Viewing page 15 of 19

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Transcription: [00:34:51]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Now how many people out here know how to do the Lindy hop?

[00:34:59]
{SILENCE}

[00:34:55]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Uh Oh Uh Oh.

[00:35:00]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
How many people out here know anything about the dance the Lindy hop? One Two Three Four. Hmm.

[00:35:07]
{SILENCE}

[00:35:10]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
The Lindy hop was a couple dance that evolved in the, I guess at about 1929, named originally after Charles Lindberg's hop across the Atlantic.

[00:35:21]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
That's Right

[00:35:21]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
The unique thing about the Lindy hop was that it involved a break away move, where you let go of your partner, or at least you moved at first you moved away from your partner. You originally still held her and you split apart and did moves where you weren't close to each other and ultimately it evolved to the point where you allowed your partner to leave you entirely, really the first couple dance where the partners were separated they were not touching.

[00:35:46]
Now what happened in the Savoy ballroom was that the Lindy hoppers did a little more with the dance than usual. Exactly, uh what did the Savoy Lindy hoppers bring to the dance that made it a little bit different from what you found in the streets and in other ballrooms?

[00:36:00]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
Well, we had a teacher named Whitey, Herbert White, and he was an old dancer.

[00:36:05]
And he, you know did all types of dancin' so everything that he could sneak in there, that won't mess with another dance, he would put it in.

[00:36:16]
So he would put different things in, he would get a little bit from you know he would see uh, exotic dancer, and he'd know those things, what they did and he would have the girl when you throw 'em out every now and again do a 'lil exotic, but we were still holdin' the hand.

[00:36:33]
And alright acrobatic. We could do some but you couldn't turn the hand loose to do it, so we could sneak that in. Had a little Waltz in there, but you couldn' turn hand loose to do it. If you turned your hand loose you had to come right back and, uh, that break away that was the dance be before the Lindy Hop. It was the name of the dance was break away.

[00:36:55]
The first one I can remember was Collegium, after Collegium the break away, and after the break away come the Lindy hop. And it different than it
{SILENCE}
and all the other dances you throw the girl one way,
{SILENCE}
round this way, but the Lindy hop, when Shorty Snowdon did it, he throw the girl that way and she couldn't get out good, she hopped out