MUSIC HISTORY: Dancing The Jitterbug and Lindy Hop

Following from my previous post (see MUSICAL DECADES - 1940s - Boogie-Woogie ), boogie-woogie music became so popular that Swing bands at the time were expected to have a few numbers in their repertoire. The reason was that boogie-woogie was needed to dance the Jitterbug which was taking the world by storm.

Here's Count Basie and his orchestra providing the music for a Jitterbug dance contest.

The Jitterbug is a kind of dance popularized in the United States in the early twentieth century and is associated with various types of swing dances such as the Lindy Hop, Jive, and East Coast Swing.

The Lindy Hop evolved in Harlem, New York City with the jazz music of the Swing era of the late 1930s and early 1940s. Lindy was 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.

The dance's name is from the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh, nicknamed "Lucky Lindy", who "hopped the Atlantic" in 1927. After Lindbergh's solo non-stop flight from New York to Paris, he became incredibly popular and many people named businesses and other things after him.

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".

Here's Shorty George and Big Bea:

Charles Buchanan, manager of the Savoy, paid dancers such as Shorty George to "perform" for his clientele. According to Shorty, "When he finally offered to pay us, we went up and had a ball. All we wanted to do was dance anyway."

Interesting to note: it was Shorty who came up with the term "Lindy Hop" and his name is used in certain dance steps—the Shorty George. In fact, here's Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth in a song and dance about him!

When "air steps" or "aerials" such as the Hip to Hip, Side Flip, and Over the Back (the names describing the motions) began to appear in 1936, the old guard of dancers of "floor steps", such as Leon James, Leroy Jones, and Shorty George, disapproved of these new moves.

Whitey's Lindy Hoppers was a professional performing group of Savoy Ballroom swing dancers, started in 1935 by Herbert "Whitey" White. Let's take a look at them making the new moves (from the movie, Hellzapoppin, 1941).

And, just for fun, here's a humorous instruction video on how to dance the Jitterbug:

Thanks for listening. Hope to see you again next time.

(Information used in this post from Wikipedia)

Dominique "Nik" Petersen is an aficionado of old music and the author of Dr. Hook and Me: A Fan's Journal/Scrapbook. Read about it and her other books at the website:

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