Free Essay: The Effects of Lindy Hop and Other Black Vernacular Dances on American Jazz and Swing Composers

The music of black American jazz and swing composers are influenced by lindy hop and other black vernacular dances in different ways. The dancing styles adopted by jazz and swing dancers have their roots in lindy hops and other black vernacular dances. Lindy hop is the mother of all swing dances. It originated from the Charleston as swing music and was exercised by many people in the 1930s, and it subsequently gained popularity in ballrooms. This African American move is integral in reshaping modern aesthetics, particularly concerning dance. It is a couple's dance formed in the early 1900s, and it evolved from the Charleston dance and other dance forms. It is often referred to as the original swing dance because of its striking similarities with the Swing. It heavily relies on improvisation by its dancers, making it enjoyable and tactful on the dance floor. Just like jazz and swing dance, lindy hop is a sporty, athletic form of partner dancing. Rather than dancing with an elegant upright posture, lindy dancers maintain an active, athletic stance that keeps their legs in constant movement. Like in jazz dance and swing dance, lindy hop dancers can incorporate their styles into the dance. The dancing style is characterized by wild and spontaneous moves that are coupled with frenzied kicks and body movements or calm, smooth, and sophisticated movements. This paper seeks to illustrate the effects of lindy hop and other black vernacular dances on the music of black American jazz and swing composers by reviewing jazz, Swing, and lindy hop and how the latter influences jazz and swing dance.

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Literature Review

The connection between American Jazz and swing dance and lindy hop and other black vernacular dance can be achieved by reviewing the history and features of jazz and swing dance and comparing it with lindy hop to come up with the standard unique features between them. Jazz dance is a composition of a profusion of forms, and it has its roots in black American society and was popularized in ballrooms by the big bands during the era of Swing (Boross, 2014). It brought massive changes in the American and European stage and social dance in the 20th century. As observed by Boross (2014), the dance originated in the 19th century traditional black social and stage dances. The minstrel show performers created the dancing style from African rhythmic stomping, Irish jigging, and English clog dancing (McGee, 2019). Tap dance together with other social dances such as cakewalk and shuffle became prominent vaudeville acts and appeared severally in Broadway revues and musical comedies, which replaced vaudeville in the early 20th century. McGee (2019) noted that the transition in the dancing style was also marked by an increase in the application of comedy, specialty, and character dances to jazz rhythms, which became standard routines.

Jazz dance became more rampant in the 1940s, and its elements had appeared in the contemporary dance styles and motion picture choreography. According to Cohen (2014), the dances that birthed social forms of jazz dance originated from rural slaves' dances, as indicated in the observable continuity of the dance elements and motions. McGee (2019) noted that aspects of the African dances are more pronounced in the eagle rock, slow drag, Charleston, and the jitterbug, which are forms of jazz dance. These sentiments were also echoed by Guarino and Oliver (2014), who stated that the fish of the 1950s was developed from the slow drag, and the ring shout, which was shared between the 18th and 20th centuries gave rise to the cakewalk. During the 1900s, cake walk, which was common in stage shows, became a craze in the European and American ballrooms. The period was also marked by the emergence of other social dancers such as disco dancing, Charleston, twist, and the jitterbug, and their diffusion was aided by the growth of radio, television, and recording, which was very common in black music (Cohen, 2014).

Just like jazz dance, the Swing was also grossly influenced by lindy hop and other black vernacular dances. Swing dance is a lively dance style in which couples jump, Swing, and spin together. It merely means dance to shake or swing music. The connection of Swing to black vernacular dances is indicated in The Benny Goodman Story (1955), a Hollywood film aimed at whites who reminisces the Swing Era (Shipton & Wang, 2003). Swing music was an extension of the New Orleans-style jazz, which was single-handedly invented by Louis Armstrong. As observed by Usner (2001), before the invention of the one sass, bands in New York, Chicago, and the Southwest had begun to replace the traditional small group style of New Orleans jazz with more heterogeneous groups which were composed of roughly 15 musicians. The popularity of the big bands immensely diminished at the end of World War II. During that period, sass was created, which created a style of sic known as Swing, which gained popularity and became an integral part of the culture. The sentiments of Usner (2001) were reiterated by DeFrantz and Gottschild (2001), who stated that swing dancing was developed from sass. Just like in Lindy hop, swing dance was also characterized by a man and a woman demonstrating their spinning, reeling, and unwinding abilities while dancing to the swing era's music. Swing is also famous for the athletic airborne lifts and daring moves that it borrowed from lindy dance (Nilsson, 2020).

Based on Nilsson's (2020) description, swing dance was characterized by a man throwing his partner in the air and catching her at breakneck speed, and he would continue dancing. These descriptions were also observed by Boross in 2014 when he found that much of the jazz moves originated from the swing move, which is predominantly from the black culture. Slavery brought many Africans to America, and as they settled, they continued practicing their culture, which has immensely contributed to American music and dance styles. Much of America's modern music and dance have been grossly influenced by the African presence in the country (Fisher, 2013). The creation of rock and roll could not have happened the African American not created Jazz music via the mixture of African and European music traditions, which eventually led to the creation of blues and, lastly, rock and roll (Fisher, 2013). The same scenario can be used to explain different types of dances in America. As observed by Nilsson (2020), the Savoy Ballroom facilitated the formation of Swing or Lindy hop since it was one of the few early ballrooms in Harlem that never segregated the blacks and whites. Given that the two races could easily interact and dance together, they adopted each other's dancing culture, and in the 1930s, they came up with a new dancing style known as the Lindy Hop (Nilsson, 2020). The dance style was created as a result of the fusion of European ballroom and the African rhythm and became one of the first real American dance, and it expressed the contemporary American culture.

The effects of lindy hop and other black vernacular dances on the Swing can also be discussed by analyzing Swing itself. The swig dance was discovered in the 1920s by a black community while dancing to jazz music. The dance style was inspired by the revolution of jazz music that kept the audience dancing, and hence the music was known as the swing jazz. The dancing ultimately evolved to fit the music, and it was later in 1920s names as the swing dance. The dance was composed of styles such as the Lindy Hop, Lindy Charleston, Collegiate Shag, and Balboa (Robinson & Kernfeld, 2003). Among these styles, lindy hop is the most famous today. Most of these dances originated from the African American communities, but some of them, like the Balboa, came from other communities. Lindy Hop also referred to as the jitterbug, is the original form of swing dance. The dance style is characterized by numerous physical vigor, and tap on the dance shoes progressively evolved, and it was an exercise in the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem where various dance troupes were formed. The swing dance was trendy between 1930 and 1940, and it swept through the waves of the media during that period with Lindy Hop, Lindy, and Jitterbug being used commonly to describe street dancing and dance contest venues (Robinson & Kernfeld, 2003). It also became popular during that period, but it later evolved to suit the many musical genres such as Country and Disco, Rock and Roll, and Jazz. Ballroom dance studio teachers ultimately distilled it, and it was washed down to Lindy, Swing and Lindy Hop to minimize its complexities.

Discussion

The fusion of the black and white dancing culture led to the creation of Lindy Hop, which was a partner dance with a breakaway, which is a time-honored method of eliminating the European custom of dancing in couples and resuming solo dancing. Through breakaways, the lindy hop dancers were able to incorporate other dance steps in their general frame. One of the traditional African American dancing techniques that are evident in jazz and swing dance is the small but itching improvisation movement. The Swing also adopted the influences of the derision dance, and songs of illusion that characterized the satire of Cake Walk and the cutting of blues (McGee, 2019). Just like in the Jook, dancers of Swing and jazz often stood back in a circle to enable the perfect couple to take the center floor and show their moves. This would happen in succession as couples take turns on the dancing floor.

The rhythm that accompanies jazz and swing dance is a trademark of the African music which Africans danced to by moving their shoulders and hips to the beat and knees to another. The rhythmic complexity, coupled with the basic ground beat and counter beats, was borrowed by the subsequent dancing styles, such as ragtime and jazz (Gushee, 2003). The many rhythms that occurred at the same time in the African music and the technique of dancing to more than one beat at a time is also evident in the jazz and swing dance. Like in most black vernacular dances, jazz dancers even move their shoulders to one beat and hips to another.

The impact of lindy hop and black vernacular dances on American jazz and swing music is also visible in the dance styles adopted by jazz and swing composers, which were characterized by the movement of all body parts are trademarks of the lindy hop. The traditional black dances were also marked by angular bending of arms, legs, torso, and movement of shoulder and hip, scuffing, stamping, hop stepping, asymmetric body use, and fluid movement of all body parts (Shioya, 2018). An African dancer often bent slightly towards the earth and flattened their feet against it in a wide solid stance. This is very similar to the traditional jazz dance with an upright posture with arms lifted upward and feet raised onto the toes. The traditional African dance gave the dancers the freedom to create, and they could make a personal statement or provide a new interpretation to a familiar gesture. The traditional dances were performed by dancers who were either in a line or circle, and this played an integral role in the exchange of dance.

The impact of lindy hop on jazz can also be explained by the gradual white adoption of black dancing styles. There were numerous public dancehalls in the 19th century, but most of them were for the whites-only since racial segregation was rife. With time, they could give African Americans one day in a week to show their talent, but discrimination was still rampant.