The History of Lindy Hop

Lindy Back Then

Lindy Hop, named after Charles Lindberg's hop over the Atlantic, is an important part of American History, and is connected to important historical landmarks such as segregation, Jim Crow, Prohibition, the Great Depression, and World War II. Because it is danced to jazz music, it has an emphasis in self expression and improvisation. Lindy Hop and the music it's danced to began as a uniquely American art form, and has spread all across the world.

It is so wonderful to be a part of the dance and to learn about how profoundly historically significant and origional its history is. There is a lot of literature about the history of Lindy hop. Here are a few places to find out more.

Archives of Early Lindy Hop
The Lindy Circle
Frankie Manning
Street Swing

Lindy Now

After almost complete exctinction due to the emergence of Bop music over dance jazz, Lindy Hop has been revived by a series of happy cooincidences. In the early 1980s, seemingly all at once, dancers from the United States, Sweden and the UK discovered A Day at the Races - a vintage clip of lindy hop - and saught out some of the origional dancers, seeking to learn.

They found Al Minns and Frankie Manning, and discovered that there was so much more than the fancy fast tempos and air steps that they had found in the movies. They discovered the joy of simply social dancing - lead and follow with a partner.

After this small group of people had learned the foundations of lindy hop, the 1998 GAP Khaki commercial, Swing Kids and Swingers came out, and swing dancing was all the rage. It was the cool thing to do, and the people who were interested in the dance now had someone to learn from. Lindy hop spread further throughout the world and through popular America.