And the Dance Goes On...
 The Musician/ Dancer Dynamic The spread of Swing popularity |
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Racial Issues Continuing popularity of Swing |
And the Dance Goes On...
| The Musician/ Dancer Dynamic The spread of Swing popularity |
|
Racial Issues Continuing popularity of Swing |
Which came first, swing dance or swing music? Like
the chicken and the egg, we may never really know. The dynamic relationship between musician and dancer seems to
obscure the answer. However, as Howard Spring notes in his article Swing and the Lindy Hop, the first public
references to the Lindy Hop were in 1928, just before the music started to change. He feels this suggests that
originally it was the dance that set off changes in the music. For example, the musicians began to use fewer "two
bar breaks", which interrupted the momentum of the music, during the 1930's as swing dance gained popularity.
Versions of classic songs like the "King Porter Stomp" by Fletcher Henderson and his Orchestra became
"riffier" with a more driving beat.
However, as Swing solidified, the dancers took from the musicians in much the same way as musicians took from dancers. Frankie Manning, Savoy lindyhopper, reported that he would often "catch" ideas from the band while dancing and the drummer or soloists would "catch" his steps - often reinforcing the beat or adding drum shots. Likewise, with the introduction of aerials, tempos rose because flights could be more easily executed with a driving beat behind them.
The excitement of both performers - musician and dancer - reinforced the other. The phenomenon created was intoxicating and rapidly spread in popularity.
By 1932, Swing was well established in the United
States. In the next few years it began to reshape the popular music industry. This is evident in the wild popularity
of Benny Goodman and his Orchestra in 1935-1936 in the music world as a whole and not just the realm of jazz. Swing
music declined during and after World War II and with the dawn of Be-Bop. Be-Bop and its undancable rhythm claimed
the jazz world. But the dance world would never be the same. Swing dance took the form and name of Jitterbugging and survived
through the new music craze: Rock and Roll.
It is easy to lose sight of some of the racial
issues that surround swing music and the Lindy Hop in all the excitement....and maybe that is the point. However,
it is important to examine the history of the dance relation to its African American roots.
The Lindy Hop was not the first African American dance to spread in popularity. In fact, these familiar and influential dances all have African American backgrounds.
| * Turkey Trot - 1910 * Texas Tommy - 1911/1912 * Ballin' the Jack - 1913 * Fox-trot - 1914 , lasted until the Lindy Hop * Walkin' the Dog - 1916 * Shimmy - 1917 * Charleston - 1923/1924 * Black Bottom - 1926 |
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Many see recognizing these dances and the Lindy Hop as an important contribution to American culture as a good
thing and feel dance improved race relations. Dancers such as Frankie Manning and Norma Miller express pride in
the penetration of the Lindy Hop to the mainstream. However, others saw the dancing as a sellout to European-American
culture. Langston Hughes writes in The Big Sea (1941),
"The lindy-hoppers at the Savoy even began to practice acrobatic routines, and to do absurd things for the entertainment of the whites, that probably never would have entered into their heads to attempt merely for their own effortless amusement. Some of the lindy-hoppers had cards printed with their names on them and became dance professors teaching the tourists. Then Harlem nights became show nights for the Nordics."
Those who agreed saw the commercialization of Harlem as pandering to white tourism. The debate still continues today.
Like the 70's fashion
craze of the 90's, swing is back in a big way! As the hundreds of web-sites, magazine articles, and swing clubs
popping up attest, the bug is back. The fun, fast, partnered dance still intimidates some, but it thrills many
who have become jaded by the 80's and 90's dance fads: jumping by yourself, moshing, head banging, etc. The return
of swing bridges the generation gap drawing older dancers who've still got it and younger dancers with enthusiasm
to learn together. And the dance goes on...
The Flying Lindy Hoppers of the Northern California Lindy Society
