Download Lindy Hop in Harlem: The Role of Social Dancing

Lindy Hop in Harlem: The Role of Social Dancing
During the 1920s, Harlem was filled with African Americans who migrated
from the rural south to the industrial north in search of a better life.
Instead, they found that housing and jobs were scarce. Landlords charged
high rents to people who earned low wages, and overcrowding was
rampant. Racial discrimination was a fact of life. Social dance played an
important role in Harlem life. For some, dance was a reprieve from the
harsh economic realities and the drudgery of earning a living doing
monotonous tasks. People often held "rent parties" filled with music and
dance, where guests were charged an entry fee that was used to pay the
monthly rent.
The Savoy Ballroom defined the essence of dance in Harlem. It was a place where race was irrelevant,
"...whether you were black, green, yellow, or what. If you walked in the Savoy, the only thing we wanted to
know is can you dance?" It was a place of elegant beauty, with a burnished maple dance floor, colored
spotlights, and crystal cut chandeliers. It was a place where round tables were packed with people, root-detoot root beer, and ginger ale sold for a nickel. The crescendo of the best big-band jazz in the world drove
dancers to their feet as the sounds of Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Fess Williams, King
Oliver, and Chick Webb filled the air. Saturday night dance contests at the Savoy featured such Lindy Hop
dance greats as Herbert "Whitey" White, Leroy "Stretch" Jones, Frank "Musclehead Manning, and "Shorty"
George Snowden.
The Lindy Hop, an authentic Afro-Euro-American Swing dance that drew on African and European dance
traditions, emerged as one of many popular dances during this time. It was influenced by the Charleston, jazz
and tap steps, ballet, and complex movements from the Vienese Waltz. Dance partners separated in a
breakaway move as they improvised, adding their own tempos, signature moves, and individualized acrobatics
to the six- and eight-count step sequences. As the Lindy Hop grew in popularity, it evolved into many forms,
such as West Coast Swing, Rock'n'Roll, Boogie Woogie, the Jitterbug, Jive, Bop, Shag, Balboa, and the
Imperial. Lindy Hop dancers created new steps as the music inspired them, much as jazz musicians improvise.
Some of the Lindy Hop steps are synchronized with the musical phrases, and other steps cross the rhythm of
the music in the same fashion as polyrhythms found in jazz.
The Lindy Hop, and social dance in general, formed bridges between different art forms. Dancers practiced the
Lindy Hop alongside bands booked at the Savoy Ballroom. Jazz great Duke Ellington wrote a song as a tribute
to Florence Mills, a dancer, jazz singer and actress. Louis Armstrong composed a piece for dancer Shorty
George, "King of the Savoy," who is often given credit for giving the Lindy Hop its name. Countee Cullen wrote
about the joy of dance in his poem "She of the Dancing Feet Sings." Painter William H. Johnson's work, Street
Life, was inspired by the stylish people he saw at the Savoy Ballroom. Jazz musicians and dancers are pictured
in Palmer Hayden's painting, Jeunesse. Margaret Brassler Kane's sculpture, Harlem Dancers, depicts
embracing dance partners. And so on.
Painter Aaron Douglas describes the Harlem Renaissance, highlighting the relationship between art and
culture. "...Our problem is to conceive, develop, establish an art era. Not white art painting black...let's bare
our arms and plunge them deep through laughter, through pain, through sorrow, through hope, through
disappointment, into the very depths of the souls of our people and drag forth material crude, rough,
neglected. Then let's sing it, dance it, write it, paint it." Social dance both reflected and was a reflection of the
culture of the Harlem Renaissance. It was a way for people to celebrate, to escape, and to express their
identity.
After viewing the Harlem Renaissance video and reading the article on the
role of social dancing, complete the Venn Diagram below as you compare the
role and function of the Lindy Hop and one particular type of dance in
contemporary Black America, such as breakdancing, hip hop, grind, etc.