LINDY HOP
The Lindy or Lindy Hop has relatively few things written about it and usually based on the personal involvement of the dancers relating the stories. There are some films of the 30's, 40's and 50's that show Lindy Dancers, such as A Day At The Races, Hellzapoppin, The Savoy Ballroom of Harlem, The Spirit Moves, Swing Sister, Swing and The Prisoner of Swing. The Lindy is primarily a creative, expressive jazz rhythm dance and an official social ballroom dance. The Lindy came from street social dancers and has African; Tooted movements connected with the earth, a vertical bounce, side hip movements and a relaxed, not rigid torso. The essential characteristics of the Lindyinclude its 6-count and 8-count fundamental steps plus a swinging feeling which relates to the music's syncopated beat. It's an energetic improvisational dance that arose in Harlem in the 1920's.
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EAST COAST SWING
The East Coast Swing is an offshoot of the Fox trot or Syncopated two-step. East Coast Swing is an invented dance (non Folk), modified from a prior original by the 'American Society of Teachers of Dancing' in 1942. They were already teaching this style to stock movie dancers well before 1942, but in 1942, it became official to the public as a dance.
The American Society of Dance Teachers, a group of independent instructors debuted the Jitterbug aka Lindy aka American Swing syllabus in 1942. East Coast Swing is its most modern name, appearing on the scene decades later than the dance itself, as it was being taught to movie dancers quite a bit before 1942. Since its inception, this ballroom-style dance been variously called, by ballroom studios: Eastern Swing, American Swing, Lindy, Jitterbug, and Western Swing. And in various quarters, ALL those names are still used today to refer to the same. The modern related ballroom style is INTERNATIONAL JIVE.
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BALBOA
One of the most difficult dances to get any history on is the Balboa. The following information is from Home of Balboa International. In reality there are four slightly different versions of this particular dance, which is basically indigenous to Southern California. One version originally referred to as "Swing Bal" was developed and danced in the 1930's in and around Los Angeles while at the same time the second version called "Bal" or Balboa" emanated from and was actually named for the locale of Balboa, in particular the Rendezvous Ballroom on the Balboa peninsula, and spread in popularity to the Long Beach and Orange County area. The third version, the "Triple Step Bal," is most useful when an extremely slow number is played and the fourth version, the"One-Step," is utilized when the beat is too fast for any other dance.
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