The Dance is Called Lindy Hop

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Here's an excerpt from a conversation about urban dance that we can see reflected in current naming struggles within the Lindy Hop community. "Urban is problematic because it is not a racial term. It eliminates race. You're taking away the people from the dance."

You can likely draw a line from this statement to swing schools and instructors utilizing terms such as "jitterbug" or "east coast swing" to label classes teaching Lindy Hop with slow and quick rhythms. Whether their intentions are good or not, the more we get away from the origins, the more we erase Black ownership. And, while names change as things evolve, what people call "east coast swing" or "jitterbug" was a devolving or simplification of Lindy Hop.

Swingin' Denver has long since scrapped our own Jitterbug classes, but up until 2019, we had called the beginner swing dance classes we taught at outdoor events "beginner swing dance," jitterbug" or "east coast swing." We did not call it Lindy Hop.

Only after a lot of reading and listening during the pandemic did we make the switch which has been even more emphatic this year. My thoughts and feelings had finally firmly coalesced that we would confidently state we are teaching Lindy Hop with its vernacular dance hallmarks while teaching a particular rhythm (slows and quicks) danced to excellent swing music.

I'm happy to be in this spot since we are now more consistent with what we offer, believe and support. We could not celebrate Lindy Hop, a Black social dance, in one hand and erase the Black origins in the other.

We still have more growing and learning to do, but I wanted to share these thoughts with our audience. I hope other swing dance school will reach these conclusions soon.

Keyword Trends - Lindy Hop vs Swing Dance vs Jitterbug

My first prominent swing dance instructor once told me to teach Shim Sham in the group class starting on the “1” because it’s easier. That explanation made ready sense to me as a newer dance teacher. Most, if not all, dances taught at this ballroom studio with the only all-ages swing dance in metro Kansas City started on the “1.” It never occurred to me that, as a dance educator, I could make finding the “8” easier for students. It did mean the Shim Sham was a hot mess when Frankie Manning came to town and led everyone in it (note: As I anticipated this train wreck, I hit “play” on the song and just watched).

I feel the same entrenched reasoning might exist for vernacular dance instructors still billing classes as “jitterbug” or “east coast swing.” These are marketing terms popular back in the late 1990s and early 2000’s when neo-swing was on the rise and white dance instructors, like mine in KC, saw those words as a way to get new students to gravitate toward their classes and swing nights.

Even here we used “Jitterbug” as a way to label drop-in classes at the Arvada Tavern 6-7 years ago. Our thought process was akin to “if the Mercury Cafe, seen as the OG’s of the scene, is using it to sell classes, why not us?” Well…

Google Trends shows that people want to learn how to swing dance, specifically Lindy Hop. Even Instagram hashtag usage shows us what captivates people. Plus, as the below image shows, most people search “Jitterbug” for the cellular phone which debuted in 2006. Besides, maybe people just inherently know that a jitterbug just isn’t that cool unless you’re in specific regions like LA or Las Vegas where being a jitterbug is a badge of honor. Otherwise, “Jitterbug is primarily the white ghosting of a black dance,” a white thing and not as smooth as lindy (Frankie Manning in Margaret Batiuchok’s dissertation), uncouth, and an alcoholic drink giving you the jitters.

So, if you purport to teach swing dance within the vernacular scene (Vernacular refers to dance performed to the rhythms of African American music: dance that makes those rhythms visible - “Steppin’ on the Blues” by Jacqui Malone), then I’d highly encourage teachers to:

• Specifically name what you’re teaching whether that’s Lindy Hop, Balboa, Collegiate Shag, Vernacular Jazz, Charleston, etc

• Stop billing classes as Jitterbug or East Coast Swing. To borrow from Margaret Batiuchok’s dissertation once again - Jitterbug means different things to different people. Lindy means one thing. And East Coast Swing belongs to the ballroom dance community and was stripped of pretty much all vernacular values

• Make it easier for people to find Lindy Hop and other vernacular dances. By appropriating Lindy Hop and other Black dances, and renaming them to suit your needs, you’re making it harder for people to find Lindy Hop and discover the tenets of vernacular dance.

The main reason why I think people stumble over Lindy Hop’s varying pattern lengths and varying rhythms (triple steps, stomp offs, slows, quicks, etc) is because of dance instructors billing patterns using slows and quicks as east coast swing or jitterbug. This leads to a dissonance where dancers think these rhythms and some patterns live on islands separate from swingouts or triple steps, for example.

If you’re dancing with vernacular dance hallmarks and striving to impart these characteristics such as improvisation and spontaneity, propulsive rhythm, call-and-response patterns, self-expression, elegance, and control to your students while dancing to solid swing-era music, you ought to calling what you’re teaching Lindy Hop. Just do it.