Special Features

Lindy Hop

Lindy hop was the first amalgamation dance, incorporating all the popular dances and dance steps from its day and danced to the swinging sounds of jazz and blues. Based off of the Charleston and heavily influenced by the Texas Tommy, Black Bottom, Ballin' the Jack, and Jig Walk, the Lindy Hop was a street dance that had no rules and knew no bounds.

Danced by various names throught black communities in the twenties, in various flavors, it went through a period of growth and development centered around Harlem New York in the late twenties where it received its name by “Shorty” George Snowden, the top dancer in those days. The dance achieved it’s fame and distinctive look in the thirties in the Savoy Ballroom, stomping grounds of Frankie Manning who, like Charles “Lucky Lindy” Lindbergh (can you guess where the name of the dance came from?) was a pioneer taking the dance from the floor to the air.

The Lindy Hop incorporates African rhythms and styling, European partnering elements, and is done to American music: jazz and blues.  Lindy Hop can be danced at arange of tempos and in a myriad of styles. Lindy Hop is often described as having two camps or styles, "Savoy" and "Hollywood" or "L.A. Style". This is not accuarate. Frankie himself states that at the Savoy there were as many styles being danced there as there were dancers, which included the famous Dean Collins, the man who brought Lindy Hop to Southern California from Harlem. Lindy Hop is larger than just a syllabus of moves and more complex than just one expression, it is a quality of movement and partner interaction. Lindy Hop, in short, is a way to express yourself in a "swinging" way. Whether you stick to more traditional music, moves, or styling, or whether you choose to innovate and mix other music, moves, and styling, its still lindy hop at the core.