The history of Lindy Hop begins in the African American communities of Harlem, New York during the late 1920s in conjunction with swing jazz. Lindy Hop is closely related to earlier African American vernacular dances but quickly gained its own fame through dancers in films, performances, competitions, and professional dance troupes. It became especially popular in the 1930s with the upsurge of aerials. The popularity of Lindy Hop declined after World War II, and it converted to other forms of dancing, but it never disappeared during the decades between the 1940s and the 1980s until European and American dancers revived it starting from the beginning of the 1980s.This is discussed in various articles. Some of the most significant are https://authenticjazzdance.wordpress.com/2017/03/11/the-third-generation-by-terry-monaghan/ . https://authenticjazzdance.wordpress.com/2015/04/25/mama-lou-parks-by-terry-monaghan/. http://harlemlindyhopmusings.blogspot.fi/search?updated-max=2017-06-13T07:28:00-07:00&max-results=7 .
Early influences (1900s–1920s)
Lindy Hop combined a number of dances popular in the United States in the 1920s and earlier, many of which developed in African American communities. Just as jazz music emerged as a dominant art form that could absorb and integrate other forms of music, Lindy Hop could absorb and integrate other forms of dance. This hybridity is characteristic of vernacular dances, in which forms and steps are adapted and developed to suit the social and cultural needs of its participants in everyday spaces. Therefore, Lindy Hop was not originally the creative or economic project of formal dance academies or institutions.
Lindy Hop's genealogy can be seen in the ideological themes, social uses, and steps that it has absorbed during its development. For many Lindy Hop historians, the Charleston is Lindy Hop's most influential predecessor, and Lindy Hop's basic footwork and timing reflects that of the Charleston. The transition from Charleston to Lindy Hop was facilitated by the Breakaway, a partner dance which introduced the 'Swing out' and 'open position' of dances such as the Texas Tommy to the 'closed position' and footwork of partnered Charleston. As jazz music in the late 1920s changed, so did jazz dances, including the Lindy Hop. The swung note of swinging jazz encouraged dancers to introduce a 'delay' in their timing which influenced the execution of footwork and approaches to tempo within Charleston and Breakaway.
This change in jazz music in the late 1920s can be slightly accredited to the Lindy Hop. After being introduced to the public in 1928 for the first time, the dance started to lead to changes in jazz. Dancers wanted to add more moves, speed, and overall athleticism to their dances that current songs couldn't allow. Musicians answered this request from dancers and in doing so intensified the rhythmic drive of their songs to accommodate this newly requested athleticism. This new system created a mutual feedback loop between dancers and musicians that helped lead the charge in the changes to jazz music, at least in the beginning.
Classic era (1927 to 1936)
Harlem and Its Renaissance The Savoy Ballroom was the first integrated ballroom in the country, and the New York Renaissance of the 1920s raised the profile of African American vernacular culture in white communities within the United States, particularly in New York City. The popularity of African American dance and music fed what became a fascination with the somewhat illicit nature of the ghetto area. In 1937, white patronage in the area brought much-needed income to the bars, clubs, and theaters of Harlem, as well as work for black artists in a city increasingly belabored by economic depression.
Upper and middle class white audiences were exposed to Harlem's working class entertainment, at first through white audiences attending black venues and shows in Harlem, but later through traveling shows, popular music, and cinema. This prompted a mainstream thirst for "black" cultural forms. However, by the time dances such as the Lindy Hop reached mainstream white audiences, they had often been reworked by white teachers and film studios to accord with the aesthetics and social values of white mainstream America. White dancers in Hollywood films played pivotal roles in popularizing Lindy Hop.
Harlem's increasing popularity as an entertainment district, as well as a vibrant creative center for African Americans in the 1920s and 1930s, brought about the creation and popularization of Lindy Hop, both in social dance spaces and on the stage.
Origin of the Lindy Hop In one account it is argued that, in the slang of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a 'Lindy' was a young woman. There exists an unsubstantiated claim that the word "hop" was documented as early as 1913 as a term for swing dancing and was also, apparently, a term used by early Texas Tommy dancers to describe the basic move for their dance.
In a more influential (but inaccurate) account, popular legend has it that dancer "Shorty" George Snowden renamed the breakaway dance as the Lindy Hop in a dance contest. In this version, Snowden was one of the 24 couples that competed in a negro dance marathon that began on June 17, 1928 at the Manhattan Casino, a ballroom that was located at 8th Avenue and 155th Street in Harlem. During the contest, as he remembers it, Snowden decided to do a breakaway, that is, fling his partner out and improvise a few solo steps of his own. In the midst of the monotony of the marathon, the effect was electric, and even the musicians came to life... Fox Movietone News arrived to cover the marathon and decided to take a close-up of Shorty's feet. An interviewer then asked him, "What are you doing with your feet?" Snowden, without stopping, replied 'The Lindy'".
Research has shown that Snowden's account of the naming of the Lindy Hop in the Rockland Palace (the Manhattan Casino which was renamed at the time of the marathon) is likely not true because the term 'lindy hop' in connection with the Harlem Lindy Hop was used for the first time in public in September 1928, which is more than two months after Snowden and his partner Mattie Purnell supposedly named the dance in the dance marathon. The time gap between the dance marathon and the first use of the term in public does not make sense if Snowden really named the dance in the dance marathon.George Snowden's career in dancing is discussed, in particular, Terry Monaghan's George Snowden article, and Harri Heinilä's doctoral dissertation. See: Terry Monaghan, 'George Snowden', The Dancing Times, July 2004. The article is republished at http://jassdancer.blogspot.fi/2012/10/shorty-george-snowden.html . Harri Heinilä, An Endeavor by Harlem Dancers to Achieve Equality – The Recognition of the Harlem-Based African-American Jazz Dance Between 1921 and 1943, pages 135-138. Heinilä published also an article of George Snowden and Mattie Purnell where they are discussed concerning their invention. The article can be found at https://authenticjazzdance.wordpress.com/2012/07/04/the-creators-of-the-lindy-hop-george-shorty-snowden-and-mattie-purnell/ .
Though there does not exist proper evidence for the naming of the Lindy Hop, there exists evidence for inventing the Lindy Hop in the dance marathon in which Snowden and Purnell participated and devised the basic principle of the Lindy Hop.
Whether Snowden intended it or not, Lindy Hop was associated with Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic airplane flight, completed in 1927. "Lindy" was the aviator's nickname. The reporter interviewing Snowden apparently tied the name to Charles Lindbergh to gain publicity and further his story. While Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight may or may not have inspired the name "Lindy Hop", the association between the aviator, George Snowden and the dance continues in Lindy Hop folklore. Te Roy Williams and His Orchestra recorded the song "Lindbergh Hop," written by Ted Nixon and Elmer Snowden, on May 25, 1927.Jazz Odyssey 'The Sound Of Harlem' Volume III Original 1964 3XLp Vinyl Box Set Columbia Records C3L 33 Mono Jazz Archive Series Various Artist in High Fidelity Sound with 40-Page Booklet, produced by Frank Driggs The Memphis Jug Band on 9/13/1928 recorded "Lindberg Hop (Overseas stomp)," written by Jab Jones and Will Shade.
Often referred to as the "first generation" of Lindy Hop, dancers such as George Snowden, Leroy "Stretch" Jones, Twistmouth George and Edith Matthews inspired many other dancers and troupes (including Frankie Manning) to take up Lindy Hop. Twistmouth George and Matthews are credited with inventing the "twist" that characterises the first few steps of the follower's footwork in the Swingout. By the end of the classic era, Lindy Hop was danced across Harlem in ballrooms, night clubs, cabaret clubs, rent parties, apartments, and street parties — almost anywhere people came together with music to dance.
Aerials era (1935 to 1941) In 1935 Lindy Hop—with swing music—had become increasingly popular throughout America, attributable in part to the success of musicians such as Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, and Chick Webb.
Ballrooms across the United States hosted the big bands of the day, with Chick Webb leading one of the most popular at the Savoy Ballroom. It was with his orchestra that the teenage Ella Fitzgerald first gained fame. These ballrooms continued a national tradition of sponsoring contests where dancers invented, tested and displayed new steps for prizes. At first, lindy hoppers were banned because they took more space than other dancers and often kicked nearby couples. The Savoy eventually relented and welcomed them as an attraction for other guests.Frankie Manning, Northern California Lindy Society workshop interview, January 2002. As the 'Home of Happy Feet', the Savoy became the hottest ballroom in New York City, if not the world.
The first air steps Head bouncer at the Savoy Herbert "Whitey" White (an African American man nicknamed for a white streak in his hair) managed a team of local dancers that included George Snowden. White arranged for dancers to perform at professional engagements, including parties and shows, all over the city and country. George Snowden's absence from the ballroom with these performances gave a new generation of dancers the opportunity to shine, Frankie Manning among them. With the most popular dancers returning to the Savoy between engagements, rivalries soon developed between different groups, particularly between Shorty George and his friends and newer dancers such as Manning. These rivalries were often played out in formal competitions between groups.
Since the beginning of jazz dance, acrobatics were an essential part of vernacular dance, commonly known as flash dancers who toured with bands across United States during the first part of the 20th century. The first generation of Savoy Lindy Hoppers, George Snowden's generation, introduced the early versions of air steps and acrobatics to the Lindy Hop by the very beginning of the 1930s.
Savoy Lindy Hopper Frankie Manning has claimed that he devised the first air step in the Lindy Hop. This story, however, is inaccurate. It is more accurate to say that his first air step in the Lindy Hop likely helped to develop the spectacular air step routines which Manning's generation of Savoy Lindy Hoppers, the second generation, perfected.
Manning went on to dance extensively with one of the most influential Lindy Hop troupes, the Whitey's Lindy Hoppers (also known as Whitey's Lindy Maniacs, Whyte's Hopping Maniacs, The Harlem Congaroos, The Hot Chocolates, and other names). The troupe was based at the Savoy and managed by White. They performed around the world from 1935 to 1942 at private parties and in stage shows and films; contributing to the spread of Lindy across America.
Dean Collins and Hollywood