Swing vs Lindy vs Jitterbug vs West Coast Swing – Huh?
Top of page How does Lindy Hop relate to Swing, more generally speaking? The current distinction has a lot to do with the recent history of the dance, so let’s zoom through a brief historical overview. First, a matter of names: they keep changing! The music has always been called Swing, but the dance never was until the recent revival! In its earliest days in the late 1920s, the dance was usually just called “jazz dance.” In the 1930s, it was usually called “Lindy Hop,” and from the 1940s through the early 1990s it was called “Jitterbug.” Up to and through the 1940s, under all those different names, the dance was a rich mixture of 6-count moves (moves that last for 6 beats of music), 8-count moves, as well as 2-count, 4-count, 10-count, and whatever else seemed to work. In those days, it was mainly the name that changed from time to time. The dancing itself stayed pretty much the same, although there were different regional styles and, of course, some overall evolution in the dancing a
