The Lindy Hop is an American dance which was born in the African-American communities of Harlem, New York City, in 1928 and has evolved since then. It was very popular during the swing era of the late 1930s and early 1940s. Lindy is a fusion of many dances that preceded it or were popular during its development but is mainly based on jazz, tap, breakaway, and Charleston. It is frequently described as a jazz dance and is a member of the swing dance family.
In its development, the Lindy Hop combined elements of both partnered and solo dancing by using the movements and improvisation of African-American dances along with the formal eight-count structure of European partner dances – most clearly illustrated in the Lindy's defining move, the swingout. In this step's open position, each dancer is generally connected hand-to-hand; in its closed position, leads and follows are connected as though in an embrace on one side and holding hands on the other.
There was renewed interest in the dance in the 1980s from American, Swedish, and British dancers and the Lindy Hop is now represented by dancers and loosely affiliated grass-roots organizations in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.
Lindy Hop today is danced as a social dance, as a competitive dance, as a performance dance, and in classes, workshops, and camps. Partners may dance alone or together, with improvisation a central part of social dancing and many performance and competition pieces.
Lindy Hop is sometimes referred to as a street dance, referring to its improvisational and social nature. In 1932, twelve-year-old Norma Miller did the Lindy Hop outside the Savoy Ballroom with her friends for tips. In 1935, 15,000 people danced on Bradhurst Avenue for the second of a dance series held by the Parks Department. Between 147th and 148th street, Harlem "threw itself into the Lindy Hop with abandon" as Sugar Hill residents watched from the bluffs along Edgecombe Avenue.
History
From jazz to swing (1920s–1940s)
Name origins The first dances named as lindy hop were born around the time the aviator Charles Lindbergh made his groundbreaking flight across the Atlantic Ocean in May 1927.See: Peter BetBasoo, Lindy Hop and Argentine Tango, copyright Peter BetBasoo, published in the Internet, 2009 The most famous lindy hop dance, which is not connected to the other lindy hop dances, was born in the Harlem dance marathon in 1928 where George Snowden and Mattie Purnell reinvented the breakaway pattern by accident. That started a process in which their invention became bigger than it initially suggested. The Harlem dance is the only one of the lindy hop dances that survived in the long run.See: Terry Monaghan, "George Snowden", The Dancing Times, July 2004. Jassdancer.blogspot.fi . Harri Heinilä, An Endeavor by Harlem Dancers to Achieve Equality – The Recognition of the Harlem-Based African-American Jazz Dance Between 1921 and 1943, pages 135–138
The Harlem lindy hop developed probably from four possible sources, or some combination thereof: the breakaway, the Charleston, the Texas Tommy, and the hop.
A recorded source of the non-Harlem-connected lindy hop dances is the famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, nicknamed "Lucky Lindy", who "hopped the Atlantic" in 1927.LINDBERGH ARRIVES AFTER RECORD HOPS, The New York Times, Front Page, May 13, 1927HONDURANS HAIL LINDBERGH IN CONGRESS AND PALACE HOPS FOR NICARAGUA TODAY, The New York Times, January 5, 1928LINDBERGH REACHES GOAL AT HAVANA; SPOKESMEN OF PAN AMERICAN NATIONS AND 100,000 CUBANS WELCOME FLIER; WILD ACCLAIM AT LANDING Troops Barely Hold Back Great Crowd as Flier Taxis In. MET BY HUGHES AT FIELD Procession to City an Ovation-- President Machado Formally Greets Aviator at Palace. CONFERENCE HONORS HIM Pan-American Session Adjourns for Day as Lindbergh Comes by 800-Mile Hop From Haiti. Hughes Welcomes Him at Field. HOPS OFF IN HAITIAN DAWN, The New York Times, February 9, 1928 After Lindbergh's solo non-stop flight from New York to Paris in 1927 he became incredibly popular and many people named songs, recipes and businesses among several other things, after him. Te Roy Williams and His Orchestra recorded the song "Lindbergh Hop", written by Ted Nixon and Elmer Snowden, on May 25, 1927 (Harmony Records).Bastin, Bruce, The Melody Man: Joe Davis and the New York Music Scene, 1916–1978, University Press of Mississippi, 2012Jazz Odyssey The Sound Of Harlem Volume III Original 1964 3XLp Vinyl Box Set Columbia Records C3L 33 Mono Jazz Archive Series Various Artist in High Fidelity Sound with 40-Page Booklet, produced by Frank Driggs The Memphis Jug Band on September 13, 1928, recorded "Lindberg Hop- Overseas stomp", written by Jab Jones and Will Shade (on Victor Records).
The first of the lindy hop-named dances was probably the "Lindbergh Hop" which was referred to as lindy hop in the headline of an article in Pittsburgh Gazette Times on May 25, 1927, just four days after Lindbergh landed at Le Bourget. The dance was reported to be Broadway's tribute to Lindbergh, and it included six basic steps.See: "Lindy 'Hop' Difficult Dance", Pittsburgh Gazette Times, May 25, 1927.
Later, a "lindy hop" dance was described by columnist Gilbert Swan. He wrote, "Obviously the first dance named for the Lindbergh flight was the 'lindy hop'...Like all trick dances, they will be done in a few theatres and dance halls, where experts appear, and that will be that".Reno Gazette, May 31, 1927 Later that year, on September 14, the Woodland Daily Democrat reported Catherine B. Sullivan describing the "lindy hop" as having been placed third in the Dancing Masters of America, New Dances competition, behind the Kikajou and the Dixie Step. (The "lindy hop" was also described in reports as the "Lindbergh Glide"). The journalist reports that Miss Johnson showed a very fast little step, with hops and a kick, whilst holding the arms out, like the Spirit of St. Louis. The foot work is described as "dum-de-dum, dum-de-dum, dum-de-dum".
According to Ethel Williams, the lindy hop was similar to the dance known as the Texas Tommy in New York in 1913. The basic steps in the Texas Tommy were followed by a breakaway identical to that found in the lindy. Savoy dancer "Shorty" George Snowden told Marshall Stearns in 1959 that "We used to call the basic step the Hop long before Lindbergh did his hop across the Atlantic. It had been around a long time and some people began to call it the Lindbergh Hop after 1927, although it didn't last. Then, during the marathon at Manhattan Casino, I got tired of the same old steps and cut loose with a breakaway..." According to Snowden, Fox Movietone News covered the marathon and took a close-up of Shorty's feet. As told to Marshall and Jean Stearns, he was asked "What are you doing with your feet," and replied, "The Lindy". The date was June 17, 1928.
Snowden's account to Stearns probably refers to the fact that he used already existing elements of the dance when he and his partner Mattie Purnell had an accident in the dance marathon where they became separated for a while until Snowden got back to Purnell. According to Snowden, the crowd in the dance marathon answered enthusiastically to the accident. As Marshall Stearns put it, Snowden rediscovered the Breakaway pattern when the accident happened. But the accident where Snowden and Purnell devised the basic principle of the lindy hop turned out to be much bigger than it initially suggested. Their invention started a process which led the lindy hop to contests, theaters and ballrooms by the end of 1928, and to Broadway plays by 1930. Thus, Snowden and Purnell are the creators of the Harlem lindy hop.Harri Heinilä, An Endeavor by Harlem Dancers to Achieve Equality – The Recognition of the Harlem-Based African-American Jazz Dance Between 1921 and 1943, pages 135–138. Terry Monaghan, "George Snowden", The Dancing Times, July 2004. Jassdancer.blogspot.fi .
The first generation of lindy hop is popularly associated with dancers such as "Shorty" George Snowden, his partner Big Bea, and Leroy Stretch Jones and Little Bea. "Shorty" George and Big Bea regularly won contests at the Savoy Ballroom. Their dancing accentuated the difference in size with Big Bea towering over Shorty. These dancers specialized in so-called floor steps, but they also experimented with early versions of air steps in the lindy hop.Monaghan 2004.
As white people began going to Harlem to watch black dancers, according to Langston Hughes:
Hughes's mocking statement reflects how the Harlem Renaissance movement acknowledged the lindy hop, which the movement considered part of "low culture", and thus not an important cultural achievement.Heinilä 2016, page 330. According to Snowden, "When he finally offered to pay us, we went up and had a ball. All we wanted to do was dance anyway."
Aerial creation When by 1936 "air steps" or "aerials" such as the Hip to Hip, Side Flip, and Over the Back (the names describe the motion of the follow in the air) began to appear, the old guard of dancers such as Leon James, Leroy Jones, and Shorty Snowden disapproved of the new moves.
Younger dancers fresh out of high school (Al Minns, Joe Daniels, Russell Williams, and Pepsi Bethel) worked out the Back Flip, "Over the head", and "the Snatch".
Frankie Manning was part of a new generation of lindy hoppers, and is the most celebrated lindy hopper in history. Al Minns and Pepsi Bethel, Leon James, and Norma Miller are also featured prominently in contemporary histories of lindy hop. Some sources credit Manning, working with his partner Freida Washington, for inventing the ground-breaking "air step" or "aerial" in 1935. One source credits Minns and Bethel as among those who refined the air step. However, early versions of air steps in the lindy hop were performed already from the very beginning of the 1930s. An air step is a dance move in which at least one of the partners' two feet leave the ground in a dramatic, acrobatic style. Most importantly, it is done in time with the music. Air steps are now widely associated with the characterization of lindy hop, despite being generally reserved for competition or performance dancing, and not generally being executed on any social dance floor.
Mainstream culture
Lindy hop entered mainstream American culture in the 1930s, gaining popularity through multiple sources. Dance troupes, including the Whitey's Lindy Hoppers (also known as the Harlem Congaroos), Hot Chocolates and Big Apple Dancers exhibited the lindy hop. Hollywood films, such as A Day at the Races (1937) and Hellzapoppin' (1941) began featuring the lindy hop in dance sequences. Dance studios such as those of Arthur Murray began teaching lindy hop. By the early 1940s the dance was known as "New Yorker" on the West Coast.
Jazz-loving youths were enamored with the bands of the time, influenced by radio stations and the film industry showcasing clips. In Nazi Germany, the Swingjugend, young rebels, defied the regime's cultural restrictions by embracing banned swing music. Similarly, in California and other parts of the country, Mexican-Americans, Japanese-heritage individuals, black, and white youth all adored jazz music and wanted to learn the new dance steps.
This African American dance would be integral in shaping the aesthetics of contemporary African American culture and tradition. The swing dance was influenced by a variety of other different dances during the time like the Charleston, jazz and tap. It would soon be influential in overall pop-culture and dance at the time. During the creation of this dance, segregation was in place. Even with these limitations the African American community is still able to celebrate their heritage and black musical traditions with a dance that embodies elements of improvisations and musicality, while surviving as a reminder of the historical context from which black art forms emerged.