The year was 1927. American pilot Charles Lindberg, affectionately known as “Lucky Lindy”, had just made history by becoming the first to fly solo, non-stop, from New York to Paris. Newspapers ran the headlines: “Lindy jumped into the Atlantic.”

Rhythm and dance were as much a part of African-American culture at the time as language. Many of his dances were nameless, but developed through copying. No formal sequences were followed and the dances involved a lot of freedom of expression. Therefore, different styles were developed in different areas.

In Lindberg’s departure city for his epic journey, New York, African-Americans danced a spirited dance to popular 8-beat music at the renowned Savoy Ballroom. The dance was observed by a newspaper reporter who asked one of the Savoy’s officers, “what is that dance called?” With Lindberg’s newspaper headlines fresh in the respondent’s mind, he replied “Lindy Hop.”

And a new dance was created, the Lindy Hop.

Lindy Hop movements were a fusion of movements from other African-American dances such as Tap, Breakaway, and Charleston, and like the music evolving at the time, improvisation was an important element of the dance. The ability to adapt steps from other dances has made Lindy Hop popular. It is danced to almost all jazz music, as well as blues and other music with a similar rhythm.

On the other side of the continent, at about the same time, another dance was taking place in the crowded ballrooms of Southern California. The dance was the Balboa. Like the Lindy Hop, the Balboa is danced to 8-beat music, but is characterized by a close and strong partner connection. The leader and the follower dance with a firm chest-to-chest connection. Over time, the dance developed some more open movements and the dance with these movements became known as Bal-Swing. Although nowadays, the title of Balboa is generally given to these variations.

Back on the East Coast, another livelier dance developed from the Lindy Hop called the Jitterbug. The name was coined by an observer who liked the rapid, bouncing up and down of dancers, someone who had “jitters” as in rapid involuntary movements caused by excessive alcohol use and the disease called Delirium Tremens ( DT’s). “It looks like a bunch of jitterbugs on the floor,” said bandleader Cab Calloway.

A version of the African-American dances began to be taught in Anglo-American dance studios. This became known as the Jive. The Jive has now become one of only five international Latin dance competitions in ballroom dancing.

Jive is also often used as a generic term for this entire genre of dances. Another term used for the genre is Swing.

The genus includes: Lindy Hop, Balboa, Shag (with variations called Carolina Shag, Collegiate Shag, and St. Louis Shag), Jitterbug, Boogie-Woogie, Turkey Trot, Bunny Hug, Grizzly Bear, and Texas Tommy* (*not to be confused with the dance step of the same name).

More recent additions to the genre include Rock ‘n Roll, Modern Jive, Ceroc, and Le Roc.

The Turkey Trot and the Bunny Hug were popular during the first decade of the 20th century.

The Turkey Trot was danced to ragtime music such as Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag. The dance was denounced by the Vatican and immediately achieved great popularity. The church at the time thought the positions assumed by the dancers were suggestive.

The Bunny Hug developed along the West Coast in California dance halls. The dance was characterized by dancers moving, twisting, shaking, and even grinding their bodies to slow blues music.

Until the first decade of the 20th century, dances were generally danced in a closed dance position. Swing dance is characterized by breaking open positions. Many claim that the first Swing dance was the Texas Tommy. It originated in the Red Light District of San Francisco and was legitimized and popularized at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.

Today, there are two main subcategories in the Swing dance genre. They are the East Coast Swing and the West Coast Swing.

East Coast Swing has a simple structure and footwork, with basic movements and styles. It is popular due to its casual, indulgent nature. It is usually danced to slow, medium, or fast tempo jazz and blues, or slow tempo rock and roll.

West Coast Swing developed as a stylistic version of the Lindy Hop. Followers in West Coast Swing stay in one space, coming and going, and do not move from left to right. But, this also improves your ability to turn left or right. West Coast Swing can be danced to blues, jazz, and slow rock and roll. The West Coast of the USA is where a very strong film industry (Hollywood) was developed. It is thought that the grooved movements may have developed to make filming the dancers easier, with the dancers staying in the same focal plane (to stay in focus) and not facing away from the camera as much as they would in the East. Coast swing.

Also today, Swing is the term generally used for slower-paced 8-beat Jazz or Rock ‘n Roll music. In Australia, the terms “Rock ‘n Roll” and “Jive” are quite often used synonymously to label the faster-paced dance, danced to Rock ‘n Roll 4/4 music. Elsewhere, what Australians call “Rock ‘n Roll” is called Boogie-Woogie, with the term “rock ‘n Roll” being reserved for the more acrobatic style of dancing. The term “Lindy Hop” is not used much in Australia, but is used abroad.

The Jive in Balls ballroom dance competition is danced at a speed of 44 beats per minute, otherwise between 32 and 40 beats per minute.