Lindy Hop and its Origins
by Bob Thomas

Introduction
The jitterbug (initially called the "hop") first became popular in the 1920's, although its popularity was limited primarily to Harlem. The name Lindy was appended to the "Hop" in 1927 at the Savoy Ballroom, supposedly in commemoration of Lindbergh's famous flight across the Atlantic. In the 1930's when white dancers discovered the Lindy, the name Jitterbug often was used to describe the dance. The music that this dance accompanied was jazz, which by the 1930's was also called Swing, and which traced its origins to Ragtime, Dixieland and Blues. From the early days of the "hop" until the mid-1930's, the mainstream of jazz music and swing/lindy/jitterbug dancing was developed and defined in the United States by African-Americans. With origins in the Charleston (according to some experts the Charleston has its origins in Caribbean dance styles), traditional West African dance styles, and a variety of European social dances, the Lindy included not only partner dancing, but also individual solos and line dancing.

The African-European Synthesis
Much European social dancing is performed upright, the body held nearly still from head to hips, with the legs and feet performing most of the movement. Upper-class court dances as well as lower-class folk dances were often done arm-in-arm, in lines, or, in the later 19th century, face-to-face. In the U.S., dance styles from the British Isles predominated with reels, contras, hornpipes and jigs contributing many of the movements and styles enjoyed by European-Americans.

In the 18th and 19th century, American plantation owners in the South, many originally from the British Isles, often bought and kept enslaved Africans to do much of the plantation labor. West Africa has a tradition of social dances that involve many movements originating from the abdominal and hip regions of the body and have often included stomping and large leg and foot movements. Face-to-face dancing is not a part of any African tradition, and appears to be uniquely typical of European social dance.

The European-Americans felt themselves clearly superior to the enslaved Africans. There was a constant effort on the part of the slave-owners to have the African-Americans adopt British and European traditions, religions and attitudes. After a notable slave rebellion in the early 18th century, African drumming and music were nearly univerally abolished in the south. With the Africans this led to an incorporation of many African movements and traditions into a British and European framework. In fact on some plantations, blacks were only permitted to dance and play music as part of religious observances, which led to the development of religious dance and music with strong African dance and music traditions set in a spiritual context. Despite the prohibitions African traditions in dance and music persisted in African-American culture and, indeed, persist in American culture to this very day.

The American pioneer spirit plays an important part in the development of American dance. Early landowners in the U.S. had a great admiration for the successful and innovative individual. Thus the enslaved African who showed skill and originality in his or her dancing or singing was admired and rewarded. On the other hand, the conviction among most European-Americans that Africans were inherently inferior meant that the admiration and rewards were accompanied with condescension and personal indifference towards the dancer or singer. This dicotomy of attitude has persisted throughout the history of American dance and music.
Variety and Vaudeville

In the mid 1800's there were Variety shows that had comedians, singers, dancers, acrobats, and animal acts. These shows were performed in tents, bars or public halls and were usually attended solely by men. Blue and rude humor was the norm. A subset of Variety was the Minstrel Show where song and dance predominated with an emphasis on imitation and parody of American blacks and black culture. Many minstrel shows were performed by whites (many of them British in heritage) in blackface, although there were several very popular minstrel shows performed by blacks.

In the late 1800's some producers in the Northeast developed the idea of a variety show for the family. Emphasizing that there was no blue or rude humor, no swear words, and no explicit sexual innuendo, these producers created Vaudeville. Until the 1920's, however, although the imitation and parody of blacks was embraced and encouraged, Vaudeville casts were invariably white (often in blackface for song and dance numbers) and blacks were only allowed to attend on certain days, and usually only in the balcony. Black performers worked minstrel shows, tent shows, and halls considerably smaller than that well-paid Vaudeville halls. Despite the lack of recognition afforded black performers, the African-American influence in developing 20th century culture continued apace.

The Cakewalk
The Cakewalk was probably the first and most popular social dance that combined African and European and American traditions. Originally, the Cakewalk was a dance contest on the plantations where the enslaved Africans competed with each other to win a piece of cake. The dancer that was "best" in the judgement of the plantation owner and his family won. To better please the dance judges, movements that can be traced to the Irish jig and reels were included in the Cakewalk. However, originality was also important. So the best Cakewalk dancers often included movements that derived from African dance, dance that the landowners found exotic and exciting.

By the late 1800's the Cakewalk had become an institution among black Americans. It was danced at many social events accompanied by musicians playing the new Ragtime and Dixieland music. Social and personal commentary through dance and exemplifying everyday activities in dance are also common, and although the commentary was still subtle in European eyes, the "attitude" it gave the Cakewalk was appealing. White Americans began to dance the Cakewalk at their parties and social events. When black Americans saw the "European" Cakewalk, the commentary and mimicry they embodied in the Cakewalk became broader and more obvious. Which led Americans and Europeans to do the "newer," more popular, and latest Cakewalk in the 1890's, as seen done by African-Americans.
By the early 1920's, there were a myriad of dances, like the Cakewalk, that were popular in the larger cities of the U.S. which came directly from African-American culture. The more famous of these were the Charleston, the Lindy Hop, and a group dance called the Big Apple.

The Lindy Hop Goes National
The Charleston incorporated the partner dance position typical of much European dance with movements derived from African dance traditions. Other dances, usually called Ragtime dances, had also done this, but it was in the Charleston that the African and European traditions were synthesized into a universally popular dance that could only be described as "American."

Prior to World War I there were African-American social dances (like the Cakewalk) that were introduced to European-American society by Vernon and Irene Castle and other trend-setting dancers. But the Charleston was the first African-American dance to be almost universally popular in the U.S. This was due in part to several new inventions: the radio, the phonograph, and the silent film. For the first time a dance that was all the rage in New York or Philadelphia or Chicago could, within a few weeks, be all the rage with the residents of Indianapolis, Indiana, or Atlanta, Georgia. By 1925 the Charleston was being done almost everywhere by almost everyone throughout this country.

Two dances that followed on the heels of the Charleston were Lindy Hop and the Big Apple. The Big Apple is said to have begun in the Southeast United States. It was a collection of African-American dance steps from the early 1900's through the 1930's, including the Shorty George, Boogie Legs, the Scarecrow, and Truckin'. The Big Apple was supposedly discovered by some amateur dancers from the Northeast travelling through the Carolinas. They passed a church and through the door saw dancing that, to them, was totally original and exciting. They hired one of the dancers to come back to New York, and teach this new dance which came to be known as the Big Apple. Often danced in a circle, the Big Apple's steps were quickly incorporated into the Lindy Hop, appearing as open and side-by-side material on the dance floor.

Forget the Charleston and the Cakewalk and the Big Apple, however. It was the Lindy Hop which was and is the most popular dance in the United States. It enjoyed unrivalled popularity from 1935 to 1960, and has spawned varying styles that are still done all across the U.S. Developed by young African-American dancers in Harlem in the late 1920's, the Lindy Hop became a national dance craze when Big Band Jazz music (also called Swing) became America's national music in 1935.

Many of the original and best lindy hop dancers were black. But interestingly enough, the Savoy Ballroom, to many the home of Lindy Hop, was an integrated ballroom. Exactly what this meant in the development and popularization of the lindy hop can be debated, but it seems likely that had the Savoy not been integrated, Americans would never have discovered one of the world's most popular and famous social dances.

The Lindy and "Society"
Social dances (and the lindy was and is a social dance) perform many functions: as an artistic medium for personal expression to music, as a means for commentary on other people and policitical institutions, and as a means to demonstrate one's coordination, musical sense, and strength. One obvious advantage of dance over other social activities is its allowance of physical closeness--with only the most basic of social introductions necessary immediately beforehand.

The lindy permitted a physical closeness which to many people at the time appeared to perpetuate a growing (and undesirable) familiarity between men and women. Many people in the 1920's and 30's believed it was drastically altering the very fabric of society. The lindy added some new twists to the exultation in human physicality/sexuality which had begun in the Roaring 20's. The partners did tricks where the man pulled the woman through his legs, spun her so her skirts flew up in the air, lifted her up so she straddled his waist, and (worse yet!) threw the woman about while she clasped her arms about his waist, her head level to his navel. And for these transgressions against common morality the lindy was attacked as being dangerously sexual, a threat to the moral fiber of our nation, etc. etc.

The Character of Lindy
According to many sources, including films from the period, the early versions of the dance were characterized by fast footwork, with a mixture of partner work which included turns and aerial flips, and breakaways, where the two dancers stood some feet apart, doing various step-footwork combinations distinguished by their loose-legged quality. [To see some Lindy Hop check the dance scene at the end of "A Day at the Races," in the movie "Hellzapoppin'" and in the documentary "Watch Me Move," sometimes shown on PBS.]
The Lindy dance used patterns that often broke down into sets of six or eight beats, with kicks and footwork that were only limited by the dancer's imagination and willingness to practice. Dance halls in the 1920's and early 30's had their resident dancers--the Savoy Ballroom dancers occupying the Cats' Corner and the like--and when the fast Lindy music came on, it was not unusual for many people to move aside so that these young people could show their stuff. Each hall had its lead dancer(s), and each lead dancer had his or her trademark style. Competition was stiff and if dancers from one dance hall were found "stealing" steps and tricks from dancers in another, it was not unusual to settle the matter with a fight in the dance hall balconies between the rival dance groups.
Until 1935, when Benny Goodman's band made its ultimately triumphant cross-country tour, the Lindy Hop was done primarily by black dancers in Harlem. But in 1935 with swing music taking the country by storm, the lindy or jitterbug or swing--call it what you will--became a dance craze that permanently altered American dance.