Swing and Lindy Hop Dance and Music

We offer swing and lindy hop dance classes at West Roxbury School of Dance: see our current schedule under Classes for Everyone!

Early Swing or Lindy Hop Dance History and Styles

Texas Tommy

The first mention of Swing or lindy hop dancing was in the San Francisco Tribune in 1911 to describe dancers performing the Texas Tommy in the Fairmout Hotel. The Texas Tommy involved partners breaking away from each other (instead of dancing in a closed position holding each other) and in which the leader "swung out" his follower, adding many forms of free improvisation and acrobatic movement. The term "acrobatic" was used repeatedly to describe this dance. Texas Tommy was the basis for Lindy Hop. When the original Texas Tommy dancers were asked to describe their dance they said it was "exactly like the Lindy Hop, just the first couple of steps were different." They continued to say that the "Lindy basic was like the Texas Tommy basic." Through time, Texas Tommy, through its open framework (meaning its allowing integration of improvisation and free movement) had evolved into the Breakaway, and absorbed along the way a host of other partner dances - namely the animal dances such as the Grizzly Bear, Bunny Hop, Eagle Rock and Turkey Trot.

• Shim Sham Shimmy was a popular dance of the 1920s and 30s.
  This is the only known early dance other than Texas Tommy. The move "Apache Spin" or "Texas Tommy Spin" came from this dance, and it is easy to visualize how it would fit within the theme of the dance.
• Charleston is a classic 8-count dance that predates Lindy Hop and is often incorporated into Lindy dances. The Charleston originally developed in African American communities in the 1920s, though it reached wider audiences through stage performances. It was danced alone or with partners, and is often identified today as belonging either to the 1920s style or to 1930s and 'swinging' or "Lindy Hop" styles.
• Breakaway developed from Charleston in the late 1920s and is often associated with dancers such as George Snowden. Dancers 'breaking away' from each other into open is often seen both as a development of dances such as the Texas Tommy, but also as an important developmental step in the history of Lindy Hop. It is popular with dancers with an interest in the history of Lindy Hop.

  Learn more Swing Dance History

When joining our swing, lindy hop, and other dance classes, note that our OUT to Dance studio locations, West Roxbury and Roslindale, are within twenty minutes of downtown Boston, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park, Brighton, Allston, Brookline, Newton, Chestnut Hill, Dedham, Norwood, Needham, Westwood, Milton and Quincy; and within 25 to 35 minutes of Cambridge, Somerville, Arlington, Wellesley, Natick, Waltham, Braintree, Brockton, Stoughton, Canton, Foxboro, Weymouth and surrounding towns.

Swing and Lindy Dance 1

For info on the next session of Swing and Lindy Dance Classes at
West Roxbury School of Dance, see our current and upcoming schedules by clicking here on "Group Dance Classes."

You´ll love learning swing (also known as lindy and the jitterbug), the liveliest and most popular partner dance happening. If you love rock and roll, blues, big band, hip hop or country, swing dancing has it all and more; blow your friends away at your next party! Learn it now and you'll do it forever.

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