Swing Dancing

In the late 20s, the Lindy Hop, burst on the scene (named after Charles Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic). The Lindy reflected the pace and frenetic attitude of the big city, and at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom, it was taken to an extraordinary level of performance. In the early 1930s, at the Harvest Ball dance competition, the Lindy took to the air, and women were tossed and thrown by their partners like limp dolls. Initially through radio, records, movies, and newsreels and then through American G.I.'s during World War II, the Lindy was spread throughout the world. It had a long life and adapted to many kinds of music. There was the Mambo Lindy and the Bebop Lindy, and then, during the 1950s, the Jitterbug changed tempos and accents once again and adapted to rock 'n' roll music. By the early 1960s, the Lindy was fading. Rock 'n' roll became rock, and the Twist enjoyed brief popularity. Today we enjoy various forms of the dance such as East Coast Swing, West Coast Swing, Lindy Hop (revived in the 80's and 90's), Shag, Balboa and many others. "Swing" is the umbrella term which encompasses all these styles.