Lindyinclude its 6-count and 8-count fundamental steps plus a swinging
feeling which relates to the music's syncopated beat, which accents off-beats
insteadof only the usual first beats of the phrase. It's an energetic
improvisational dance that arose in Harlem in the 1920's. This was the greatest of
the dances that evolved from the 1920's because a couple could be dancing with
deceptive sobriety, embracing each other ballroom style. Then, whenever he
pleased, the man could suddenly fling his partner away and improvise. [More]
The Jitterbug
Jitterbug....what is it? The word started being used inthe 1930's and has a variety of definitions. Here are a few common ones:
The Balboa
One of the most difficult dances to get any history on is the Balboa. The following
information is from Home of Balboa International. In reality there are four slightly different versions of this particular dance, which is basically indigenous to Southern California. One version originally referred to as "Swing Bal" was developed and danced in the 1930's in and around Los Angeles while at the same time the second version called "Bal" or Balboa" emanated from and was actually named for
the locale of Balboa, in particular the Rendezvous Ballroom on the Balboa
peninsula, and spread in popularity to the Long Beach and Orange County area. The
third version, the "Triple Step Bal," is most useful when an extremely slow number is played and the fourth version, the"One-Step," is utilized when the beat is too fast for any other dance.
West Coast Swing
Basically, West Coast Swing consists of 6-beat and 8-beat patterns executed in a
slot area on the dance floor, and can be danced to a variety of styles of music. It has enjoyed a rise in popularity in the last few years, due partly to the work of the U.S.
Open Swing Dance Championships and the now-defunct United States Swing Dance
Council. There are swing clubs-mostly West Coast Swing-in over half of the states.
Some of them have their dance as a state dance. On January 1, 1989, West Coast
Swing became California's official state dance. [More]
East Coast Swing
During the late 40's or early 50's, another form of swing dancing appeared on the
scene: East Coast Swing. It is almost impossible to find anything written on this
dance, probably because it wasn't really a new dance. East Coast Swing is
nothing more than the Lindy Hop. It appears that as the slotted version of swing
became more popular, the major dance studio chains decided to call what the
dancers on the East Coast were doing East Coast Swing, and what the dancers on
the West Coast were doing West Coast Swing. [More]
Dance in the 60's and 70's
In the decade of the 60's, Chubby Checker's Twist started a new dance craze, and
touch dancing was "out" for the rest of the decade. The Twist was an athletic,
comparatively uninhibited dance, which made it more youth-oriented and
controversial. At, one time it was banned in America, Europe, China, South Africa,
land the Soviet Union. Other dances that followed the Twist were the Mashed Potato,
the Locomotion, the Watusi, The Boogaloo, the Bristol Stomp, the Hitchhike, the
Shing-a-ling,the Limbo and Limbo-Rock, the Jerk, the Hully-Gully, the Frug, and
the Swim.
Hustle/Disco
Disco began as an underground movement in Puerto Rican and black dance clubs in
New York City and Miami before moving into the mainstream. The New York Hustle
is to the hustle dancer what the Lindy was to the swing dancer 50 years before.
History has a way of repeating itself. Some people consider Hustle as a modern day
member of the swing dance Family.
Country Western Dancing
West Coast Swing dancing for many years was called Western Swing in certain parts
of the country and Country Western dancing was called Country Western Swing. As
both dances started to increase in popularity several years ago, it seems the "powers that be" straightened out the terminology.