The Lindy Hop: Then and Now
Before there was a mainstream interest in clothing of the 30s-50s, it was very popular with people that took up swing dancing and the lindy hop.
However, the lindy that people were hopping in the 40s is very different than its modern incarnation. I found a home made video of young people dancing on the beach in the 1940. It looks like they are throwing a little bit of the jitterbug in there. To contrast, I have included a video of a modern lindy hop competition from 2006.
At the 2006 competition, because the emphasis is on atheleticism, you don’t see anyone in head to toe vintage like you would at other events. To contrast, in the 1940 video, it proves to folks whose fashion scope only goes back a decade or two that puffed shoulder blouses were nothing new in the 80s. Also, the concept of casual clothing was very different than it is now, especially since the film was shot before the war. One of the young men looks like he is wearing a T-shirt, but most likely he simply took his button down shirt off because he was hot, rather than making a fashion decision in the morning.
Just an aside: in the 1940 film, it appears that someone gets dipped, but we don’t get to see it because the person on the camera is in the middle of a shot of everyone’s feet. More proof that the film was not “staged” and more organic.
Then:
From 2006:
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4 Responses to “The Lindy Hop: Then and Now”
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Great blog post, keep it up
Interesting post. A great deal of traditional performance lindy hop in the 30’s and 40’s revolved around high levels of athleticism as well. The old clip you posted is more of a social venue, and they are primarily dancing variations of balboa and shag rather than lindy hop.
For a more performance oriented vintage clip this one includes clips form the Harvest Moon Ball and a contest at the Savoy Ballroom: http://youtube.com/watch?v=NsdQC8f34nY
Thanks for stopping by and sharing that, Carl!
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