Lindy Hop & Charleston History (Tango History Coming Soon)
 
 
  Origins: 1920's - 1940's

What is now known as Lindy Hop began in the early 1920's. The dance came out of older social dances such as the Charleston which were danced close together. When they began opening up or "breaking-away" a new dance was formed. It didn't get its name until "Shorty" George Snowden, the number one dancer of the day was asked in an interview about what the name of the dance was. The headline in the paper that day had read, "Lindbergh Hops the Atlantic." Charles Lindbergh had just completed the first ever flight across the Atlantic Ocean, and Shorty George, seizing the opportunity to popularize the dance, called it the "Lindy Hop."

 
An old time Lindy Hop clip with "Shorty" George Snowden demonstrating the breakaway.
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It wasn't long before Shorty George was de-throned from his top dancer position by young hot shot Frankie "Musclehead" Manning. Frankie Manning invented the first air-step, and a new era of Lindy Hop was born. Frankie was one of the stars Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, the greatest Lindy Hop performance troupe of all time. They were featured in several Hollywood films: Hellzapoppin (see movie clip below), Day at the Races, Radio City Revels and more. They also toured Europe and South America wowing audiences with their unbelievable and energetic dance style .

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The dance spread quickly to the West Coast, where a new style popularized by Dean Collins and others was created. Aditionally, soldiers dancing Lindy Hop brought the dance to Europe, and soon it was danced in Great Britain, France, and other European countries.

In the fifties and sixties with the advent of Rock and Roll, solo dancing was popularized, and social dances like Lindy Hop fell into the back ground. The Savoy Ballroom was torn down, Jazz music evolved into less and less danceable forms, and for a while Lindy Hop nearly dissapeared off of the national conciousness altogether. Until...

Hellzapoppin' (with Frankie Manning). The most famous Lindy Hop clip of all time.
  The Comeback: 1980's - 1990's

trhsThe Rhythm Hot Shots

 In the 80's two very important things happened. A small group of people from Stockholm, Sweden went on a search for Frankie Manning who had retired from the social dance world, and was working as a postal worker in New York. Coincidentally, dancing star Stephen Mitchell was on the search for Frankie Manning as well. Both groups wanted him to help them learn this dance that they had only seen on old movie clips... The swedish group flew Frankie out to Sweden in the late 80's to begin a workshop out in the Swedish Country in the tiny town of Herrang. It was the camp becoming known as Herrang Dance Camp. Stephen Mitchell also worked with Frankie, and began teaching and running camps in the US, and the dance was beginnging to make a comeback.
The great resurgence came in the mid-90's when Hollywood featured Lindy Hop in the movie Swing Kids (1994). Soon after Swingers, and then The Mask followed. Neo-swing music (A mix of Rock and Roll and Swing Music) became the rage, and with the prolific GAP commercial, swing was back in the spotlight, and the dance halls had never been so crowded.

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  Lindy Hop Today
cent Now more popular than anytime in history, Lindy Hop is danced in more than forty countries, with hundreds of thousands of dancers, countless yearly festivals, performances, workshops, competitions and events.
Herrang Dance Camp has since become the longest running and most revered dance camp in the world, catering to thousands of dancers from more than 40 countries.
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  Swing Music (1920's to present)
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Big Band Jazz music was in its heyday, and incredible bands like the Count Basie Orchestra and The Duke Ellington Orchestra played regularily at the legendary Savoy Ballroom (which was the size of one city block!), in New York.

(more coming soon!)

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The unparalled Ella Fitzgerald backed by the equally legendary Duke Ellington Orchestra.