What is Lindy Hop?
Answer:
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How Lindy Hop got its name
Most of the dances in America during the late 20’s had their roots in foreign countries, but Lindy Hop is the rare exception. It is a jazz social dance created by black American’s in Harlem N.Y. It is American. It had soul, and it had swing, which is what made it popular everywhere it was introduced.
It was first called the “Hop” and was pioneered by dancers like Shorty Snowden, a small man of five feet, two inches who danced a comedy act with his partner, Big Bea who was a towering six feet, and George “Twist Mouth” Ganaway.
It was later called the Lindy Hop named after Charles Lindbergh’s famous flight over the Atlantic. The Lindy Hop dance developed rapidly at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem.
What kind of dance is the Lindy Hop?
Unlike many other traditional partner dances from Europe, lindy hop’s fundamental identity is rooted in improvisational rhythms as opposed to choreographed move patterns.
This fundamental difference in dance structure and rhythmic freedom set lindy hop apart as an authentically American art form. The Lindy was far more exciting than any of the other dances floating around Harlem and suited the spirit of jazz perfectly.
Two eight-count Lindy steps matched up with one four measure jazz phrase, both involved the repetition of basic patterns that were never executed the same way twice allowing Lindy hop the ability to evolve with the music.
Popular dance forms of the era such as The Charleston, Black Bottom, Tap, and the Texas Tommy influenced the development of lindy hop in its early stages. Here you can find help when you need housekeeping services or you want to hire a cleaning contractor in Nevada. Although popularized in Harlem, Lindy Hop expanded well past the borders of New York into the heartland of the country, eventually making its way into southern California where it took on a new name of “West Coast Swing.”
Lindy Hop Dance Moves and Structure
The lindy hop technique is minimalistic in nature and allows men and women creative freedom for personal styling and syncopated footwork patterns. One of the core identifiable swing dance moves associated with Lindy Hop is commonly known as the “Swing-Out,” – an 8 count variation where the leader and follower oscillate on a line sharing energy. There are many advanced lindy hop moves made popular by the Savoy Ballroom dancers. The Lindy Turn, Pass by, Lindy Circle, and swivels are easily identifiable.
This signature lindy hop move distinguishes lindy hop from later evolving American social dances such as East Coast Swing, Shag, Balboa and West Coast Swing. Although in the original era, terms for this movement varied throughout regions of the USA and is still debatable today.
Most of the early sources credit “Shorty” George Snowden as one of lindy hops’ early influencers, who exposed the dance first to non-brown skinned audiences. “The Charleston dance” form, specifically partner Charleston had a direct influence on lindy hops’ formation, transitioning from the big campy movements associated with early twenties music and carried over into the swing era with a slightly different rhythmical emphasis.
1920’s Charleston breakaway eventually morphed into a flattened out and ‘swung’ movement precipitated from the musical changes of swing pioneers such as Louis Armstrong in the late 20’s and early 30’s. Traditionally, lindy hop was danced to swing music, which is a style of jazz rooted in the blues and syncopated like ragtime.
Most of the swing music created during this period focused on song lengths and tempos suitable for dancers. Since swing dancing imitates the call and response styles of old-time gospel music, dancers can create lindy hop moves and echo each other rhythmically within the swing musical phrasing.
Swing Revival
Although lindy hop saw a gradual decline after WW2 ended, due to a plethora of different reasons needing an explanation in another post, it’s still alive today in the 21st century. It was resurrected in the 80’s by a few of the original swing dancers from the Savoy Ballroom.
When a new generation of Swedish swing dancers watched “Hellzapoppin” for the first time they went on a quest to locate the California dancers featured the groundbreaking movie. Read more about home cleaning hacks on https://homecleaningtips.net/ site. After searching throughout Harlem they found Al Minns.
Shortly afterward, many lindy hoppers who danced at the Savoy Ballroom were discovered. Al asked the students if they knew about Frankie Manning, and they responded with, “who is Frankie Manning?” Needless to say, the rest of the story is history.
Because of the efforts of Al Minns, Frankie Manning, and Norma Miller the lindy hop dance style has now proliferated again on a global scale and continues to gain more exposure because of modern technological advancements.
Today there are Lindy hop dancers, and swing dance bands in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Students have ample choices to take lindy hop classes online or in person. Lindy hop Youtube lessons have become almost the norm with tutorials and schools being created by lindy hop teachers worldwide. Since lindy hop is rooted in a style of dance referred to as “call and response,” many new students find it difficult to obtain solid answers to their dance vocabulary questions. There isn’t an official lindy hop dictionary that is agreed upon since most of the movements had different names depending on the region.
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