“Swing dancing” is an umbrella term covering a number of dances, including Lindy Hop, Shag, Jitterbug, Jive, West Coast Swing, Boogie Woogie, Balboa and more.
Lindy Hop – The Main Swing Dance at Hepcats Copenhagen
At Hepcats Copenhagen we focus primarily on Lindy Hop, which is the “original” swing dance started in New York in the 1920’s and grew during the 30’s and 40’s, evolving with the jazz music of that time.
It is a partner dance usually danced to swing jazz, and it is one of the most improvisational, fun and expressive partner dances around.
Lindy Hop is an improvised partner dance, meaning you make up the patterns and styling as you dance with your partner based on a huge number of known moves and your own creativity.
What Does Lindy Hop Look Like?
There are a lot of Lindy Hop clips on the internet, including Youtube. Here is a collection of iconic Lindy Hop clips, from the earliest dancers to current front runners on the international swing scene.
Social Dancing versus Show Dancing
In the swing dance community of Hepcats Copenhagen, Lindy Hop is first and foremost a social dance. In other words, we dance for fun in a leisurely environment with the aim of making ourselves and our dance partners happy.
In our Lindy Hop classes we teach steps and moves related to social dancing, unless it is a special show dancing class.
But Lindy Hop is also a very expressive dance and as such, it can be danced as a show dance – as entertainment for an audience. In show dancing, the moves are choreographed and practiced in advance and the performance often includes jumps, lifts and “airsteps” in time with the music.
One of the most famous Lindy Hop show clips ever is from the movie “Hellzapoppin’” from 1941 (be patient, the first few minutes are only the band playing).
Authentic Jazz
We also teach “authentic jazz” or solo jazz dancing. Jazz steps and jazz choreographies are an integral part of Lindy Hop and are taught in most of our classes (most often as a warm up to the Lindy Hop classes, but sometimes as a specific class or as styling).
Watch a clip from an authentic jazz competition and another clip of a short jazz show choreography.