The US Swing Dance Server [home][new][events][styles][technique][steps][literature][terms][music][videos][clubs][links]

Chapter II: Artistic Aims

The artistic aim of my thesis is to show different versions of the Lindy and discuss their similarities and differences in relation to where and why they are danced, and to the backgrounds and personalities of the dancers who dance them. I want to present the Lindy as a dance that lends itself to individual styling and creativity. The great dancers don't try to copy others exactly, but stand out as those who have used the Lindy form as a vehicle for their own personal expression. I want to distinguish these dancers as artists, and thus encourage others to treat their dancing not only as a social form, but as an art form as well.

If is had to give a few words to characterize each of the four dancers is taped, is would say first, Frank Manning is charismatic, intellectual, and full of wit. He is physically strong, solid, and definitive in his movements, almost aggressive. His steps are large and clear. He takes over the space and takes charge of his partner, with a laughing, winning smile.

George Lloyd is graceful and smooth, like butter. He dances on a slide. He moves across the floor as if he were on ice. His steps are small and he is more concerned with dancing with his partner than the space around him. He has a personal, underplayed quality. His feet and legs move quickly and he has a lightness that surpasses gravity. He has a lilt and a light driving bounce that are a product of a perfected musical sense of rhythm and timing.

When Charlie Meade dances, the center of his body moves, and the earth moves. His hips move side to side, his torso relates to the space around him, and his arms reach out to his sides. His steps are large and placed evenly in the music. He puts his whole body and energy into every step.

Tom Lewis dances closed in and intimate, in a huddle with his partner, or in a huddle with himself and the floor, working out new syncopations with his feet. He concentrates on his footwork and solo material while he comfortably leads his partner through interesting huddling, cuddly moves and then into long swing-outs, leading them energetically away from him. He can be slippery smooth, or energetic, thriving on throwing, squatting and kicking in varying complex rhythms.

Frank Manning, now seventy-three, was one of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers from 1936 to 1941. Frank began dancing as a child, and by the time he was sixteen he was winning contests and almost professional. He came in third place in the first Harvest Moon Ball in 1936, and second place in the one the following year. He became Whitey's righthand man and chief choreographer and with Whitey's group toured the world and appeared in the films Hellzapoppin'' and the Marx Brothers' A Day at the Races in the 1940's. During the war he put together shows to entertain the troops. After the war he toured the U.S. with his own group, The Congaroos, with the bands of Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie.

Frank originated many of the aerial steps by taking floor steps one step further. He originated "the tops," freezing in the middle of a number and then continuing on, to the song "Posin'." He also did the first Lindy routine which was danced by more than one couple doing the same steps at the same time. He believes in seeing a step and changing it and taking it one step further. He doesn't believe in a right and a wrong way to do a step. When choreographing, he choreographed for each individual dancer and let each couple do their own special steps instead of forcing everyone to be the same.

Frank Manning has an incredible amount of energy and a great love for dancing. He is threatened by no one. He is open and generous and takes everyone in without criticism.

Frank is a natural performer. When he dances everybody watches. His early performing experience, his active mind, and his years of dancing give him a wealth of material to draw upon. He constantly creates new routines and uses them as little sections in his social dancing. Performing and social dancing are one and the same to him. He'll call out "points" or "tango dip," and he and his partner will go into a 16-count sequence they have memorized. His repertoire is full of such sequences and they are interesting to watch. Steady partners get to know more and more of these routines, which he may call out at any point in the dance that he wishes. It is like writing in phrases instead of words. He uses the basics as linking steps.

Frank moves across the room -- forward, backwards, side by side, circling, circling backwards, hopping, skipping -- with a powerful energy that conquers the whole room. His posture is generally low to the floor, his head bowed and his left leg kicking away so that his whole torso is parallel- to the floor at times. His style is bouncy, in the vertical- plane. (None of the four I'm describing here uses a sidewards rocking of the torso. Most hold their torsos calm, isolating them from their hips and legs. Charlie does a slight torso rock, but not like you see beginners or 50's rock'n'rollers do.) Frank uses a double bounce, a bounce on every beat of the music. He dances with a strong lead; the woman has no option but to follow, or be wrong. He dances to the beat of the music and to the mood of the music. His posture changes with his interpretation of the mood. He dances saying something with his movements, something witty, some dance talk -- a variation on the rhythm, doing a number of swing-outs with different syncopations at the end of each one, or a new posture, or facing or way of coming in. He is innovative and always thinking and playing around.

George Lloyd dances by feeling the music. He doesn't intellectualize or think of steps. He doesn't do routines. He doesn't plan ahead; he stays right with the music and his feelings at the time. His mood doesn't change much except from serious to happy, or from relaxed to energetic. George does not do a large variety of new steps. With George it is not his wit or the amount of moves, but it is the way he moves.

George was not a professional dancer. He was a social dancer. He never rehearsed except to work out some aerials. Dancing with George can be romantic. It is more intimate, meant for just him and his partner, and if anyone else is watching it might give him a little more in6piration to show off. But he doesn't dance with an audience, the way performers include their audience -- he dances with a partner.

George, sixty-six now, was born and grew up in Miami, Florida. He was a natural athlete (track champion) and good in math while in high school (George now competes in tournament golf and bowling). George started dancing when he was seventeen. His mother was a good ballroom dancer. George came up to New York in the 40's and danced at the Savoy Ballroom. During the war, he won two Lindy contest in France. He came back to the New York area and choreographed uso shows. In 1957 and l958 he entered the Harvest Moon Ball with his partner, Barbara Bates (she weighed 105 pounds), and they did 13 air steps in 3 minutes. When they didn't win the second year, George said he'd never enter again. But in 1983, he met me, Margaret Batiuchok, and six months later we entered the Harvest Moon ball and won. We didn't do any aerials. We did strictly floor work.

By this time George had developed his sliding style. He had hurt his back in 1969 and had a disk operation, and in the 1970's he broke his arm. After that he gave up aerial. His sliding style, he claims, lets the floor do the work for him. The glide looks elegant, graceful, and really cool, because it does look like he is not doing any work, and is letting something else -- the floor -- move him around. George has impeccable balance and rhythm. This allows him to keep his balance and not tug or pull on his partner. His timing lets his leads occur at precisely the right moment. These two thing make him an incredibly smooth and wonderful partner to dance with. It also accounts for how he can get by without any practicing or warming up. We had just met and didn't practice at all and won the Lindy competition of the Harvest Moon Ball. (We were the first interracial couple to win, and most likely the first to enter; the next year the Lindy portion was dropped from the Harvest Moon Ball.)

George works from a narrow base and take small steps. His posture is fairly upright with a slight 20-degree torso tilt towards the floor. He stays pretty much in one place, and can dance well in a very small area if need be.

Something else that add to Geo rge' smoothness l the way he uses his feet and knees. His weight is mostly on the ball of his feet and he use his feet, ankle6 and knees rocking back and forth from heel to toe and lifting and dropping the knee 61ightly. This control his weight from falling heavily into a flat foot, and help him achieve a wonderful rhythmic lightness. This may be a Southern influence. When I was in South Carolina the Shag dancers there did a lot of angle and knee rolling and rocking forward and back and sideways, isolating movements in those areas, They too moved very smoothly, conserving their energy George conserves his energy, but when he feels like it he can take off into flight His feet can move like lightning underneath him as he does some fancy syncopation, without it affecting his torso George hold his partner close- and comfortably, and is serious when he dance for fun.

Charlie Meade, now fifty-six, was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1932, where he learned to dance a a boy The music at the clubs he went to was mainly calypso and wing In the early 60's, when he was eighteen, he moved to England, where he became a professional jazz, tap, and primitive dancer in the shows of Buddy Bradley All of the other in the show were trained dancers, but Buddy Bradley preferred dancers who were naturally good to those who weren't and had training (or those who were good and were ruined by training, as he accused some of being) Charlie toured Europe with Bradley' shows Later he was hired to dance in the movie Cleopatra, which was filmed in Rome stayed in Italy and worked as a twist dancer performing with a partner in nightclubs all over Italy When he moved to New York in the 1960', he met with his friend, the famous tap dancer Baby Lawrence, in hopes of continuing his dancing. But Baby Lawrence died. Charlie stopped dancing for 20 years . . . until the early 1980's when he went to see Norma Miller's Lindy Hop group perform at the Village Gate. Norma Miller, still an active dancer, was a member of the original Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. Charlie had met Norma when they were both performing in Europe. It was there Norma introduced me to Charlie, saying he was good dancer and that is should dance with him. is was a bit skeptical, but is did anyway. And was is glad. We won the Lindy contest there on our first dance! Six month later we ran into one another again at Small's Paradise in Harlem, and began getting together for weekly rehearsal. For about a year we worked on some jazz, African, and tap routines together.

Charlie incorporates routines from his performance experience into his Lindy dancing. He tends to do things in sets of fours and leads them not by calling out their names, but by ut going into them. They seem to be simple and leadable and within the _Lindy6 basic counts. They lend a nice unison look when done flat on facing one another, or side by side, which breaks up the circular Lindy. Charlie also breaks away, letting go of y hands, and we do separate moves facing one another. We improvise and sometimes use moves from our routines, but never do the whole routine or do them in order. This breakaway section was done in the original Lindy and is what distinguished the Lindy as unusual in its early days. It is not used as much these days.

Charlie uses a lot of torso movement, flat-footed slides, and picking up of the feet in a high-stepping, manner. He often works his feet and ankles in a heel-toe-heel- toe-sidewards movement. These are reminiscent of African movements, many of which he got from his primitive dancing, many of which he had from being Jamaican. Charlie does drops and low lunges to the floor, and then jumps up and away, reaching high above his head. He kicks out diagonally, low and high. He extends his arms out to his side, away from his body. His torso is upright, also at a slight 20-degree tilt towards the floor. He uses his arms for balance. His hips are constantly moving side to side as he steps -- similar to calypso dancing, is imagine. His Lindy doesn't travel, but stays in one place. He uses the lateral space and space above him with his arm, which are held higher than Frank's or George's. He turns his partner a lot and does a lot of diagonal kicks in between the step of the pattern or in place of the steps in the pattern. He doesn't do much fast footwork, but does steady, even syncopations. Charlie's arms and legs reach at diagonals as his body tilts. When Charlie gets excited by the music, he does little sideward jumps, landing one foot and then the other, and pushes harder and let out audible grunts of pleasure. The people watching love to see his total involvement and his use of low and high level. They often applaud.

Tom Lewis is thirty-four and began dancing a little over a year ago. He studied with me for nine months, four hours a week privately, and with hard work became one of the top dancers in the New York Swing Dance Society. He was born in Newark, grew up in Manhattan and New Jersey, attending PS 41, Stuyvesant High School and New York University. It's hard to believe that he hadn't done much dancing of any kind before. He has already performed three times with George and me, as George' "relief pitcher."

Tom has a good sense of timing and a comfortable lead. He danceQ a smooth style; his partner is not pulled at as he steps into or off of a foot. Tom has a style that loo cool and mooth. He hunches his shoulders and looks at his feet, which are doing constant fancy variations and movement. He can only afford to pay his feet so much attention if he leads his partner properly, and he does.

Tom uses a lot of intimate moves of circling his partner in and moving her around his back, from one arm to the other, or bringing her straight into his arms. He does movements closely side by side, using hip bumps as send-outs. His hips move slightly side to side whenever he steps. His weight is a little back towards his heels. He may do close, tiny, subtle moves and suddenly throw has partner out and continue to move at a more energetic pace. He lets the music change his mood. His movements have many moods. He has little performing experience so he tends almost to shut out onlookers so he can concentrate on his moves .

Tom works in constant, fancy, lovely yncopations which he makes up or copies, and practices. He end his partner out so both can improvise for a few bar, loosely. When he wants to, he knows just how to signal her o they can come in on time together again. He ucs tretches and lide, legs moving apart and together, extending himself and trying new things all the time. He pushes out on his feet to the side and into the ground for a side slide. He leans on his partner if she is balanced enough and lets her support him for an off-balance move. Then he may support her. Shi weight give-and-take, transfer of body weight, is a lot of fun.

Tom also follows his partner. This may have to do with his younger age and men not used to leading in everything any more, or from his inexperience. Or it may come from my teaching him and my own desire to move out on my own more and have a responsive man who can follow me sometimes. (George does that a little when is accidentally go into something. But is don't feel as free to go into something intentionally of my own choice with George.) It could be I'm looser with Tom. Whatever it is, this give-and-take makes the conversation a more mutual one and the union in the dance tighter. The expression is more of a mutual effort and one which gives the woman more opportunity to express herself. In old films it is the mn wh is the showboat, the peacock. In South Carolina that is especially true today. West Coast dancers give the woman more to do than we Lindy dancers did (until now). is like dancing with Tom because he lets me go into some of the moves is think would be nice, or just feel like doing. He respond by letting the dance go that way, and then taking it from there.

Conclusion and Dedication

The artistic aim of my piece changed a bit while I was editing the videotape. I had planned to call the tape " Lindy , 1988" and objectively show the different styles of each of the dancers, analyzing steps and body parts moving in relationship to one another and the space, and to the backgrounds of the dancers. What I was filled with upon viewing the final edited tape was not the degree of body angle with the floor, but the magnificence of spirit within each of the dancers. The interviews, the explanation of steps, and the dancing together revealed a more emotionally moving piece than the technical one I expected.

Frank Manning is seventy-three years old. This man has more energy and enjoyment of life than most twenty-year- olds. His personality and sense of humor exude from him as he dances, but also as he talks and laughs and goes through his animated antic. He is a publlc, visible, and generous man, and this comes out in his dancing, through a generous use of space and a generous use of his smile, which beams for miles and miles.

Then there is George Lloyd, a more private man. He goes about his business unnoticed until he is given the spotlight. He may feel unappreciated at times because his manner does not invite attention. His delicate personality has not allowed him to totally forget his experiences of not being welcome because of his color, or not being judged fairly because of his lack of affiliation with a certain group. Flamboyant expression of joy is not his thing. His joy is more subtle and private. To see George smile is a rare and wonderful occurrence. A more serious nature, intent on perfection and subtle detail, George's best performance is given when it is not asked for. To see George's dancing with me, a white girl thirty years younger, achieving a beautiful, delicate communication, brings to me rich and complex feelings. Its beauty exist in spite of worldly pain.

Then there is Charlie Meade, who loves to dance. It doesn't have to be sophisticated or cool movement. He loves to move his body. He grunts out of joy when he dance6. His is not the intellectual approach, but more a feeling one, with the energy of the beat moving through hi whole body and pushing into the floor. Frank dance a a thinking personality, smiling, joking with his moves, moving his body totally into a posture or a movement or a routine. George doesn't create routine, but expresses subtle musical details, allowing the music to lead and inspire him, as he skillfully leads his partner to feel what he feel from the music. There is a togetherness of the two with his elegant and gracefully rhythmic feeling. Charlie's movements are more animalistic and on a more basic inner level. He lets his whole body dance in the space, more free of the struture. He moves like a big African bird, hovering, dipping through the air, or landing sideways onto the ground and up again. A rather reserved person, Charlie's inner self come alive in his dancing. His wide stance and wide arm reach express his joy and his peace with it. It's like dancing gives his inner self a place to be -- to live and love around in. It's like the real Charlie, free and happy, comes alive and inhabits his body.

Tom Lewis said on the tape that he entered the Cat Club Swing Society dance and it was like stepping into a fantasy land. Some was so struck that he immersed himself in lessons and constant listening to swing music. He practiced on his own and with others whenever he could. To dance with someone who was so instantly in love with dancing, whom I taught, and who dances so well, made me proud, respectful, and warm inside. A delicate musicality, such as Benny Goodman achieved on his clarinet, lc what Tom's smooth dancing sometimes achieves. A driving force of chaotic syncopations and fat swing-outs and pull-ins is another expression his dancing may take on. Charming and eloquent, saying or dancing just the right thing at times, make Tom a bright oy. He is not heavy-handed in his lead. He follows his partner's movements and accommodates them. he enjoys freedom in his step and allows his partners the same.

At times immobile, Tom is always fluid and smooth. He gets through his moves, intent on them, without an overall plan. He always feels good to dance with. There exists a comfort zone and then a freestyle section, where we chat with our feet, hips, and syncopated punctuations. Tom i a little shy, a little humorously flirtatious, and mostly into his steps.

With all four of these guys, I feel a comfort, a love, and a personal shared expression. As I watched the tape and put the last song on, "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me," shivers ran down my spine, thinking of how great each one of them is, and how great dancing is -- to enable me to know them in this way and experience these feelings, and enable us to create and express within Its embracing medium. Dancing, because of all it provides -- expression, union, challenge, love, conflict, passion, resolution, analogy, and more than that, its self, "the dance" -- dance is my love and my life. And each of these four partners and all that they are, brought a new kind of love to me, by sharing their dance with me. I am truly thankful to and appreciative of each of them. I want to dedicate my thesis to them, and change the title from " Lindy , 1988" to "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me." Thank you, in order of my meeting you, George, Charlie, Frank, and Tom. You certainly did.

---

The US Swing Dance Server (you can add to this page)

http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/aswin/sds