Lindy Hop Isn't For Everyone

“Lindy Hop isn't for everyone." Someone said this last summer and it's been living rent-free in my head since then. As a complicated truth giving rise to uncomfortable thoughts and feelings, it takes time to unpack, to be clarified, to be understood. This post from Niké Aurea, M.Ed Community Consultant, is helping distill my thoughts.

We discovered Niké fairly recently thanks to Instagram’s algorithm recognizing our research into community and what that word means. The Guilty Feminist shared on social media - “We loved this reminder from @seastersjones: true community isn’t about how often we gather — it’s about how deeply we care. Community requires commitment, accountability, and support. Without those, it’s just regular socialising. At The Guilty Feminist, we believe in building spaces where care is a practice, not a performance.” And elsewhere - “People often mistake socializing regularly for community. If there's no commitment for care, there's no community, no matter how fun the socializing is.”

Sometimes it seems that community is used much like inclusion - to maximally welcome people but oftentimes that inherently favors white, cis, het folks who centered their stories in the midst of the so-called “swing revival” in the 1980s/90s which reverberates today and de-centered Black, queer and other marginalized voices. We find these power dynamics still at play when folks use jitterbug/east coast swing to denote Lindy Hop, use language devaluing the role of following and individuals bringing their own unique expression to dances, and use coded language to denote Blackness while avoiding giving explicit ownership to Black creators for these swing-era traditions. As Niké states in another post, “Some folks genuinely feel comfortable having communities that are primarily white because it feels easier.”

Lindy Hop isn’t for everyone. To quote loudmouthbynature, “What a lot of white liberals don’t seem to understand is that Lindy Hop was an act of resistance against racism. It was a pathway to Black liberation.” So when we dance and teach Lindy Hop, are we resisting racism and white supremacy, and working toward Black liberation?

Kaitlin B. Curtice writes in Living Resistance, “I/you are always arriving” which pairs well with Barrett Holmes Pitner’s, “existence isn’t static.” You/I/we can change. Over the years we’ve changed and still will. It’s active work and one place this works shows up is in our Values and Responsibilities document which helps attune us with potential partners and collaborators.

A cornerstone to our guiding philosophy is the concept of being a cultural surrogate or tradition bearer, as coined by Black dancer, LaTasha Barnes. For us, this means treating Lindy Hop and other traditional swing-era dances as living dances, acknowledging their Black creators, naming what we teach by the names given by Black tradition-bearers, and being a proponent of Black dance tradition values - social, dance, kinetic. These values are reflected in making African-American rhythms visible on the dance floor, promoting equity on and off the dance floor, and sharing traditional jazz dance and social values. We acknowledge that others might enjoy keeping swing simple, light and fun. However, this approach tends to diminish BIPOC voices and experiences while ignoring the multi-faceted nature of Black dances and the realities Black people face. By holding each other accountable and aspiring to be comfortable with uncomfortable truths, we hope to make the swing community a better and more welcoming place for everyone.

Going to Harold Pener's

When I was a newer swing dancer dancing in Overland Park, KS, Randy, a scene regular, told me I needed to go to the pimp store for new dance duds. As he or another male dancer told me (memory fades after 20+ years), every swing dancer needed a pimp store. It’s where you get your zoot suit, flashy ties, snazzy suspenders and sweet shoes.

And Harold Pener’s was the go-to spot in Kansas City for the white jitterbuggers hopping on the neo-swing craze. Harold Pener’s was also the go-to destination for Black men wanting to look their best for church, Kansas City Two-Step parties and other functions important in their lives. So not only was I engaging in appropriating a Black dance form, Lindy Hop, I was costuming myself in Black culture’s clothing while engaging in derogatory terms for fashionable Black men.

It’s interesting when the present (see above) can elicit memories that cause you to analyze your previous choices. Some of the reasons for my choices then was peer pressure, desiring to fit in and having a lack of curiosity so I cosplayed Blackness. In reality, I was participating in something that was meant to be punk that became “small c conservative” according to this podcast hosted by Slate.

And you see the conservatism play out when swing school organizers choose teaching east coast swing, jitterbug or swing because, as they explain, that’s what the audience is most familiar with and it’s more inclusive this way. Dr. Thomas DeFrantz said it a talk for CVFC '- “Dance is technology transforming dehumanization into joy but Black people can’t hold the patent.” It’s about time swing dance school organizers honor Black culture rather than stripping cultural meaning from their creations.

Al Minns Interview with Johnny Carson

The stories we tell about Lindy Hop's history and passage through time is wildly important. Listen to Al Minns as he recounts an interview with Johnny Carson where he says how he (Johnny Carson) is amazed how jazz dancing had somehow or another been obliterated from the American scene. He said it's the only time in history that he knew where a country stamped out its own art form. And yet Black people still showed us what living resistance and resilience look like when they keep nurturing Lindy Hop.

Celebrating You

Parker (kweenwerk) shared a reel today that bears listening to and reading the description. She starts off by talking about us living in a world where we’re told if we want to belong we have to disappear, meaning you need to take the things that make you unique and hide them away. However, keeping our culture, community and lived experience is so important as Parker reminds us.

She also reminded us of an interview with second-generation Lindy Hopper, Al Minns, speaking to the uniqueness of a jazz or swing dancer. You have no way of making a comparison because each person is unique. He’s also spoken, though we can’t find it at the moment, about how you could look out at The Savoy and see hundreds of different styles being danced.

In contrast, I used to teach there was one way to do a swingout for beginners because that is how I was taught to teach it. I can only imagine my co-teachers and mentors were modeling after their own mentors this notion there is a singular way to do a swingout along with other jazz steps and movements. Just as I was being pigeonholed into a singular expression not necessarily representative of me, so too would I model this learned practice on my own students.

Paolo Freire talks about this in Pedagogy of the Oppressed where he outlines steps for the oppressed to become fully liberated rather than repeating the oppressive cycle. This takes critical reflection so as not to mimic the witnessed power dynamics. So are we liberating people when we teach them or are we repeating dynamics not of the originating Black culture?

Politics Belong On The Dance Floor

FD Signifier on YouTube recently talked about folks flattening complex issues which led us digging into this subject matter and discovering this article, When Political Unity Becomes the Goal, Our Democracy Suffers, by Robert B. Talisse. What Robert writes about reminds me how some people’s concerns and issues get swept aside within the swing dance community because they challenge the image of a unified happy place. Black Lives Matter, women self-reporting predators, swing schools not wanting to discuss their cultural appropriation - all topics that have been labeled politics so oftentimes organizers can avoid dealing with complex issues and a visible happiness/unity can be preserved. But under all the “Home of Happy Feet” talk lies turmoil.

A relevant excerpt from Robert’s article is:

“However, as I document in my forthcoming book ‘Sustaining Democracy,’ when groups adopt fidelity to group cohesion as necessary for authentic membership, they begin to splinter. As groups ‘circle the wagons,’ they become increasingly invested in maintaining the border between those within the circle and those outside. This often takes the form of policing their ranks for poseurs. The goal of partisan unity hence transforms into a demand for doctrinal conformity. Purity and loyalty to the group itself take center stage within the group. Consequently, those who deviate from the dominant conception of the group’s core are disciplined, stifled or expelled.”

There’s quite a bit of chatter these days within the swing community espousing this notion of unity but it appears quite performative and naive. Unity isn’t just showing up. Unity is about addressing deficits and critiques so that unity is a byproduct of the work put into address complex issues. As we once wrote to someone who asked - “how do we help Denver be better as a whole?”

“As to how we help Denver be better? My answer is by holding people accountable, demanding demonstrable proof of growth, respecting people's time and talents, making room for difficult conversations, and sometimes choosing better people and organizations to devote personal energy toward.“

Shim Sham on "1"

One of the examples we like to use when discussing cultural appropriation is this video from Kansas City featuring Frankie Manning leading the Shim Sham, a line dance created by Black dancers, Leonard Reed and Willie Bryant. Boulder Swing Dance has a good summation on the Shim Sham in a 2018 blog post as does Retro Rhythm.

Do you notice the dancers starting on the “1” instead of “8?” Quite a few dancers know and teach the Shim Sham on “8” as it’s done, others know the Shim Sham on “8” but teach it on the “1” while others only know it as starting on the “1” because of the aforemention teachers.

I, founder of Swingin’ Denver, was one of those instructors who taught the Shim Sham on the “1” because as my white French male boss stated “it’s easier.” I didn’t know better and instructors were there to entertain, enable people to have fun and make money for the owner. One of the things that cultural appropriation does is it removes connection from the dance to the culture, Black culture. It also can divide as you can see above.

Funny thing is as I was flashing back recently to all the ballroom dances I learned, there was at least one Latin dance where I had to know where the “8” was. It wasn’t so bad to learn and it made me wonder if American-born Black social dances are treated differently than African diasporic dances imported from abroad? That might take a deeper dive than I’m prepared for but I’m reminded of when a social dance school chose to teach Lindy Hop under the label “Jitterbug.” Once again, cultural appropriation applied to a Black American social dance. Why? Why engage in white narratives when engaging in a Black social dance form?

Lindy Hop Is Full Of Choices

Immediately after Lindy Bop happened, I reflected on a moment in class that contrasted strongly with my learning foundation. Vi Bright and I were teaching a nifty little move I learned from Nathan Bugh when learning the team choreography for Montreal Swing Riot 2016 that appears in the Day of the Races clip below.

via GIPHY

It’s that lead’s inside turn where the follow ends up going in front like a send out in this particular instance. During class, Vi chose to turn 540° during her path landing in front of me. This threw students for a loop! Leads were like - “I can’t generate the momentum to get my partner to do that rotation while taking care of myself” and follows were like - “I don’t feel that rotation to be able to mimic Vi” which started to lead to people maximizing their effort. And then we said this is a choice Vi is making and that the lead to generate such rotation would be too much and forceful in our opinions. Everyone after this knowledge drop seemed to take this deep sigh of relief and kept creating on the dance floor.

Back when I started taking group swing dance lessons in Overland Park, KS in 1997/1998 (it’s been awhile) I was told that:

1. I possess or will possess all the tools in my toolbox to lead the follow

2. If the follow didn’t do what I wanted/expected, it was my fault

While I value my experience there for many reasons, that #2 is a philosophy rooted in control, controlling another’s body for a predetermined result. On the other hand, we teach Lindy Hop and other Black social dances emerging during the swing era to be full of choices where partners are mutually assertive, constantly riffing with each other in dynamic interplay. This is lockstep with vernacular dance hallmarks such as call-and-response and improvisation. It’s freedom together and that’s what I’d encourage any swing school to offer.

We’re here to dance with one another and everyone is invited to bring their self, their body, their ideas into the dance and immediately make an impact on the dance floor and within the community.

How to Coach a Wedding Couple's First Dance

A wedding couple’s first dance is up there among a wedding’s top highlights so it’s important to set the couple up for success. Before we get started, please keep in mind this is one person’s opinion built on a foundation of teaching at a dance studio primarily focused on wedding dance lessons.

When we first receive an inquiry, we’ll first ask about their song choice and if it’s going to be danced to a recorded version or live. Either way, we’ll ask for a link to the best matched version and ask them what their vision is for their first dance.

Some folks want -

• all choreography

• enough skills to social dance their song while looking confident and having fun

• some choreography so, if they start feeling monotonous, they can include some set pieces

As a coach, I will likely ask the following:

• what’s the size and material of the dance floor?

• Where will your guests be situated - in front, all sides?

• Do you have any plans for walking out and would you want any help with that?

• Who’s playing the music (thinking about what the cue will be to hit PLAY). Does the music start as you enter, are in close embrace, something else?

• Can you bring your wedding footwear with you to practice? Same with maybe something that mimics the outfits so people feel confident moving in their wedding wear. (no wedding dress reveals!)

• Do you want anything special like dips, fancy moves you’ve seen on social media, a big finish, etc?

Learning all these things help make a great experience for everyone involved. It’s important to have them walk out with confidence, have an idea how and when to start, feel self-assured in the middle (great to practice for the song’s full-length as many reps as possible), have a great photo finish with a 3-second hold at the end, finished by an excellent exit.

In order to support these goals, I find that it’s important to be flexible.

• Need more time polishing up some basics? Great!

• Do we need to hit pause or switch things up to alleviate frustration, communication difficulties or a bad day at work? Let’s do it!

• Does an individual or the couple need to default to the rhythm basics they’re used to rather than the ones associated with the style you’re teaching? That’s okay!

• Should you teach them a fancy move they may not completely execute to your satisfaction but they really really want to do it? The answer is yes (unless there are safety concerns).

The work you do during the lessons can help achieve all of these things. Most importantly, strive to have fun during the lesson while creating a supportive, communicative environment. Good luck!

Everyone's a Dancer

Something Moncell Durden said during his first Stormy Weather Jazz Festival talk got us thinking about how we raise our kids and manage our dance classes. Due to a lack of notes during this section, we’re running off of memory but it basically came down to - treat kids like they’re people because they’re smarter than us just taking in all this readily available information until they’re ready to showcase their gleaned knowledge.

In contrast, I used to teach as if students, especially newer ones, were tabla rasa or blank slates. Our methods were based on conformity and only later in their dance journey (if they stuck around) would we talk to students about expressing themselves, musicality, individuality, being non-conforming. We’d also simplify movements sometimes to the students’ detriment that we’d fix later on (if they stuck around). We’d also avoid topics viewed as difficult because this space was “the home of happy feet.”

Instead, and we delved into this topic matter in our Jazz With A Beat class at Stormy Weather, we treat people as dancers, capable of movement as we’re all movers. So we remove the expectation that swingouts finish in a prescribed manner (360° rotation start to finish, followers exiting sideways/forward/back); that Lindy Hop equals triple steps, or that we hold each other’s bodies so. We become more focused on encouraging people to bring their selves into the dance and ask questions of the students such as “could you react well into the next pattern, did anything hurt, did you like your choices” while encouraging experimenting, being open to “failure,” and treating each partner as unique. While we’re using the Design To The Edges concept as teachers, we’re also encouraging dancers to design their dances to the edges rather than the mythological average.

We’re all different as individuals, we’re all the same because we’re movers.

Rhythms of Lindy Hop

Early into our Jazz With A Beat class at Stormy Weather Jazz Festival we asked students to work less hard and strip out their triple steps while dancing to Beware by Louis Jordan to which a student behind us said to their partner - "Let's do east coast swing." After we had danced to the complete song, we addressed the topic of cultural appropriation because it's important to discuss this topic and to confront other misconceptions about what rhythms Lindy Hop is comprised of (answer: it’s a lot!).

In the brief amount of time we gave ourselves, we named east coast swing in this context Cultural Appropriation while laying the foundation for this choice with Jacqui Malone's definition of vernacular dance being dance that makes African-American rhythms visible on the dance floor. While triple steps are important for capturing swing music's core rhythms on the dance floor, they aren't the sole rhythm to be employed alongside the vernacular dance and social hallmarks were aiming to employ as teachers and dancers. The possible rhythms are infinite though the most common rhythms seen across 2 beats or a half-measure would be:

• triple step

• step hold (such a fundamental bounce too)

• hold step

• step step

• hold ball change

Any swing school labeling patterns that are 6-count or containing Slow, Slow, Quick, Quick rhythms as East Coast Swing and/or Jitterbug is doing their students a disservice while engaging in Cultural Appropriation. Disservicing students and patrons comes in because we lose cultural context, stratification between community occurs and we're placing barriers of entry when exchanging rhythms during a dance or growing as a dancer.

It might also be worth directly quoting from Olly Wilson’s paper titled “The Heterogeneous Sound Ideal in African-American Music”:
”As such, the essence of their Africanness is not a static body of something which can be depleted but rather a conceptual approach, the manifestations of which are infinite. the common core of this Africanness consists of the way of doing something, not simply something that is done.”

as we reflect on the fact that a good portion of this class focused on individuality, bringing in the experiences that have shaped us, and setting aside notions of “this is the way this thing (swingout, a rhythm, a tuck turn) is done.