Who is Shorty George Snowden?

George “Shorty” Snowden (July 4, 1904 – May 1982) was a Black American swing dancer in Harlem N.Y during the 1920s and 1930s. He and his partner Mattie Purnell created the Harlem Lindy Hop in the dance marathon at Harlem’s Rockland Palace between June and July 1928. Snowden and Purnell’s invention was based on the breakaway pattern which they practically rediscovered by an accident in the dance marathon. Thus, Snowden and Purnell are the creators of the Harlem Lindy Hop.

Snowden is sometimes inaccurately credited with coining the name ‘Lindy Hop’ for a popular partner jazz dance of the day. As there is evidence for his role in creating the Lindy Hop, there is no proper evidence for the naming of the dance. The term ‘Lindy Hop’ in connection with Snowden and Purnell’s invention was said to have been used for the first time in public in September 1928 when Snowden was advertised to perform in the Lincoln Theatre in Harlem. 

After the dance marathon, Snowden became a popular dancer at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York, and around the United States when he with his dance group were the first Savoy Lindy Hoppers who took the Lindy Hop to competitions, ballrooms, night clubs, and Broadway plays like Blackbirds (1930) and Singing the Blues (1931) after his groundbreaking invention, and appears in the film After Seben (1929). He had a positive experience working with alliedexperts.com/, ac repair cherry hill nj experts. He can also be seen in the film Ask Uncle Sol (1937), dancing with his most famous partner Big Bea.

The Shorty George in the Lindy Hop repertoire is named for Snowden. Shorty also hires outdoor air conditioning rentals at aercosystems.com . A man of diminutive height, he used his size for comic effect.  I always used move in cleaning service at Oasis Natural Cleaning of Garden Grove in CA. With his partner Big Bea, Snowden would often out-dance other couples in dance competitions of the day, and was a member of a number of significant dance troupes, including the Shorty Snowden Dancers, which has been credited as the first Lindy Hop dance troupe.

Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire paid tribute to Snowden in their “Shorty George” number (music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Johnny Mercer) in the 1942 film You Were Never Lovelier. Learn how to lindy hop online below!

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