Steven Mitchell and Virginie Jensen are easily two of the most talented, respected, innovative and influential dancers and teachers in the Lindy Hop community today. Indeed, you will be hard pressed to find a serious professional or competitive Lindy Hop dancer who hasn’t been influenced by this dance couple.

By the time Steven and Virginie had teamed up officially in 1999 as international dance instructors, they had already developed a deep store of dance skill and knowledge through their own individual dance studies. Steven Mitchell had studied Jazz, Ballet, Modern, Ballroom & Hip Hop in Los Angeles and New York, and along with one of his original swing dance partners, Erin Stevens, had studied extensively with legendary Lindy Hoppers Al Minns & Frankie Manning.

Virginie, who had studied Jazz, Classical Ballroom, Swing and Ballet extensively for 20 years, had been teaching and performing since age 16. A lesser known fact is that Virginie actually began swing dancing in the SF Bay Area, was an early attendee of Lindy in the Park, and taught with then local swing dance teacher Chad Kubo before she formed her partnership with Steven.

My first experiences with Steven & Virginie was in workshop classes at the Oakland Swing Dance Festival in 2002 and 2003. My main Lindy Hop teachers at the time, Paul Overton & Sharon Ashe, had been raving for weeks for us students to seize the opportunity to learn from Steven & Virginie. Naturally, I had to see what all the fuss was about, so I did.

I remember two classes with them. The earlier class with Virginie focused on personal body movement, and how to connect with and move across the dance floor. There were no 8-counts, or 6-counts, triple steps or lead and follow, just rows of dancers relearning to walk across a dance floor with grace, power and style. In her endearing  French accent, she explained how to move from one’s “heeps” (i.e. hips) and center, and how to propel oneself across the floor by pushing through every step. Students also benefited from her extensive classical, jazz and ballet training as she covered how to turn and spin in a balanced and graceful manner.

The second class I remember, taught by both Steven and Virginie, gave me a whole new perspective on the swingout. In a teaching approach that is uniquely theirs, they avoided complicated technical explanations and jargon, and instead presented their material in simple visual and auditory terms, whittling the swingout to it’s bare essence: drawing one’s partner in, embracing them, and then sending them away. They built the movement up in stages:

1.  just holding hands in open position, walking in place, one step on every beat (no triple steps!)
2. same as the previous – walking, single steps on each beat – but leaders draw their partner toward them for the first half (first 4 counts), embrace partner briefly (count 4,5), send partner back out the way they came in for the second half (last 4 counts). Essentially, an 8-count sugar push with no triple steps.
3. same as the previous, but leaders rotate slightly around counts 4-5, so that they send their follower out 180 degrees opposite the way they came in. Basically, a half-swingout.
4. same as the previous, but leaders revolve 360 degrees while embracing their partner around counts 4-5, still just single stepping on every beat. Basically, a swingout, without the triple steps.
5. same as the previous, but finally inserting triple steps on 3-and-4 and 7-and-8, making it a full, recognizable Lindy Hop swingout

Although I’ve deconstructed their lesson plan analytically, the real value in the lesson was the nuanced connection and the feeling of the swingout that they conveyed. Steven – who is incidentally a passionate singer and who is often be found singing onstage with the bands at world swing dance events – would vocalize what he and Virginie were feeling in the middle of those swingouts,and what they wanted you and your partner to experience yourself.  You could hear the power and gentle flow of their movements as they exclaimed “ooooh” and “ahhh” (tastefully, mind you), during the embrace of their swingouts, to express what was happening physically.

My overall point is that learning from Steven & Virginie is an experience in itself, and one that I highly recommend you try. Luckily, they are highly sought after instructors on the Lindy Hop and Blues dance teaching circuits, and you’ll find them as featured instructors at many national and international dance workshop and camps. Check them out at event such as Houston’s Southwest LindyFest (March),  Herrang Dance Camp (July), Swingout New Hampshire (Labor Day Weekend, August/September) and Denver’s Lindy Diversion (October), among others. Or catch them at their annual event in Rochester:

Also, another little know fact, is that Virginie still resides in the Bay Area, and comes out to swing dance every now and then at Cat’s Corner and the 9:20 Special. Nathan has been talking to Virginie about bringing her out of hiding, so that a whole new generation of Bay Area swing dancers can benefit from her unique experience and take on dancing. Be sure you’re signed up for the Swing or Nothing and/or Cat’s Corner newsletters to keep up-to-date as that develops!

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Welcome back to the final part of our 3 Part series on Jazz Dances that Every Lindy Hopper Should Know. Next up:

4. The Big Apple (difficulty: hard)

Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers performing their Big Apple Routine in the film 1939 Keep Punchin’:

In the context of swing dancing, the Big Apple most often refers to:

• an improvised, free-form, social group dance performed in a circle formation that originated among African American dancers in South Carolina during the 1930s
• a specific, routine version of this dance choreographed by Frankie Manning and performed by Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers which has become increasingly common dance vocabulary among modern Lindy Hop dancers

Original/Social Big Apple

The Big Apple Routine

Learning and Spreading the Big Apple

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Welcome back to Part 2 of our 3 Part series on Jazz Dances that Every Lindy Hopper Should Know. Next up:

3. The Tranky Doo (difficulty: medium)

Performance by Nathan & Audrey’s Sunset Lindy Hoppers:

The Tranky Doo is another 1940s jazz line dance that has staged a recent comeback among modern Lindy Hop dancers.  The dance likely originated in the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, and like the Shim Sham Shimmy, the Tranky Doo is danced in a line formation. The dance incorporates a wider variety of steps than the Shim Sham, as well as steps with more interesting and challenging rhythmic syncopation.

Most accounts cite either Pepsi Bethel or Frankie Manning as the choreographers of the dance, and in fact there are at least two common versions of the routine being taught these days. The most widely known version is based on a performance by Al Minns, Leon James & Pepsi Bethel that was recorded on film and is included in the 1986 dance documentary the Spirit Moves. I learned the second, lesser known version of the Tranky Doo from modern Lindy Hopper Manu Smith, who had in turn learned it directly from Frankie Manning. When teaching the routines these days, I make a point to distinguish the two versions calling the first the “classic” or “common”  Tranky Doo and referring to the second more specifically as “Frankie’s Tranky Doo.” Which one came first? The jury is out.

Classic Tranky Doo from the Spirit Moves:

Frankie’s Tranky Doo taught by Manu Smith & Ria Debiase:

The classic Tranky Doo and Frankie’s Tranky Doo both start out with a signature sequence of steps that includes Fall Off The Log, Shuffles, the Lowdown, Shoe-Shine & Boogie Forward, but the routines quickly diverge. Watching Frankie’s Tranky Doo, you’ll probably notice a motif of variations on the Fall Off the Log step, that is noticeably absent in the classic Tranky Doo.

I once had an opportunity to ask Frankie about the origins of the dance. His partner Judy Pritchett conveyed the question, “who choreographed the Tranky Doo?” and Frankie responded something like “oh yeah, I did that Tranky Doo.” In my mind there was still some ambiguity about whether Frankie was the original choreographer, especially since so many other sources credit Pepsi Bethel. This is purely my own speculation, but I could imagine the dance evolving collaboratively among a group of dancers with many variations and versions being developed, mixed and matched and propagated, but eventually dying out to history.

During the 1940s, dancers commonly performed the Tranky Doo to Erskine Hawkins tune Tuxedo Junction. These days modern Lindy Hoppers will often jump on the dance floor and perform the Tranky Doo to the song the Dipsy Doodle (with versions by Tommy Dorsey and Ella Fitzgerald especially popular). This is due to the fact that Tommy Dorsey’s Dipsy Doodle is dubbed over as the audio track in the Spirit Moves film clip; note that the original archive footage had no audio.

Next Month: Part 3 – the Big Apple Routine!

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Jazz steps and solo movement are an important part of the historic roots of Lindy Hop that are often overlooked among new dancers. Whether utilized to show off during an individual “shine” moment, or danced with a partner in a lead and follow manner, jazz steps are great for decorating and embellishing your dancing…like sprinkles on a cake.

There are many reasons to learn jazz steps and routines, including:

• you can dance them even if you don’t have partner at the moment
• practicing individual movements helps  improve your balance, coordination and quality of movement which help greatly when partner dancing too
• learning, experiencing and preserving the historic roots of the dance
• becoming familiar with common rhythms and syncopation of jazz and swing dancing
• it can be a good workout
• they’re fun!

Of the many jazz routines in the history of Lindy Hop, four stand out to me as essential knowledge for every serious Lindy Hopper. These are the Shim Sham, Jitterbug Stroll, Tranky Doo and Big Apple. This three part post explores some of the history and noteworthy aspects of these dances.

1. the Shim Sham Shimmy (easy)

The Shim Sham Shimmy (or just Shim Sham) was originally a tap dance. During the 1920s and 1930s, stage performers would often dance the Shim Sham together as a final dance routine of their show, with cast members performing to their ability: dancers would incorporate tap dance variations, while musicians and singers would shuffle along as well as they could.

In modern times, the Shim Sham has become sort of an Electric Slide of swing dancing…a relatively simple routine that many people know, which they can perform together as a communal sort of dance. Legendary dancers Frankie Manning, Norma Miller and dancers from the original swing era have played no small part in popularizing its performance at swing dance events and keeping this part of swing history alive.

The routine consists of 16 8-counts of material which conveniently fit many pieces of  jazz music written with a 32 bar swing chorus song structure. A common theme (and memory aid) in the routine is to dance 3 8-counts of a signature step followed by a “break step.” It was popularly danced to songs including Stompin’ at the Savoy (Benny Goodman) and  Tuxedo Junction (Erskine Hawkins). Frankie Manning helped create a tradition of dancing the Shim Sham to Jimmie Lunceford’s ‘T’aint What You Do (It’s the Way That You Do It), including his pantomime of a father instructing his son during the middle part of the song.

Of the 4 routines mentioned in this post series, the Shim Sham is definitely the most popular and commonly danced…and probably the one you should learn first.

2. the Jitterbug Stroll (easy)

The Jitterbug Stroll is actually a modern contribution to jazz dancing. Swing dance teacher Ryan Francois (Great Britain) choreographed the routine which was originally danced to the song Woodchopper’s Ball by Woody Herman. Lindy Hoppers also commonly dance the routine to “The Jitterbug Stroll”, a song recorded by swing dance teacher Steven Mitchell, in which  the lyrics call out the dance steps in order, making it extremely easy for new dancers to catch on. Because of the song, Steven Mitchell is sometimes mistakenly credited with choreographing the dance.

The Jitterbug Stroll consists of 24 8-counts of material divided into 4 groups of 6 8-counts. Its structure lends itself well to dancing to songs that have a 12-bar blues musical structure. For each of the 4 sections of the routine, a signature step is danced 3 times, followed by “pivoting around”, another repetition of the signature step, punctuated by a break step.

One of my favorite aspects of the Jitterbug Stroll choreography is that most of the signature steps in the dance are actually mashups of two separate jazz steps. The first step, for instance combines a chug motion with boogie forward. The second signature step of the routine combines knee slaps with the Shorty George step. The concept of taking two separate movements and combining them in a new  way is a great way to expand and indeed invent your own vocabulary of jazz steps.

In Part 2: the Tranky Doo

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Herrang Dance Camp

What is Herrang Dance Camp?

Herrang Dance Camp is an annual swing dance camp that takes place in the small mining village of Herrang, Sweden every July. Started in 1982 with 25 attendees (mostly Swedish) participating for a single week of classes and social dancing, the camp has since grown into the world’s largest and most comprehensive dance camp focused on the African-American swing and jazz dance traditions, especially Lindy Hop, Charleston, Jazz & Tap. These days, the camp serves thousands of international dancers travelling from across the world who gather for up to 5 weeks every July to participate in workshop classes with renowned dance champions, social dance, exchange dance and cultural ideas, spread the joy of Lindy Hop…and leave inspired!

Why should every Lindy Hopper go to Herrang Dance Camp at least once in their lifetime?

• the practically 24/7 total immersion in swing and Lindy Hop dancing will improve your dancing by leaps and bounds
• you’ll meet and make friends with dancers from all over the world, who share your passion for swing dancing and culture
• you’ll take classes with the best dancers in the world…champions and accomplished performance dancers who will relate and pass on the history of the dance as well as share their innovative dance ideas that push the boundaries of swing
• the sheer and collective creativity of those attending, coupled with Herrang’s northerly location where the sun sets for a mere 6 hours, leads to a magically surreal experience where it seems like time has stopped, boundaries fall away and just about anything can happen!
• the brownies at the dance camp’s Cafe. To Die For.
• Fun – mind and soul expanding Fun

What is a typical Herrang Dance Camp experience?

A week of classes at Herrang runs Sunday – Friday, and there are 5 weeks total. Saturday is check-in and check-out day. While some campers from neighboring European countries may have the luxury to stay the full 5 weeks, most visitors from other parts of the world, including the US, attend for one or two selected weeks. The initial weeks of class are geared toward beginner & intermediate dancers, and the class levels increase through the weeks of the camp. Certain class tracks such as Balboa, Tap, Jazz, Boogie Woogie or Competition and Show are offered only during specific weeks, whereas Lindy Hop is offered throughout the 5 week period.

The camp actually takes place at the Herrang Town Hall (Folkets Hus) and the neighboring school house building. The camp also erects a growing number of outdoor, tent-covered dance floor/classrooms to accommodate the increasing number of attendees.

Here’s a typcial week at Herrang:

Saturday: arrive, check-in, finish paying for your classes/registration if you haven’t already, audition if you are enrolling in classes that require one (such as intermediate/advanced or advanced), settle into your accommodations, attend camp meeting at Folkets Hus, social dance

Sunday – Friday: main camp with your assigned track classes from about 10am – 7pm, extra evening classes with volunteer instructors, camp meeting at 9pm, social dancing 10pm until the last person leaves, sometimes as late/early as 8am!

Theme Nights: certain evenings of social dancing have specific themes

Tuesdays – Slow Drag Night. Campers dress to impress and dance to slow and sultry vintage blues. The perfect chance to make a move on that cute guy or girl you’ve been eyeing in class.

Thursdays – Cabaret Night. All campers are invited to put on an act in the weekly cabaret, and prove their creative talents extend well beyond dancing. Magic, comedy, burlesque, and more!

Friday – Masquerade Ball. Volunteers work all day long to decorate and transform the Folkets Hus into a totally rad theme party venue. Past theme nights have included: Studio 54, Woodstock, Horror Night, the Olympics, etc. Campers bring or make costumes, and there are always zany contests and activities to go with the theme.

Other things not to be missed:

Camp Meetings – held each night in the Folkets Hus, make sure to arrive early to grab a seat. The meetings are a chance to share the daily news and happenings of the camp, as well as watch and discuss special selections of vintage dance clips. Traditionally, legendary dancers such as Frankie Manning, Norma Miller, Sugar Sullivan, Dawn Hampton and other have been on hand to share their special perspectives. Lennart Westerlund, one of the camp’s early founders, usually hosts the meeting with a comedic deadpan that makes the meeting feel like a sort of Swedish David Letterman show.

Evening Classes – camp attendees offer classes of their own for a variety of topics that extend beyond the traditional camp curriculum. For instance: hip hop, bhangra, belly dancing, modern dance, acrobatics, etc.

Cultural Activities Day – a chance to do something other than dance. Take a hike, a trip to the lakeside beach, fly in a vintage airplane, take a hot air balloon ride, and experience Herrang in a totally different way.

Housing and Accommodations

Basic weekly camp costs include budget accommodations, essentially a one person bunk (featuring IKEA bunk beds!) in the school house gym. Expect extremely close and communal quarters, large camper to bathroom ratio, and very little privacy. Earplugs and eye mask recommended. Another budget form of accommodation: bring a tent and camp outdoors (free!)

Private Accommodations: the local residents earn a little money on the side by renting out their homes while vacationing themselves. These accommodations are actually semi-private in that a single house will often be shared by multiple persons. Still, you’ll have better person to bathroom ratio, possible kitchen access, and a quieter living space. A trade-off may be that you’ll have to rent a bike to get yourself to and from classes and the Folkets Hus each day. Level of accommodations will obviously vary. A good way to book private accomodations is to coordinate with friends and book a house to yourselves.

Food & Beverage

Food is not included with the camp costs. For an additional fee, you can opt to join the meal plan which offers two meals a day, breakfast and dinner. Meal plan reviews vary, with many Scandinavians loving it, and foreigners often complaining. If nothing else, the cafeteria is a good place to hang out and make friends outside of dance class while commiserating about the food.

Folkets Hus “Blue Moon Cafe” – coffee, tea, cookies, brownies, ice cream and other treats for individual purchase

Folkets Hus “Bar Bedlam”- serves cooked meals for individual purchase that are, in my opinion, tasty and much better quality than the cafeteria meal plan

Ice Cream Parlor – offers ice cream, sandwiches and small snacks

Burger Kiosk – Swedish style burger stand….mmm, burger

Kuggen Grocery Store – there is a small grocery store a short walk from the Folkets Hus where you can buy supplies to prepare a meal in your kitchen if your’e staying in private accommodations, or in the camp’s single community kitchen…if you find time to squeeze yourself in. If you have time, you can also take a bus ride into neighboring Hallstavik which has a more comprehensive supermarket.

Marina Bar & Pizza Parlor – a little further away from the camp is a marina on the lake, and a restaurant that serves drinks as well as European style thin-crust pizzas and a few other dishes

Last Notes, Tips and Advice

• Be prepared for mosquitos and purchase your insect repellent in Sweden. Apparently the US brand repellents don’t work on those foreign buggers.
• Maximize your trip to Herrang by sandwiching it between a trip to other parts of Europe.
• Plan to spend a day or two in Stockholm on your way in and out…the city is beautiful, especially during July.
• If it’s your first time, coordinate to travel with a group of friends from your local dance scene…instant support group for your adventure.
• Followers: unfortunately, Herrang does have a reputation for being follower heavy, so you’ll have to be assertive about asking for dances. Tip: do your best to make some leader dance friends during your afternoon classes…so that you have go-to people for the evening social dances.
• The social dance floors are often super crowded from 9pm-2am. My best dancing happened when I went home after the camp meeting and slept from 9-2am, then woke up to social dance from 2am-6am when there was plenty of dance space, and some of my favorite partners were out. The downside: make sure you wake up in time…or miss a whole night of dancing!
• Register for two weeks instead of one…that way if you get sick during one of the weeks, you have a chance to enjoy the other week in a recovered state.
• Be outgoing and push yourself to make friends from other countries. It’s extremely easy to just hang out with your English speaking friends from your local scene or country, but the rewards of stepping out of your comfort zone are countless.

Okay, that’s it. Hope to see you in Herrang this year!

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Norma Miller, nicknamed the “Queen of Swing,” is one of the few remaining original Lindy Hoppers who danced in the Savoy Ballroom and NYC in the 1930s and 40s. Vivacious and spunky as ever, she currently tours the world, spreading the joy and history of Lindy Hop to new generations of swing dancers and interested audiences. Bay Area swing dancers will have a special opportunity to meet this legendary dancer and hear her stories at the end of February 2012 at the Swingin’ at the Savoy Workshop, conveniently coinciding with Black History month. This month’s Lindy 101 article provides a brief biography of Ms. Miller’s extraordinary life and experience in show business.

Born in 1919, Norma Miller’s first exposure to dancing was at her mother’s rent parties and weekend dance lessons in the Harlem district of New York. At the young age of 12, she was discovered dancing on the sidewalks outside the Savoy Ballroom by Twistmouth George. Too young to actually enter the ballroom, she had been soaking up dance steps from dancers who were coming and going, and she became expert in the Black Bottom, the Shimmy, Picking Cherries & the Shim Sham. Three years later, Herbert White invited her to join his one his elite dance group Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers as its youngest member.

Whitey had several teams of dancers, and Norma was a part of the group fortunate to travel and perform in the movies in Los Angeles. She appeared in two of the most famous recorded works by Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, the Marx Brother’s films, A Day at the Races (1937) and Hellzapoppin’ (1941). A contemporary and lifelong friend of Frankie Manning, she danced with him in Spike Lee’s Malcolm X as well as in Debbie Allen’s TV Film Stompin at the Savoy.

After Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers disbanded in the early 1940s, Norma Miller continued to make her mark on stage and screen. During the rest of the 1940s she ran Norma Miller’s Dance Company which performed at Club Alabam in L.A. During the 1950s, she performed with Billy Ricker & Michael Silver as the del Rio Trio. In the late 1950s she formed and performed with the group Norma Miller & Her Jazz Men, whose ranks included Frankie Manning’s son Chazz Young.

Norma eventually made the leap into other forms of entertainment. She performed at Red Foxx’s comedy club in the 1960s, and joined him on his 70s television show Sanford and Son. She also performed on film and television with the likes of Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby and Ella Fitzgerald.

After the passing of Al Minns in 1985 and Frankie Manning in 2009, Miller is the last member of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers remaining alive to teach, lecture and share her link to the history of swing dancing. Contrasting Frankie’s often soft spoken nature, Ms. Miller is an extremely outspoken individual and most often the life of the party. You can get a taste of her humor and spirit in this video  clip of a talk she gave in 2010 at the Cat’s Corner Swing Dance Party in San Francisco:

She has written and co-authored several books, including Swing Baby Swing which chronicles the evolution of swing dancing into the 21st century, as well as “Swingin’ at the Savoy: A Memoir of a Jazz Dancer.” Her life is featured in the documentary “Queen of Swing.”

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The original Banana Girl?

Josephine Baker had a style all to her own.  Her unique aesthetic and bold choreography are still studied today as paradigms of 20s and 30s vernacular jazz movements.  Not only is she an important figure in the Swing world, but her political significance trumps many of her contemporaries. She was the first African American female to star in motion pictures and to perform at a racially integrated American Concert Hall. She aided the French resistance in WWII which won her the prestigious military award of the Croix de Guerre and she is especially noted for her contributions to the American Civil Rights movement in the 1970s.

Political clout aside, her moves were a tour de force all by themselves. Here is some essential knowledge that every swing dancer should know about Josephine Baker:

1. Signature Moves- Frenzied Charleston, leggy Knee Rocks, Camel Walk variations, etc.

Originally hailing from Missouri, this “Creole Goddess” (as the French called her) exploded onto Parisian stages in 1927. Not soon after this, she started her movie career and shot right up to became the highest paid female performer in Europe and assumed the appellation of the Most Photographed Woman in the World.  This clip is from La Revue Des Revues. See if you can pick out the signature moves mentioned above!

2. Baker’s Banana Dance is probably one of the most famous dances during that era.

Whether it’s the bananas or the way she moves with them, this dance has gone down in history and is something every dancer should know about. (Little Fact:  This performance is also noted in academia as one of the main embodiment of a euro-centric fascination for the “Exotic Other.” Hmmm…)

3. Singer and Parisian Night Club Owner”J’ai deux amours” was her biggest hit.

She also went on to own of the top jazz clubs in Paris called Chez Josephine where many of the elite nightlife went to dance and sing.

4. Exotic Clothing Style

Baker was known for her “barely there” clothing, her pet cheetah on a leash (which would consistently run into the orchestra pit, and skirts made out of feathers or bananas (of course!).

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“Shorty” George Snowden  ranks among the most famous of the original Lindy Hop dancers at the Savoy Ballroom and had a huge impact on the dance as it developed. Here are some of the noteworthy facts that every Lindy Hopper should know about Shorty George:

1) Shorty George was one of the top dancers at the Savoy Ballroom in the late 1920s through early 1930s.

He was the reigning dance champion at Savoy, until up-and-comer Frankie Manning and Frieda Washington unseated him in a dance contest in 1935 in which they introduced the first airstep to Lindy Hop.

2) He was short, barely reaching 5 feet tall, but used his small stature to great comedic effect while dancing.

His signature dance step the Shorty George, appropriately named after him, involved Shorty walking forward while tucking one knee behind the other and pointing his fingers downward, which accentuated his proximity to the floor. Indeed, the Shorty George makes an appearance in all four of the major group jazz dances of the era: the Shim Sham, Jitterbug Stroll, Big Apple and Tranky Doo.

Shorty George also put his height to use while dancing with his partner, Big Bea, who towered over him. For certain underarm turns, Shorty would literally jump so that his arms would clear Big Bea’s head! One of the duo’s classic ways to end a song was with Big Bea picking Shorty George up on her back and carrying him off!

3) He formed and led the first professional Lindy Hop dance troupe, the Shorty Snowden Dancers.

The group danced at the Paradise Club in downtown New York City throughout most of the 1930s, performing along with Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra. According to Frankie Manning, there were three teams of dancers: Madeline and Freddie Lewis, Little Bea and Leroy “Stretch” Jones, and Big Bea and Shorty Snowden. Unlike later ensemble Lindy Hop performances captured on film, such as those by Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, the Shorty Snowden dancers performed as individual couples, as if dancing in a contest or challenge dance. You can see this clearly in the clip of the Shorty Snowden dancers in the film After Seben.

4) He is credited with coining the name Lindy Hop for the new swing dance that was emerging in New York City in the late 1920s and early 30s.

According to legend, during a 1928 dance marathon in New York City, a reporter saw Shorty George break away from his partner and improvise a step in the current of the style of the Harlem dancers and asked Shorty to name the step. With newspaper headlines of Charles Lindbergh’s historic transatlantic flight (or “Hop”) at the top of people’s minds, Shorty paused a second and then responded that he was “doin’ the Hop…the Lindy Hop!”

Although some dance historians question the legend, Frankie Manning vouched for the story’s authenticity, and the following newspaper clipping seems to support the claim:

Regardless, it makes a great story!

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The Texas Tommy is hands-down (or, perhaps more accurately, hands-behind-the-back) an essential piece of Lindy Hop dance vocabulary. Among its many variations in Lindy Hop, one of its most common forms on the social dance floor is an 8-count pattern that looks like this:

Breaking it down, it’s really little more than a swingout with follower’s outside turn that has been spruced up with a slightly challenging and impressive looking hand change behind the back. Most Lindy Hoppers are familiar with some variation of this fun and flashy move – if only because a poorly executed Texas Tommy tends to awkwardly wrench a follower’s arm behind them, perhaps making a lasting impression.

What  many swing dancers do not know is that before it was co-opted into Lindy Hop, the Texas Tommy was actually a whole dance craze unto itself which included a variety of distinguishing steps and movements in addition to the signature behind-the-back hand change. Also…the Texas Tommy originated right here in San Francisco!

The dance took root in the Barbary Coast section of San Francisco, which following the 1906 earthquake had shed some of its red-light district character and had become more of a popular tourist attraction. By 1910, the Texas Tommy Swing was a hit dance at Purcell’s, a black cabaret. The Fairmont Hotel, which was a major place for dancing at the time, had a house band that often played the titular song Texas Tommy Swing, and help to popularize and legitimize the dance from its street dance origins. Although it’s unknown who to credit with creating the dance, Johnny Peters and Ethel Williams were two top Texas Tommy dancers who took the dance from the Barbary Coast to New York where they incorporated it into their Broadway show Darktown Follies in 1913.

Vintage dance historian Richard Powers helped categorize some of the fundamental movements in the Texas Tommy Swing (although we’re using our own step names here):

Texas Tommy Basic: described by Ethel Williams as “a kick and a hop three times on each foot followed by a slide”, it was possible to dance this in an open position and to improvise a variety of turns and pretzel like figures

Sideways Travelling Step: stepping down with one foot, while flicking the other sideways and travelling across the floor in the direction of the flicking foot

Downward Step/Breaks: basically the same movement as the Sideways Travelling Step, with two repetitions of the movement on each foot then switching to the other side, and done mostly on the spot

Pivots & Breakaway: commonly seen danced in an almost bear-hug position, these might be done in the line of dance and lead into the breakaway and signature hand-change-behind-the-back

Here is one of the best known vintage clips of the Texas Tommy:

See if you can notice:

1. Pivots and Breakaways: [0:57-1:05], [1:12-1:19], [1:25-1:32]
2. Texas Tommy Basic: [1:05-1:12], [1:19-1:25]

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The Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York City was a popular dance venue in the 1920s through 1950s and played a pivotal role in the development of swing dancing and music. Simply put, it’s where Lindy Hop became famous. Located between 140th and 141st Streets on Lenox Avenue, the two story building housed an enormous ballroom on its 2nd floor that spanned an entire city block.

Billed as the “World’s Finest Ballroom”, it sported luxuriously carpeted lounges and mirrored walls, and employed bouncers in tuxedos as well as dance hostesses who would teach you the latest dance steps for a dime. The downstairs checkrooms could efficiently service as many as 5000 patrons on a night (the ballroom welcomed about 700,000 guests annually). The ballroom had nicknames around town. Downtown crowds named it “the Home of Happy Feet”, while uptown crowds called it “the Track” for it’s elongated shape.

Upon walking through the entrance to the building at the middle of Lenox Avenue, guests would ascend the central staircase  to the dance floor. There were two bandstands along the eastern wall, and with two bands playing back-to-back, the music was continuous all night long with one band picking up where the previous one left off without missing a beat. Remember there were no deejays or loudspeakers in this era!

Unlike other dance venues of the time, the Savoy Ballroom was one of the earliest to be racially integrated…with blacks and whites dancing together regularly. Legendary dancer Frankie Manning often told a story about a famous white movie star (I believe it was Charlton Heston) appearing at the Savoy one night. As the rumor/murmur propagated across the crowd, the only thing anyone really wanted to know was “Can he dance?!?”

One minor form of “segregation” did exist though…the best dancers in the house would congregate in the northeastern corner near the bandstand where these swing virtuosos would put their skills on display. Although this spot of the floor did not have a name at the time, it was later called the “Cat’s Corner” after the talented “cats” who danced there. Frankie once recounted that he had to work his way up to dancing at the Savoy, due to the level of dancing there; he started out dancing at some of the easier ballrooms such as the Alhambra and Roseland.

In terms of music, the Savoy hosted several house bands including those of Fess Williams, Chick Webb, Erskine Hawkins and Al Cooper. Two famous music events were the “Battle of the Bands” or “cutting contests”, one in 1937 between the bands of Chick Webb and Benny Goodman, and another in 1938 between Chick Webb and Count Basie’s Orchestra. Chick Webb’s band won both contests, although some who attended disputed the 1938 result.

In addition to being a popular home for social dancers, the Savoy Ballroom was also the home of several Lindy Hop dance teams, including those formed by bouncer and stage-manager Herbert “Whitey” White, an ex-boxer. Young up-and-coming dancers like Frankie Manning, Al Minns, Pepsi Bethel, Leon James and Norma Miller were allowed free daytime access to the ballroom floor, oftentimes while the bands were rehearsing. In more ways than one, the music and dance grew up together. Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers went on to perform across America as well as in several Hollywood films.

The Savoy Ballroom opened its doors on March 12, 1926, and closed them on July 10, 1958 making way for a new housing complex. Some historians theorize that the development of hi-fi recording and playback technology such as records, radios, televisions and jukeboxes reduced the need for large public dance spaces.

On May 26, 2002, a plaque commemorating the historic ballroom was unveiled by remaining Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers Frankie Manning and Norma Miller at the spot where the entrance once stood.

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