Lindy Hop dancing videos and lessons

The Lindy Hop, also known as the “Lindy”, is a couple’s dance that was popular in the 1920s and 1930s in Harlem, NY. The dance contains both 8-count and 6-count steps and utilizes moves from both Tap and the Charleston. The dancing can be wild and spontaneous, with frenzied kicks and body movements, or it can be very smooth, cool, and sophisticated.

The Lindy Hop is a melding of the African-American rhythm with the European style of structured dancing. The Savoy Ballroom in New York City launched the dance’s popularity back in 1927.
George “Shorty” Snowden named the dance after performing it in a dance competition. A reporter asked him what the dance he did was called, and he answered: “Lindy Hop”. He later said he thought of the name on the spot, since Charles Lindberg had just finished his “hop” across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris in his airplane.

The Lindy Hop has become almost synonymous with Swing, although technically Swing is the music to which the Lindy Hop is performed while the Lindy Hop is the actual dance. The “Lindy” has gone on to inspire numerous other dances including: Jitterbug, Hollywood Style, West Coast Style, East Coast Style, Balboa, Shag, and Boogie Woogie.

The Lindy Hop has made reappearance in movies and TV including: Gap advertisements, “The Mask”, “A League of Their Own”, and “Swingers”.