Define Jitterbug?

[Flat Shoes]

The term Jitterbug seems to be used about different things when it comes to swing dance. On the net I've found it used as synonyms for both East Coast Swing and Lindy Hop. And I've seen it been used naming styles of Lindy Hop, like White Mans Lindy Hop.

So, is there a clear definition of what Jitterbug is? Or is it a term that nobody really knows the origin of, and therefore has numerous sorces for its meaning :?:

[Sagitta]

Don't know too much about this, but know that modern ECS swing sometimes is called jitterbug. I know that way back, in the past, jitterbug was used to refer to lindy, and so have heard it used to refer to the old-style lindy, but never to the lindy of modern times, today.

[Flat Shoes]

Google and thou shall find: (http://www.geocities.com/danceinfosa/disadicj.html)


Jitterbug is a bouncy, playful style of swing which was danced to early rock-n-roll, rock-a-billy and swing music. Originally done by whites in the 30s/40s imitating blacks doing Lindy Hop. Popular music was speeding up, and the triple-step became a single-step rhythm. Essentially, single step, (mainly, but not completely) 6 count East Coast Swing, SSQQ. Buddy Schwimmer says: It's not the same as single swing. A simplified 4 step is sometimes taught and improperly called Jitterbug.

In the mid- to late '50's, some called the "Jitterbug", the "Lindy". Both seem to be what is today known as the "East Coast Swing". In those days, it was all 6 count. In South Africa the Jitterbug was referred to as the Bee-bob, a fast single-time Swing-Rock.

The basic is six counts, like single swing, just replace "touch step" with "step touch". There is real no speed advantage between doing single or double swing. Yyou can do "hold, step" in double as easily as you can do "step, hold" in single. Advanced dancers use all three ECS timings, sometimes in the same basic - some prefor the use of "step, touch, triple step, hitch step" a lot, it gives a good "look" and fits the feel of the dance well.



This seems to fit your experience well Sagitta. The way I read this is that Jitterbug was started by whites imitating blacks doing Lindy Hop. It was a style of (8 count) Lindy, but has "evolved" into (6 count) ECS.

Does this seem right to people :?:

[d nice]

Jitterbug as a dance term used to refer to bad dancers. Essentially posers who didn't get it. Eventually it became a catchall term for all swing dancing and dancers. A jitterbug today is different than a lindy hopper because they mix in numerous types of swing as they feel, rather than basing the dance on lindy hop and occassionally adding in other steps. It does not any longer have bad connotations.

Depending on what part of the country you lived in, during the thirties and early forties you could say jitterbug and I might say lindy hop, and we would mean the same thing. As the war ended the music changed and the dance changed with it. Lindy Hop was being called just "Lindy" and jitterbug was embraced by most people in the country to refer to swing dancers and swing dancing. What was being called jitterbug slowly became a more six count domniated dance as the ballroom studios got there hands on it simplifying the dance (*more on this below). Now days Jitterbug more correctly refers to the six count based street/club form of East Coast Swing which is the proper name of the ballroom version of swing dancing. As such, jitterbugs basic is all the forms mentioned above single, double and triple swing... mixed in anyway the dancer chooses... the real difference is a grounded movement, a downward bounce, leads using momentum, and a basic that uses more fore and back movement rather than side to side.

*East Coast Swing and Jitterbug are not any easier to teach or dance than Lindy Hop. The simplification process of the Lindy Hop into ECS was so the teachers could learn both parts of the dance well enough to be able to break it down for their students. ECS as a mirrored dance allows a teacher to learn most of the basics once and then simply reverse it. Lindy Hop as a non-mirrored dance is the equivelent of learning two different dances in order to learn both parts nearly doubling the time it takes to learn both leader and follower roles.

[Sagitta]

Interesting. Thanks. I can always count on you to keep filling in the gaps of my swing knowledge d nice, just as boriken and others do for salsa. :D

[Flat Shoes]

Yep, thanks d nice! That was very informative.

[d nice]

Glad I could be of some help. Understand that the information I gave is a summation and uses generalizations... any one person's version that is different from the above could easily be just as true depending on their geographic location and the specific time frame underwhich they are basing their statements remember we are talking about over seventy years of swing history over thousands of miles, and several different cultures.