| In the nineteen twenties there was the Charleston | | | | Charleston moves to fit their new style too. |
| dance craze, whilst before that ballroom dancing was | | | | The new dance didn't really have a name. It's been |
| the thing. Ballroom dancing is, like Lindy Hop, partner | | | | suggested that they called it the breakaway, |
| dancing. In other words couples dance together, in | | | | because in ballroom male dancers kept the lady close, |
| physical contact. Also in the nineteen twenties there | | | | but in the new dance she was 'swung out'. Others |
| was a degree of racial segregation in the USA, which | | | | say breakaway is rather the original name for a |
| meant that ballrooms like the Savoy in Harlem were | | | | move which today is called a swing out and that the |
| mostly frequented by black dancers, ballrooms like | | | | dance was simply called The Hop. So to 1927. There |
| the Roseland mostly frequented by whites. Although | | | | were dance marathons then, remember the movie |
| the Savoy was the first ballroom not to be officially | | | | 'They Shoot Horse's Don't They'. It was at a dance |
| segregated, so white dancers could, and did, go there | | | | marathon, so the story goes that a newspaper |
| in small numbers. The big bands of the era | | | | journalist asked a black dancer by the name of |
| sometimes had black and white musicians, less so in | | | | Shorty George Snowden "hey, what's that new |
| the early days when most were one or the other. | | | | dance you're doing?" Presumably no one outside the |
| In the Savoy ballroom in Harlem, as early as nineteen | | | | Savoy had seen it much. Well George, who has a |
| twenty six, (the Savoy opened its doors for the first | | | | dance step named after him, the 'Shorty George' |
| time in March nineteen twenty six), black musicians | | | | unsurprisingly, was a bit of a wit. |
| were experimenting and leading the way, swing music | | | | Furthermore, that week or maybe even that day a |
| was emerging. The Charleston dance craze was | | | | young man called Charles Lindbergh had made the |
| declining. Later, the new musical style would be | | | | first solo aeroplane flight across the Atlantic, non |
| copied by Benny Goodman. Some historians credit | | | | stop. America was in love with its new hero and a |
| the start of the swing age to a later tour by Benny | | | | newspaper headline had read (reputedly, although I've |
| Goodman, nineteen thirty five in fact, which is | | | | been unable to find it) 'Lucky Lindy Hops The |
| actually somewhat after the fact! | | | | Atlantic'. "We call it the Lindy Hop" quipped George |
| Benny Goodman had listened to the musicians in | | | | and so a new dance craze was born. |
| Harlem and his band were swing pioneers, as far as | | | | The dance had its apogee in the forties and went |
| white folks were concerned. A great band they were | | | | through the dark days of wartime, surviving into the |
| too, but they were not the first innovators of the | | | | fifties when smaller, less costly rock and roll bands |
| genre. By the thirties Benny Goodman was playing | | | | put the big bands out of business. Well mostly, it was |
| swing on his late night radio slot in New York and | | | | still possible to find some swing even in the ironically |
| when he went on tour he struggled, well he struggled | | | | named swinging sixties, and jazz of course goes on |
| in New York and all stations west until he got to | | | | through every storm and changing fashion. |
| California where they were queued around the block. | | | | Music like all the creative arts and indeed sciences has |
| The reason being that his late night New York radio | | | | to progress, Rock and Roll, Bill Haley and Elvis they |
| programme was being picked up at peak time all | | | | were the immediate future in the early fifties. Swing |
| those miles west, different time zone of course, and | | | | and swing dance had ruled the roost for twenty five |
| the people loved it. Officially this is when the swing | | | | years a remarkable thing when you look at popular |
| age was born. However, go back to nineteen twenty | | | | music today. In that time swing produced a great |
| six in Harlem and you'd find black dancers there were | | | | variety of great music, and the dancers innovated so |
| experimenting with new moves to fit the new music, | | | | many steps and styles that you could learn the Lindy |
| from Fletcher Henderson primarily and they'd adapted | | | | Hop for a lifetime and still not know it all. |