Carnegie-Mellon Lindy Hop Club

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Lindy Hop is one of the first forms of dancing done to swing music. It was developed in Harlem's Savoy Ballroom in the 1920's. Unlike East Coast Swing (a simpler variant developed decades later and commonly referred to as the "Jitterbug"), it is based on eight-count moves and stresses connection with your partner and interpretation of the music. The original style of Lindy Hop is known as "Savoy", which is the variant you'll most often see dancers doing in the Pittsburgh area and many other cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, and New York. Other areas of the country stress later variations, such as Hollywood style (Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.) or "Smooth" style (San Diego).

Lindy can be found in every major city in the U.S. and many other places all over the world.

Lindy Hop is more difficult to learn than East Coast Swing, but given a couple months of practice dancers are rewarded with a new level of enjoyment on the social dance floor.

Movies:

• Chad Kubo and partner at Lindy In The Park, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. MPEG format, 2.9 MB.
• Some very overdressed people dancing for reporters (from a three-year-old Smithsonian Magazine article). AVI format, 1.7 MB.