Swing dancing videos and lessons

Swing dancing has been popular for almost 100 years. Since its inception in the 1920s, the term Swing dance has been used to refer to a group of dances that evolved during the jazz era of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. One of the most popular Swing dances began in Harlem, called the Lindy Hop, and the majority of Swing dances began as African American dances, which then crossed over to all racial groups.

The Swing dance is generally an eight-count step consisting of two single steps followed by a triple step, and then repeated. This versatile dance style has the ability to incorporate a six-count pattern, as well. While Swing is danced with a low, loose-legged position, it allows for a low center of gravity for the dancers. One of the most attractive parts of the Swing dance style is the amount of room it allows for improvisation during the performance.

While Swing remained vastly popular in during the time period between the first and second World Wars, its popularity dipped in the 1950s until a revival in the 1980s. Again, in the 1990s, Swing observed a massive resurgence in both Swing music and dance.

During the 1990s, the Royal Crown Revue, Cherry Popping Daddies, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and the Brian Setzer Orchestra helped spark resurgence in Swing by popularizing it to the youth of America. In 1993, the movie “Swing Kids” help raise the profile of the dance once again. Even Super Bowl XXXIII in 1999 feature a half-time Swing performance with music played by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.

Today, several Swing dance clubs still exist for social dancers. In competitive Swing dancing, the styles are broken in “Ballroom Swing” and “Jazz Dance Swing”. In “Ballroom Swing”, a simpler six-count variation is utilized, while the structure and footwork use elementary moves and styling. It is generally danced to slow, medium, or fast tempo jazz, blues, or rock and roll music. The “Ballroom Swing” was specifically developed for the purposes of ballroom dance competitions. This variation is the most popular worldwide.

On the other hand, the “Jazz Dance Swing” variation evolved over time in the dancehalls. It is a very stylistic and slotted dance that is performed to a wide variety of musical genres, including rock and roll, country western, smooth and cool jazz, and the blues. It most often is characterized by the 8-count swing out of the partners, and emphasizes the improvisation of the dance. It began its evolution in the 1920s and is still vastly popular in the United States and Canada, while some small communities are developing in the rest of the world.