Started in the late 1920s in Harlem and spread worldwide, the Lindy Hop gathered elements of other earlier dance forms and fused them into a exciting new dance that remains popular close to 80 years later. While other ballroom forms kept partners together in closed position, the Lindy Hop allowed dancers to separate, providing them more room to improvise. We teach two styles of this dance.
Savoy Style. The Savoy Ballroom in Harlem was the undisputed home of Lindy Hop. On its blocklong mahogany floor, the very best dancers swung nightly for more than 30 years. While each dancer at the Savoy Ballroom had his or her own style, what we now term “Savoy style” represents the set of steps and stylistic approaches passed down from some of the Savoy’s best dancers, specifically, Frankie Manning, Al Minns and Norma Miller. This style is very athletic and exhuberant. It includes kicks, lifts, jumps, tosses and—for the intrepid dancer —aerial or air steps (though we do not teach air steps).
Smooth Style. As the beat of jazz music began to soften, the dancing became smoother to match the change. Smooth style emphasizes more intricate lead and follow partnering, movements that flow seamlessly from one to the next, silky footwork, dips and slides.
Posted on January 21st, 2005 by chad
Rumored to be the source of the Savoy’s nickname “The Track,” the Peabody captivated New York dancers for decades with its fast pace, fancy footwork and racing ‘round the ballroom action. Sometimes described as a one-step or fast foxtrot, the Peabody is danced in line of dance fashion, like the foxtrot, but to very fast music of 250 beats per minute minimum or greater. A dancer’s favorite at the Savoy and Roseland Ballrooms, the Peabody became popular in the 1920s and remained so through the 1950s. We teach Peabody steps passed down from our teachers and inspirations, John Lucchese, Peter DiFalco, Vincent Zambardi, Sandra Cameron and Paul Grecki, as well as steps developed in our own social dancing.
Emblem of the Twenties and favorite of the flappers, the Charleston swept the nation onto its feet in the early 1920s with partnered abandon, as it allowed dancers to kick, strut, stomp, and syncopate wildly. We teach partner and solo charleston steps and styling drawn from era newsreel footage, descriptions in era manuals and magazine articles, as well as our own social dancing.
Slow, slow, quick, quick may be the modern rhythm of the foxtrot, but the dances roots in the Twenties suggest a looser, more improvisational approach to syncopation and style. While era dance manuals do not present a complete record of the dance, they do provide a window to the dance. What era dance manuals suggest is a dance much different than one done today. We teach steps drawn from our collection of era dance manuals.
A cousin of the Charleston believed to be from New Orleans, the Collegiate Shag became popular nationwide (and especially in the New York area) in the ’30s and ’40s. Like other dances popular in the big band era, Collegiate Shag has roots in the ’20s including possible connections to the Varsity Drag and Collegiate. While other footwork patterns and styles exist, Collegiate Shag today is primarly a 6-count dance full of kicks, hops and taps done to fast jazz.
We perform and teach popular and historical social dances of the Jazz Age and Swing Era and have appeared on stage, independent film, and local and national television. Known for our performance and our research of social dancing, we also consult and choreograph for period productions, particularly those set in the Roaring Twenties. Though we do not regularly compete, we have placed in a number of competitions, including 1st in the 2004 American Lindy Hop Championships Fast Dance division.