WHAT IS SWING DANCING?
Swing is an umbrella term for lots of different forms of dancing. At Swing Dance Cork we specialise in Lindy Hop, Charleston, and Solo Jazz.
Lindy Hop, is a partnered Swing dance born from dancers at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York in the late 1920s. A famous performance troupe “Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers” were very active and prominent at the time. Rolling forward to the 1980s Lennart Westerlund and other dancers from Sweden sought out original dancers such as Frankie Manning, Dawn Hampton, and Al Minns and helped bring them back to the forefront of dance and teaching internationally.
Charleston is also a partnered dance but has its roots in the earlier ragtime jazz era of the 1900s. It is influenced by West African rhythms and European style partner dancing and its signature “breakaway” was instrumental in the development of swing dancing. Generally danced to mid to faster-tempo songs, it is a favourite amongst many students.
Solo Jazz can be free and improvised or structured around classic routines like the Shim Sham, Tranky Doo and Big Apple. Solo jazz is usually danced by oneself or with a group but will often be sprinkled into partner dancing as well. At Swing Dance Cork we often create our own routines and “flashmob” them to unsuspecting shoppers around the city.