What is Swing Dancing?

Swing dancing is a blanket term for a group of dances that became popular primarily in the 1930’s and 1940’s. While many of these dances are primarily done with a partner, some are also solo dances.

Lindy Hop

The Lindy Hop began as the confluence of various dances that were danced to swing music of the late-20s and 30s. Lindy Hop is a smooth, energetic and improvisational dance. As ragtime became “swing” (swingin’ jazz), this dance developed to accompany the new rhythms and aesthetics. Originally, Lindy Hop was practiced primarily in African-American communities with Harlem being one of the hotbeds of Lindy Hop creation and improvisation. Due to media exposure in the 40s, Lindy Hop has spread to capture the attention of a worldwide audience and became the most well-known and popular of the swing dances.

Jitterbug

A simplified variant of Lindy Hop. In the 30’s and 40’s, “Jitterbug” was a blanket term used to describe all swing dancing. Nowadays, the global swing dance community has shifted the term to refer to 1940’s style street swing dancing (mostly single-time 6-count patterns).

Charleston

This dance was all the rage in the 1920’s. As the popular music shifted into jazz and big-band swing, Charleston changed as well and was incorporated by swing dancers, but with a “Lindy” style.

Collegiate Shag

Popular among the college kids, shag is an energetic dance that has a cartoon flavor to it. Generally, upper bodies are held still while legs propel dancers around the floor. Shag hit its peak slightly before Lindy Hop and missed out on the chance to be publicized in the same way that Lindy Hop did. As a result, its lineage is a bit harder to trace than Lindy Hop. However, there is still a community of dancers devoted to re-discovering and preserving Collegiate Shag.

Balboa

A swing dance variant that developed on the crowded dance floors of WWII-era Balboa island. Compact, smooth and elegant, pure “bal” (and variant “bal-swing”) is well-suited for faster tempos and crowded dance floors (though neither is a necessity).

Blues Idiom Dances

Not so much a solitary dance, but rather an umbrella term for various dance styles which are danced to the blues, much like Lindy Hop is to swing music. While the blues dances are not categorized as swing dances, there are significant overlaps between the swing and blues scenes.