What dominant culture is associated with Lindy Hop?
The dance evolved out of black culture in Harlem in the early 1930s. The vast majority of Lindy Hoppers today happen to be white. However, Lindy Hop is a dance that anyone can do, regardless of race or color or creed. Race (or “cultural background”) might be of historical significance, but it is otherwise irrelevant today. Indeed, one of the proud, historical legacies of Lindy Hop stemmed from the fact that Lindy Hop dances in Harlem were often integrated, with white people and black people uncommonly mingling and dancing with each other, even though the world outside the ballroom unfortunately was still bitterly segregated. The Savoy Ballroom–the “home of happy feet” in Harlem which was the center of the Lindy Hop world during the Swing Era–was famous (and even reviled in its day by pundits) for being a place where people could escape the racial boundaries, bigotry, and tensions of the Era. Black bands played for white dancers, and white bands played for black dancers, and everyone
