Swing Dance History

According to The Edinburgh University Swing Dance Society of the Edinburgh University Students' Association, Swing dancing is a style of dance that was originated from Harlem, New York with Afro-American Roots. Although originating with Afro-American Roots, I do know that many other cultures and races take part in this form of social dance, and it is not segregated to one race specifically. When in the act of this dance, one should feel as if they are “swinging.” Swing Dancing developed as a swing style from jazz music from around

Before my research I knew that my topic was a popular dance in the 1920s. The dance comes from the song "The Charleston". I choose this topic because I found it very interesting, I found this topic interesting because the1920s was an entertaining time period, the dances created then must be a fun topic. I would love to find out more about my topic. Such as why was the dance created? How did it become popular? Who created the dance?

The Brazilian Samba began in Paris and spread to America in the early twenties. The older, more conservative crowd stuck with ballroom dance as the young, eccentric generation began to emerge in what many called “animal dance.” Dance styles like the famed “Charleston” and the “Lindy Hop” (a.k.a the Jitterbug), formed from a blend of ballroom and African American influence. The “Lindy Hop” later emerged into many different styles of swing dance and carried on for generations to follow. To many, dance became a competitive sport. Nightclubs and community centers held dance marathons for those who believed they could hold their own on the dance floor. Dance brought people together in an unspoken, electrifying way unlike anything else before. As music influenced the dance phenomena, dance began to influence popular music as well. Numerous songs and genres were developed off of names of dances and choreography. It was completely changing the world around

Of all the values that dancing instilled within me, I believe I learned the greatest lesson when I forfeited my first love. In my mind, I rationalized that school’s importance outweighed my devotion to dance. In my eighth grade year, my studio encouraged me to join their dance company, while my school implemented an academic plan for me that met my educational needs, which included placing me in ninth grade honors courses. Faced with the truth of the difficulty of balancing schoolwork with a demanding practice schedule, I reluctantly withdrew from my dance

Being the painfully shy child I was, I fought her. I dreaded walking up those never-ending narrow stairs for the first few classes. I was deathly afraid of my instructor, a complete stranger, and I did not know over half of the words that were said during class. Slowly, friendships formed and I figured out what actions the French words went with. Throughout the years I have switched dance studios two times, been on four different teams, competed, and done solos.

Whether you are dancing for passion, to get into shape or to just attain some mental peace, jazz is an excellent option to choose. This highly energetic dance form is unique and has revolutionised the way we look at dance.

After hundreds of years of evolution and development, tap dancing has become a truly authentic American artform. However, no two people can agree on exactly how or where the discipline began. Emmy-award winning tapper Jason Samuel Smith still holds an enormous amount of respect for the history of his artform. “Tap culture is all about celebrating the past and accumulating its vocabulary over time,” he says. “If we don’t maintain our history, we lose what is valuable about tap.” Despite the questionable and often debated origin of tap, the discipline stems directly from African roots due to articulate rhythmic and stylistic patterns of African dance, techniques consisting of gliding, shuffling and dragging steps, and the introduction of

Marie and I had just left her house and were walking to the tryouts. It was a really quick walk because she lives only 2 houses away from the studio. This was back in August 2017, a few days after dance camp ended for the summer. We hurried down the stairs to go inside and kept talking about how nervous and excited we were the whole way down. Once we got inside of Bleker’s, we started talking to the other girls. After just a few minutes we were all taken into the dance room and together we all learned a hip hop, jazz, and tap routine. We only had about 30 minutes to learn all of the routines so we were all feeling a little rushed. Before we knew it, the dance teachers put us into groups of 3-5 girls. These groups were the people we would perform our dance routines with. My group was Meghan S, Grace, and I.

The combination of my past experiences and quick thinking allowed me to become successful in my first year of instructing dance. Prior to employment, I had no formal training in instructing a dance class. My first class was filled with fifteen student who were between the ages of eight and ten. I was excited to finally teach a class, but I did not know what

The predominant style of this film is Swing. Compared to its predecessors, Swing was more upbeat and fast paced, which reflected life in cities like New York or Chicago. Swing was characterized for being played by large bands, having a four beat rhythm, a written out solo line, having call and response between sections (riffing), and coloration, which would later be added by Duke Ellington himself.

Pbs.com Ken Burns states that just like all music jazz went through it trial era of music. The swing era was very popular through the early 1930’s into the late 1940’s. The swing style type of music consist of large number of band member featuring at least three to four saxophones, two or three trumpets, two to three trombones, a piano guitar and a bass violin. Not including the lead vocalist of the groups. Swinging was a life style that lifted anyone

Miss Becca would shout out moves and while other people knew exactly what she was talking about, I stood there like an idiot, not understanding a word she said. Also, everyone was so flexible and strong, while I, the poor, little new girl, wasn’t even close to doing the splits. I’m not even close to being able to do that…that…whatever that is. Slowly throughout that year, I became way more flexible and knew what Miss Becca was talking about most of the time. I had done multiple performances, for both hip-hop and jazz, and had improved greatly in both.

Swing was the dominant idiom of the 1930s and much of the 1940s. Basically, it was a form of dance music played by a large band, and was the medium through which most white Americans first heard Jazz (Schuller,1989). Although the decade 1935-45 was called the Swing Era, swing arrangements had been played by large bands beginning in the 1920s. Bandleader-arrangers Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, and, later, Count Basie, worked out arrangements for their 10 to 12 piece bands, which, unlike traditional jazz bands, were divided into instrumental sections.

Sarah Fryman Smolinski with 24 years of dance experience, began dance training in 1994 in Phoenix, Arizona. Joined the Greater Phoenix Swing Dance Club (GPSDC) 1995 and fell in love with West Coast Swing Dance. Competed in the GPSDC Jack & Jill contests 1996 and began formal dance teachers training under Atlas Griffith Phoenix, AZ. Entered the Novice couple's division competition's in United Country Western Dance Council (UCWDC) doing all the ballroom dances during 1997. Winner of the 1997 “Marlboro Country Nights Dance Showdown” Phoenix, AZ, dancing the Waltz, West Coast Swing and 2-Step. Placed 2nd in Novice division West Coast Swing Jack & Jill “World Expo” Las Vegas, NV 1998. Won a 1st place in West Coast Swing and a 2nd place in Progressive

My dance studio is where I have learned many life lessons that I would have never learned elsewhere. With the discipline and corrective criticism that all of my dance teachers have thrusted upon me over my past fifteen years of dance experience has shaped me into the dancer and the person I am today. However, with all the difficult practices and many long nights at