ABOUT THE LINDY HOP

The Lindy Hop

The Lindy Hop is the original swing dance, and jazz dance its parentage. The jazz dances which helped comprise the Lindy Hop are important to the dance and culture. It is a Black American social dance originating in the ballrooms of Harlem in the late 1920’s. Lindy Hop grew out of earlier African American vernacular dances but quickly gained its own fame through places like the Savoy Ballroom, dancers in films, performances, competitions, and the professional dance troupe - Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers. Lindy Hop became especially popular in the 1930s with “air steps” (explosive parts of the dance continued through the air in concert with the music), which were invented by the great Lindy Hoppers at the Savoy Ballroom, like Frankie Manning and many other professional dancers there.

The popularity of the Lindy Hop waned after World War II, but Black American social dance continued to reflect and celebrate the experiences of everyday life. Popular music and dance in the Black community were, and still are, inseparable. Contrary to popularised myth, the Lindy Hop didn’t disappear during the decades that followed the closing of the Savoy Ballroom in 1956, but it was mostly danced competitively in New York. Elsewhere in the US, Lindy Hop was being reshaped into dances like Hand dancing, Two-Step and other regional dances. In the 1980’s there was a resurgence of interest in Lindy Hop, and the dance and knowledge were vigorously sought after by people of mostly European and Asian background. Because of this, representation was greatly skewed.

Today the Lindy Hop continues to grow in popularity all over the world, and most importantly, it is being reclaimed by its originating community - Black Americans and people of African diasporic descent.

black lindy hop matters

We recommend the work of LaTasha Barnes, historian, choreographer, performer, activist, and tradition bearer. We also support and recommend the Jazz Continuum, a project rooting Black dance in the past, celebrating it in the present, and dancing it into the future.

Learn more

To learn more about the Black dances and dancers of lindy hop past and present, follow the Black Lindy Hoppers Fund, and Collective Voices for Change.

To learn more about Black American history, visit the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.