You might have seen swing dancing in old films, videos or came across as a performance somewhere. All swing dance styles are jazz dances and ‘swing’ referred to the style of Jazz music called Swing music. At The Swing Era, people mainly danced Lindy Hop.
Lindy Hop is an African American dance, which originates from Harlem, New York City. It was danced first in the famous Savoy Ballroom by African American dancers in 1928 and was danced throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
It is said the name Lindy Hop was inspired by aviator Charles Lindbergh who ‘hopped’ the Atlantic ocean in 1927. Lindy Hop evolved from different dances, including jazz, tap, breakaway and 1920s Charleston. It used elements from African American dances and European partnered dance.
Did you know that everyone can dance Lindy Hop?
Lindy Hop originated in a time where there were many separations between black and white people in American society. The Savoy Ballroom was one of the few ballrooms open to people of any color. As one of the most famous Lindy Hop dancers, Frankie Manning put it at the Savoy, “Nobody cared what color you were—they were all looking at your feet!”
Today, Lindy Hop is danced across the globe by dancers young and old. The dance can be wild and spontaneous, with frenzied kicks and body movements, or it can be calm and sophisticated. It confirms the idea that every age group can dance Lindy Hop.
Event „Lindyhopas be ribų“ showed that it works in Lithuania, too! Our association „Active Youth“ invited everyone to meet near White Bridge Lawn and dance without boundaries – the dance event mainly consisted of seniors!
This Lindy Hop event is one of the parts of the „Active Youth“ project „Community Seniors Involved International“ in cooperation with „Inclusion for Healthy Generations“ and the public organization „Senjorų pasaulis“.
The project aims to reduce the social exclusion and gap between the generations to bring together people of all ages, nationalities, genders, physical form and abilities for them to gain useful knowledge about healthy lifestyle and have fun while engaging in physical activity.