About the swing dances | Lindy Hop, Balboa etc

HepTown always has lots of swing classes. Manly in Lindy Hop but also in Balboa, Collegiate Shag, Tap, Authentic Jazz and 20’s Charleston.

Lindy Hop

Lindy Hop is an African American street swing jazz dance. It evolved from many other dances in the late 1920s and early 1930s in Harlem, New York.
It is a partner dance usually done to swing jazz music and it is one of the most improvisational, funny and expressive partner dances around.

There can be said that there are two main parts of Lindy Hop, social dancing and show dancing. In social dancing the dancers keep their feet on the floor and all moves are made up on the spot. Show dancing on the other hand has all moves choreographed and practiced in advance. They also include jumps, lifts and airsteps where the follow can be thrown through the air. In general dance classes only social dancing is taught.

Lindy Hop is also known under the names jitterbug, swing and jive in some places. But since these names mean different things in different areas and countries we use the original name to separate it from the different forms of dances that have evolved later on from Lindy Hop.

Balboa

Balboa is a form of a swing dance that emerged in the 1930s in California. Danced with the lead and follows chests touching, a body lead connection and a simple 8-count basic footwork. The art of Balboa is the subtle communication between the lead and follow, like weight shifts.

Balboa can be danced to all tempos but is commonly known as a fast dance since many swing dancers tend to change to Balboa when the music gets too fast for them to dance lindy hop.To slower music Balboa can be done with intricate footwork and variations.

Balboa can also be done in a variation where you break the chest to chest connection, it is then called Bal-Swing and has many turns and figures like other swing dances.

Read more about Balboa at Wikipedia
Read more about Balboa at BalboaNation

Balboa dance events and courses in Malmö, Lund and Copenhagen

20’s Charleston

20’s Charleston is a single person and couple dance. It’s done to 20’s jazz music. We call it 20’s Charleston to separate it from the Charleston done as a move within Lindy Hop which is a different thing.

Shim Sham

The Shim Sham is a classic jazz line dance which originally was a tap routine. Nowadays swing dancer are likely to know this routine. When the song “Tain’t what you do” is played you will see the dance floor breaking out into the Shim Sham.