swing

The tradition & historical record

Swing dance is a category of social dances that developed with the swing style of jazz music in the 1920s–1940s, with the origin of each dance predating the swing era. Hundreds of styles of swing dancing were developed; those that have survived beyond that era include Charleston, Balboa, Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing, and Collegiate Shag. Today, the best-known of these dances is the Lindy Hop, which originated in Harlem in the early 1930s. While the majority of swing dances began in African-American communities as vernacular African-American dances, some influenced swing-era dances, such as Balboa, that developed outside of these communities. Swing dance was not commonly used to identify a group of dances until the second half of the 20th century. Historically, the word swing referred to a style of jazz music, which inspired the evolution of the dance. Jitterbug is any form of swing dance, though it is often used as a synonym for the six-count derivative of Lindy Hop called "East Coast Swing". One who danced swing was called a swing dancer. Jitterbug might refer to Lindy Hop, Shag, or other swing dances. The term was famously associated with swing era band leader Cab Calloway because, as he put it, the dancers "look like a bunch of jitterbugs out there on the floor" due to their fast, often bouncy movements. ¹

Balboa is a very fast eight-count dance in closed position. The earliest form of the dance (often called "Pure Balboa") evolved in the mostly conservative dance halls of southern California where space was limited and strict codes of conduct were enforced. These dance halls usually prohibited the wild kicks of the Charleston and Lindy Hop. Pure Balboa is characterized by an upright posture with partners standing chest to chest. Step variations generally play with the rhythm or look and feel (style) from below the knee downwards and deal with changes in direction. Balboa is frequently danced to fast jazz, usually 180-320 beats per minute (BPM), though many like a slower (170-190 BPM) tempo. While most dancers differentiate between pure Balboa and Bal-Swing, both are considered to be a part of the dance. Bal-Swing evolved from Balboa when original Balboa dancers experimented with fancier variations of the dance which forced the chest to chest connection to be broken. In this form of Balboa a variety of spins, turns, dips, tricks, and even air steps are introduced. Charleston (dance) is danced partnered or solo, often to faster music. It includes a number of positions, including side-by-side, hand-to-hand, and tandem. In "jockey position", the closed position is opened out so that both partners may face forward, without breaking apart. In side-by-side Charleston, partners open the closed position entirely, so that their only points of connection are at their touching hips and arm contact, wherein the leader's right hand and arm touch the follower's back and the follower's left hand and arm touch the leader's shoulder and arm. Both partners then swing their free arms as they would in solo Charleston. ¹

Big Apple: A partner dance and a "called" circle dance that originated in the Afro-American community of the United States in the beginning of the 20th century. The dance that eventually became known as the Big Apple is speculated to have been created in the early 1930s by African-American youth dancing at the Big Apple Club, which was at the former House of Peace Synagogue on Park Street in Columbia, South Carolina. The synagogue was converted into a black juke joint called the "Big Apple Night Club". Little Apple: This dance was a partnered version of the Big Apple, which is also believed to have originated in the Carolinas of the Southern United States. St. Louis shag (or "Shag"): A dance that evolved out of the Charleston. As its name suggests, it is recognized as having started in St. Louis, Missouri. St. Louis Shag features a stationary eight-count basic that is most commonly composed of triple-step, kick, triple-step, kick. It is a very fast closed position dance that is usually done to stomp, jump, and boogie-woogie music. ¹

Acrobatic Rock'n'Roll – Popular in Europe, acrobatic rock'n'roll is popularly associated with Russian gymnasts who took up the dance, though it is popular throughout Europe today. It is a performance dance and sport rather than a social dance, though there are people who remove the acrobatic stunts to dance it on a social level. Boogie-woogie developed originally in the 1940s, with the rise of boogie woogie music. It is popular today in Europe, and was considered by some to be the European counterpart to East Coast Swing, a six-count dance standardized for the American ballroom industry. It is danced to rock music of various kinds, blues or boogie woogie music but usually not to jazz. As the dance has developed, it has also taken to eight-count variations and swing outs similar to Lindy Hop, while keeping the original boogie woogie footwork. East Coast Swing is a simpler six-count variation that spawned from the six-count variations of the Lindy Hop. It evolved with swing-band music of the 1940s and the work of the Arthur Murray dance studios in the 1940s. It is also known as Six-count Swing, Triple-Step Swing, or Single-Step Swing. East Coast Swing has very simple structure and footwork along with basic moves and styling. It is popular for its simple nature and is often danced to slow, medium, or fast tempo jazz, blues, or rock and roll. Occasionally, Rockabilly, aka Rock-a-billy, is mistaken for East Coast Swing, but Rockabilly is more closely related to Western Swing. Carolina Shag was danced along the strands between Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina, during the 1940s but, during the 1990s and later, has expanded to many other places. ¹

Swing dancing was most popular in the 1930s and 1940s, but it still continues today. Dance moves have evolved with the music. Swing dancing styles are the foundation of many other dance styles including disco and country line dancing. Swing dancing clubs and contests are still held around the world. The American Bop Association (ABA) is a non-profit corporation of 34 member swing dance clubs who are dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the broad range of dance and music styles more commonly known as bop, all forms of swing, jitterbug, and shag. ¹

The swing dance competitions use one of the few formats ("categories"): ¹

Showcase and classic are formats that are close to the ones used in ballroom dancing: pairs that had trained together perform pre-choreographed dances. Showcase format allows lifts, drops, and aerials. Classic competition allows few drops, but otherwise limits moves to the ones that can be used in social dancing. Strictly swing and Jack-and-Jill competitions, in contrast, demand spontaneity and lead/follow communications. Pre-choreographed dance patterns are prohibited and are penalized if discovered. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Swing (dance)”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

swing is group of dances tied to jazz, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 9 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²