Black American values and aesthetics

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As White interest in Lindy Hop grew, it was modified in order to make it easier to teach and more palatable for White audiences, who at the time knew partner dancing mostly in the form of highly structured Ballroom dancing. The "jockey step", which we now call the "basic", was created artificially, specifically to make the dance teachable to large classes.

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This was one of a number of changes that drew the dance away from its cultural roots, straining and constraining the artform. The dancers produced by this structured, static tuition were derisively called "Jitterbugs" by Black Americans due to their habit of sacrificing rhythm to complete more complex moves, showing an apparent disregard for the music.

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The culture that created the dance holds a set of values quite different to those of the sanitised, codified version that arose later. Some of them are West African, carried to the Americas by enslaved people; some are shared across Black communities throughout the Americas; some are specific to Black America.

Several are counterintuitive to dancers raised on European forms, where the ideal is often the exact opposite. They include, but are not limited to:

• Individual expression within community. In Black American culture, individuality is encouraged, celebrated and answered by the community around you. The individual is the reason the jam circle is there.

• Improvisation over reproduction. Musicality, creativity and expression matter more than the ever-more-perfect, ever-faster chaining together of fixed step patterns.

• Visible rhythm and pulse. Someone who can't hear the band should still be able to feel the beat by watching the dancers.

• Polyrhythm and polycentrism. More than one rhythm at a time, coming from more than one centre; one pattern in the feet, a different pattern in the torso, shoulders or hips.

• Lag. An elastic relationship to the beat, where movement is carried inside the beat and inside the melody rather than landing squarely on top of it. This is not the same as being late or casual about timing.

• Groundedness. A solid connection is made with the floor, and featured within the dance. Ballet dancers are superbly grounded too, but their technique conceals it. In Black American dance, it's on show.

• Asymmetry and angularity. Bends, angles and offsets in a pose communicate life and action, while a symmetrical, upright, evenly-weighted pose communicates motionlessness.

• Ephebism. Youthfulness and vigour are celebrated, at any age.

• Call and response. European dance has call and response too, but here the response is expected to answer with something of its own rather than repeat what it was given. Jam circles grow out of this spontaneously, at a variety of tempos, as collaborative and experimental spaces rather than scheduled showcases for elite performance.

• Making the easy look hard and the hard look easy. In a tradition passed on by watching, concealing the mechanics of something difficult keeps it yours a little longer. Things look simple once they've been mastered, and complicated when you're starting out.

• The follow's voice. Follows carry more of the dance and express more of their own individuality within it than the codified version allows for.

• Learning by watching. The dance is passed on by oral tradition, watching and copying, rather than by reading and explaining. The best moves are taught on the floor, during social dances and in smaller groups, rather than in a formal class setting.

• Personal expression in dress. What you wear says something about who you are, rather than adhering to a 1950s vintage aesthetic.

• A party atmosphere. Flirting, alcohol and other intoxicants, not a restrained, abstinent "regency ball".

• Connection over efficiency. Interpersonal connection and community-building matter more than productivity.

• Mastery over reach. Developing the dance matters more than appealing to the widest possible audience.

These points are only the beginning. The look and feel is best learned the way it has always been learned: by watching a great deal of Black American dance, music and performance, and letting it change how you move.

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We seek to respect both the dance's cultural roots and the enormous efforts made since, deprioritising without wholly disposing of the values that were introduced later on.

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References

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• Unruh, K. Swingin' Out White: How the Lindy Hop Became White

• Armstrong, G. Let’s Talk About Lindy Hop and Blackness

• The History of Lindy Hop at ilindy.tv

• Thompson, R. F. African Art in Motion (1974)

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