More History about Lindy Hop and the Charleston Dance

Like many dance forms and, indeed, musical forms, the Lindy Hop dance is a hybrid created from two previous styles, with a few original moves added to polish it and make it unique. Swing dances appeared in the year before World War I began, and later cross-fertilized with the Charleston, leading to the dance form we know in the modern world. Today, you can learn the Lindy Hop and the Charleston dance from Perth dance schools like Swing Zing Dance School, but knowing something of Lindy Hop history helps you appreciate the dance even more and increases your pleasure in the activity.

The swing dance was fully developed by the end of the First World War, and was known as the Breakaway. This dance form was a partner dance, and was itself a blend of at least half a dozen different dances from the previous years. In it, the couple would dance in close contact, then “break away” from each other to dance solo, but still holding hands, before closing again and continuing the dance together. This alternation of open and closed dancing positions was the defining feature of early swing dancing.

The Charleston may actually have originated as a French dance, the Branle, first created at the end of the medieval period in the late 15th century. It later became mixed with African-American dance steps somewhere in the vicinity of Charleston, South Carolina, and exploded into sudden popularity during the 1920s. The huge popularity of the dance caused it to spread across the globe, brought both by dancers themselves and by early telecommunications.

Eventually, the Breakaway merged with the Charleston (though the Charleston dance remained separate) to make a new form that we know today as the Lindy Hop. This dance was named by a famous dancer, “Shorty George” Snowden, in honor of one of his personal heroes, the aviator Charles Lindburgh. The long and varied story of Lindy Hop history continues today – and you can help to shape its future by joining the dance classes at Swing Zing Dance School in Perth.