My Experiences with Lindy Hop

Probably around 90% of the entries I post on this blog revolve directly around electro swing, the contemporary genre that recontextualises the music of the swing era. But as many fans of this music will be aware, this isn’t the only movement that aims to bring back this particular era in a new and exciting fashion. Running concurrent to electro swing, the past few decades has seen a resurgence in the popularity of the lindy hop – the style of swing dance that accompanied the original music. Throughout the late ’80s and early ’90s, revivalists built this scene up again from scratch, and despite both movements occurring simultaneously, the interaction between the two has been – surprisingly – somewhat limited. For those unfamiliar with the lindy hop style, the following video – from the 1941 film Hellzapoppin’ – demonstrates some of the greatest dancing ever recorded.

My own lindy hop journey began in 2014, as I was beginning my MA in Sheffield, when I joined the university’s Swing Dance Society. Quickly taking a strong liking to it, I ended up on the society’s performance group, and many of my nights out in Sheffield were at swing events. The city has a fair few of these, the best of which is The Big Swing, hosting events with live music every Wednesday. In fact, it was even at one of these events that I met Becca, my long-suffering partner.

For me, the link between electro swing and swing dance has always been quite evident, and I’m often surprised that the two scenes haven’t merged more. But it remains largely true that the audiences of both are quite distinct, and there isn’t a significant crossover. I have to give a big shout-out to Swingamajig here, who are one of the few events making serious efforts to create an overlap between the two, through their coinciding Stomp Stomp dance festival that they put on with Birmingham’s The Swing Era organisation. Admittedly, there are some fair reasons as to why lindy hoppers may initially be quite averse to electro swing (some of which are discussed on this blog) – and I discussed this idea with professional swing dancer Cat Foley of Liverpool’s Mersey Swing during my PhD research, who brought up the respective points that a lot of electro swing lacks a swung rhythm; that there are often different ideas around musical phrasing; that the tempos sometimes aren’t conducive to the dance style; and that the energy can often be too high. These are all certainly reasonable criticisms, but as we discussed, none of them are problems that cannot be overcome.

What seems to be the main underlying reason for the disparity however, is that there is something of a fundamental difference in the attitude of the two scenes. Where swing dancers largely see their practice as an act of restoration, electro swing practitioners generally view what they do as an updating of the original style. This has led to a situation in which the traditional lindy hoppers may be seen almost as a rival to the spirit of electro swing. Where lindy hop looks to the dance moves of the past, electro swing often prefers to look to other, more contemporary styles of dance, such as those featured in the above video by online dancer Forsythe. It’s led to a situation I’ve seen at various live events in which the more traditional swing dancers have been placed in a dance-off against various b-boys and b-girls representing the hip hop dance styles. A perfect example of this is found in the video for the Swinghoppers’ ‘Swing Hop’.

Whilst these sorts of battles are undoubtedly entertaining, they continue to maintain the status quo that presents swing dance and contemporary dance forms as two distinct, separate styles. What I’d really love to see would be a new movement that – as much electro swing has done with the music – combines the two dances in a way that stays faithful to both styles. This would of course be a challenge, but its not something that can’t be achieved; indeed – I’m already optimistic about certain performances that I’ve seen. The best example of this occurs at Montreal’s Swing Riot festival – again this features a dance-off between representatives of both scenes, but in this situation the two sides are actively encouraged to embrace each other’s styles. The results, as seen below, are truly impressive.

So I’ve got hope that these two fantastic scenes will continue to complement and reinforce each other. I’m certainly seeing this happening more and more often, and it’s not at all uncommon for an electro swing night to feature lindy hoppers, often advertising special deals and promotions for these dancers. Personally, I will continue to enjoy both scenes, and will give a special shout-out to The Swing Project, who are doing wonderful things for the dance scene in Cardiff. Both lindy hop and electro swing will benefit enormously from their association with one another, and the more that this is mutually recognised, the more that the scene will improve for everyone involved.