Austin Lindy Hop
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Austin Lindy Hop
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The Austin Lindy PhilosophyDancing is an integral part of enjoying music and physically celebrating life. The return of Lindy Hop and Swing Dancing in the 1990s stemmed from a cultural revolution in response to the growing pessimism and life-hating attitude that had taken root in popular culture. Instead of considering it vogue to be unhappy, it again was o.k. to enjoy life optimistically. The revival also stemmed from a desire to take a more active, participatory part in enjoying the music we hear at a club or party. Although the current Lindy Hop world has grown far beyond the Neo Swing revival, that zest for life and desire to optimistically enjoy each other's company and reject pessimism remains at the heart of what keeps us dancing long after the "Zoot Suit Riot" ended. Dancing is not the only aspect of enjoying life, but it is just as much a part of enjoying life as fine wine or spirits, good food, great friends, and great music. It is also an integral part of enjoying a healthy, physical life that takes advantage of the physical gifts that are bestowed upon us. Mission StatementWe teach how to dance with others so as to make it a social activity so that we can all enjoy music and each other's company. We offer Swing and Lindy Hop Instruction and Events in Austin aimed at maintaining, developing and improving the Lindy Hop scene in Austin. Hoping to further spread the gospel, we also provide performance groups and DJs for corporate events, weddings, or any other entertainment need, as well, primarily to entertain as well as to curry interest in the dance throughout Austin and Central Texas. Ultimately, we aim to bring Lindy Hop (and social dance, in general) back into the mainstream, not merely as some faddish retro dance, but as a modern dance that enhances ones enjoyment of music and is as much a part of American culture as Salsa dancing is a part of Latin culture. We teach Lindy Hop as a fun, pure social dance that virtually everyone can do, no matter what their background is. We emphasize that Lindy Hop is an improvisational, not a choreographed or pre-programmed, dance. We give our students the tools to dance with any partner who has a minimal amount of instruction, regardless of whether he or she knows the same "moves" as you do. (Indeed--and contrary to what most people might suspect--it is often the most fun when your partner does not know the moves you know.) As a social dance, the goal is to learn to dance with a partner improvisationally, not in pre-programmed patterns that get boring, but in improvisational ways that reflect your personality and the music to which you are dancing. To those who know the difference, we tend to lean toward "Savoy style" Lindy Hop, although we have definitely learned and incorporated a few useful things from our brothers and sisters on "the Dark Side." What is "Lindy Hop?"
The dance is difficult to describe in words, but the basic move has the leader leading the follow from an open position (standing apart, facing each other, holding hands with extended arms) into closed position (ladies arm on the man's shoulder, with the other hands held together) facing the opposite directions, and then "swinging her back out" to the spot where she started facing the directions they started, all in 8 counts of the music and all while the two partners generally remain facing each other. Lindy Hop is the dance you might recognize from the famous stop-image-in-mid-air, "Gap Swings" television commercial, the Harlem ballroom scene in the movie "Malcolm X," the dance scenes in the movie "Swing Kids," or the dance that was mostly featured in the hit Broadway musical "Swing!" Lindy Hop looks similar to all other forms of Swing dance—Jitterbug, East and West Coast Swing, Shag, Balboa—mostly because they all evolved from Lindy Hop. |
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Lindy Hop is a fun, improvisational, athletic, social (partner) dance
that stems from the most prevalent rhythm in American music: Swing rhythm,
be it in traditional Jazz or Blues, early to modern “alternative” Rock, or
even Hip Hop and Rap music. The origins date back to the dawn of Swing
music in the ballrooms and backrooms of Harlem in the 1920s and 30s. Due in large part to the Neo Swing revival of the 1990s,
Lindy Hop has
re-emerged and continued its development into a newly-evolved, modern social dance.
In contrast to the slow, stiff ballroom dances of the European tradition like
the Foxtrot or Waltz, Lindy Hop developed and is best understood as more of an American
Street Dance with its own unique, athletic style of movement and form, very much
like Salsa and Meringue are Latin Street Dances that eschewed the stiffness of
traditional Latin Ballroom dances like Mambo and Cha-Cha. There are
many different "styles" of Lindy Hop (Savoy, Dean Collins, L.A.,
Hollywood, Smooth, Ithaca, Chicago-style), but they are all essentially "Lindy
Hop."