It'll be interesting to see if anything in there will be contradicted.
Historical Swing Dance definition HELP!!!
- Thread starter Jonathan Walford
- Start date
The Funky Butt, Squat, Fish Tail, and Mooche are all performed with hip movements. Similar dances were popular in New York City by 1913. When dancers at the Jungles Casino-"officially a dancing school" "got tired of two-steps and schottiches...they'd yell: 'let's go back home!'...'Let's do a set'...or 'Now put us in the alley!' I did my Mule Walk or 'Gut Stomp' for these country dances.", according to pianist James P. Johnson. "The dancers were from the Deep South."
http://www.redhotjazz.com/jpjohnson.html
Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance By Marshall Winslow Stearns, Jean Stearns 1994 Da Capo Press page 24
http://www.redhotjazz.com/jpjohnson.html
Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance By Marshall Winslow Stearns, Jean Stearns 1994 Da Capo Press page 24
The gut-stomp (and early version of what is sometimes called knee-rocks in Blues dances or Applejacks in Jazz) does not fit the description that Angel is putting forward. There is nothing that ties the description he put forward with the development of Lindy Hop, all evidence points to the rock-step as an evolution of the kick step from the break away step in the Texas Tommy done with Charleston timing.
The Gut Stomp is the predecessor to the Gut-bucket, a solo Blues dance with a ton of hip and torso articulations.
As to the sources cited... most of them can't be found in the library of congress, do you have ISBN numbers?
Also, anything that stated that Native Americans created Swing Dancing is wrong. Just plain wrong. No if's, and's or but's.
Now if "the Stomp" is the name Europeans and Euro-Americans gave a traditional West African dance you could probably trace it through a few dozen different dances into the Lindy Hop, but it is disingenuous to say the rock-step "comes" from that dance. I could just as easily say the rock step comes from a dozen different solo dances all originating with the Bantu speaking people of West Africa.
What we have here is probably an example of cum hoc ergo propter hoc. You see one thing in a dance and something similar in another dance and assume correlation/descent.
I'd find it more believable that there was a correlation between "the Stomp" and the Jigwalk from your description than "the Stomp" and the Lindy Hop, and even then it would be based entirely on similarity of gross movement rather than on a chain of dances showing the evolution.
The Gut Stomp is the predecessor to the Gut-bucket, a solo Blues dance with a ton of hip and torso articulations.
As to the sources cited... most of them can't be found in the library of congress, do you have ISBN numbers?
Also, anything that stated that Native Americans created Swing Dancing is wrong. Just plain wrong. No if's, and's or but's.
Now if "the Stomp" is the name Europeans and Euro-Americans gave a traditional West African dance you could probably trace it through a few dozen different dances into the Lindy Hop, but it is disingenuous to say the rock-step "comes" from that dance. I could just as easily say the rock step comes from a dozen different solo dances all originating with the Bantu speaking people of West Africa.
What we have here is probably an example of cum hoc ergo propter hoc. You see one thing in a dance and something similar in another dance and assume correlation/descent.
I'd find it more believable that there was a correlation between "the Stomp" and the Jigwalk from your description than "the Stomp" and the Lindy Hop, and even then it would be based entirely on similarity of gross movement rather than on a chain of dances showing the evolution.
Angel HI
Well-Known Member
My favorite "book locator" is WorldCat.
The "Zimbabwe Dance " book Kariamu Welsh Asante. African World Press, Inc. 2000. page 56 ISBN 0-86543-492-1 is one of the ones I've looked at, too.
One thing that strikes me about traditional African dance is the absence of "partnering", and the presence of well defined, and usually quite different movements performed by men and women.
It's also interesting to note the change from a tradition steeped in, well, traditonal, and usually group oriented ways of doing things, to the -in the Americas- seeming emphasis on individual expression.
Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance By Marshall Winslow Stearns, Jean Stearns 1994 Da Capo Press page 13 ISBN 0306805537
ISBN for Steppin on the Blues is 0-252-02211-4.
I've read enough now to agree with several authors who think of things in terms of there being vernacular movements, which have been combined and recombined to become "dances" at certain times.
Correct or not, there is one author that believed that there was input from Native Americans, not for the Lindy, but for the "Cakewalk", which itself was done in so many different ways...
Ethel L. Urlin writing in the 1912 "Dancing, Ancient and Modern" stated that "It originated in Florida, where it is said that the Negroes borrowed the idea of it from the war dances of the Seminole...The negroes were present as spectators at these dances, which consisted of wild and hilarious jumping and gyrating, alternating with slow processions in which the dancers walked solemnly in couples. The idea grew, and style in walking came to be practised among the negroes as an art."
http://www.archive.org/details/dancingancientmo00urlirich
see page 13
The "Zimbabwe Dance " book Kariamu Welsh Asante. African World Press, Inc. 2000. page 56 ISBN 0-86543-492-1 is one of the ones I've looked at, too.
One thing that strikes me about traditional African dance is the absence of "partnering", and the presence of well defined, and usually quite different movements performed by men and women.
It's also interesting to note the change from a tradition steeped in, well, traditonal, and usually group oriented ways of doing things, to the -in the Americas- seeming emphasis on individual expression.
Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance By Marshall Winslow Stearns, Jean Stearns 1994 Da Capo Press page 13 ISBN 0306805537
ISBN for Steppin on the Blues is 0-252-02211-4.
I've read enough now to agree with several authors who think of things in terms of there being vernacular movements, which have been combined and recombined to become "dances" at certain times.
Correct or not, there is one author that believed that there was input from Native Americans, not for the Lindy, but for the "Cakewalk", which itself was done in so many different ways...
Ethel L. Urlin writing in the 1912 "Dancing, Ancient and Modern" stated that "It originated in Florida, where it is said that the Negroes borrowed the idea of it from the war dances of the Seminole...The negroes were present as spectators at these dances, which consisted of wild and hilarious jumping and gyrating, alternating with slow processions in which the dancers walked solemnly in couples. The idea grew, and style in walking came to be practised among the negroes as an art."
http://www.archive.org/details/dancingancientmo00urlirich
see page 13
Urlin is in an extreme minority. First the Seminole didn't dance man/woman, they danced in solo, or in groups of like sexes, with each sex having their own dances and own steps. Second, there were Cakewalkers alive who have been interviewed numerous times and the origination and inspiration they all credit is the European Grand March, the Jig step known as Strut, and the derision dances of West Africa as being the three biggest influences on the Cakewalk.
There is just not enough evidence to support the idea of the Seminole band. Intermarrying of the Creek and freed and escaped slaves and cross pollination of cultures didn't happen for a decades after the Cakewalk was already popular among Southern Blacks.
Also all evidence of "single time Swing" which uses the step-step-back-step you are referring to came out in the 50's, the step is not believed to have been a part of Lindy Hop. There certainly is no reference, clip, and I have never heard of a dancer from the 30's or 40's who has ever said otherwise. Frankie has said (on film) that the Single Time Swing was not done in Harlem during the Jazz Age as far as he can remember and Norma has down right blasted the step as a bastardization of Lindy Hop, part of the dumbing down of the dance after it started being taught by chain studios.
You might be able to make a case that the step evolved into Shag, but there still is no corroborating evidence.
It is a reasonable assumption that two things that look alike may be related. In that you are right... but when there is evidence to the contrary (and multiple sources of it), asserting it is so makes little sense.
Now the Jig Trot, might be a more solid argument and something that might be worth looking into. The Jig in the title references both the Irish percussive dance and the African percussive dance that took on that same name. The steps were blended together and done in a face to face partnering. The rhythm is a little different than that in Single Time Swing, but there are a number of elements of the gross movements that match up at least to the casual observer.
There is just not enough evidence to support the idea of the Seminole band. Intermarrying of the Creek and freed and escaped slaves and cross pollination of cultures didn't happen for a decades after the Cakewalk was already popular among Southern Blacks.
Also all evidence of "single time Swing" which uses the step-step-back-step you are referring to came out in the 50's, the step is not believed to have been a part of Lindy Hop. There certainly is no reference, clip, and I have never heard of a dancer from the 30's or 40's who has ever said otherwise. Frankie has said (on film) that the Single Time Swing was not done in Harlem during the Jazz Age as far as he can remember and Norma has down right blasted the step as a bastardization of Lindy Hop, part of the dumbing down of the dance after it started being taught by chain studios.
You might be able to make a case that the step evolved into Shag, but there still is no corroborating evidence.
It is a reasonable assumption that two things that look alike may be related. In that you are right... but when there is evidence to the contrary (and multiple sources of it), asserting it is so makes little sense.
Now the Jig Trot, might be a more solid argument and something that might be worth looking into. The Jig in the title references both the Irish percussive dance and the African percussive dance that took on that same name. The steps were blended together and done in a face to face partnering. The rhythm is a little different than that in Single Time Swing, but there are a number of elements of the gross movements that match up at least to the casual observer.
This also reflects the same principles in the foundational core of Mambo / Salsa . The "call and response " theory demonstrated in indigenous Rumba .
No one should be surprised that I did some fact checking...
And, really, I'm not arguing about the absoluteness of "where the Cakewalk came from", but...
Africans and Native Americans
The incoming English government soon learned that Florida was a magnet to Africans and African Americans in North America who sought freedom from slavery. Once in Florida, freedom seekers encountered the Creek and Seminole Native Americans who had established settlements there at the invitation of the Spanish government. Those who chose to make their lives among the Creeks and Seminoles were welcomed into Native American society.
Governor John Moultrie wrote to the English Board of Trade in 1771 that ?It has been a practice for a good while past, for negroes to run away from their Masters, and get into the Indian towns, from whence it proved very difficult to get them back.? When British government officials pressured the Seminoles to return runaway slaves, they replied that they had merely given hungry people food, and invited the slaveholders to catch the runaways themselves (Schafer 2001:96).
http://www.africanaheritage.com/black_seminoles_1.asp
Without looking it up the reference, there is a vaudevillian who is on record as saying that his in his grandfather's day...
OK, I looked it up.
Vaudvillian Tom Fletcher heard the following account from his grandfather, "The cake walk, in that section and at that time, was known as the chalk line walk. There was no prancing, just a straight walk on a path made by turns and so forth, along which the dancers made their way with a pail of water on their heads. The couple that was the most erect and spilled the least water or no water at all was the winner."
Steppin' on the Blues. by Jacqui Malone. University of Illinois Press. 1996. page 43. ISBN 0-252-022114
Perhaps this was a parody of white people dancing, but it's also extremely common to see people carrying substantial loads of whatever on their heads in Africa. (I refer specifically to Tanzania, where excellent posture is very notable, but I don't think I'm overgeneralizing about where/how things are carried in sub-Saharan Africa. I may be??)
So, does the popularity of "the Cakewalk", which in itself seems to allow for/has been composed of, many different movements, go back as far as the late 1700s, before blacks and Seminoles mixed? And if so, where can I confirm that?
And, really, I'm not arguing about the absoluteness of "where the Cakewalk came from", but...
Africans and Native Americans
The incoming English government soon learned that Florida was a magnet to Africans and African Americans in North America who sought freedom from slavery. Once in Florida, freedom seekers encountered the Creek and Seminole Native Americans who had established settlements there at the invitation of the Spanish government. Those who chose to make their lives among the Creeks and Seminoles were welcomed into Native American society.
Governor John Moultrie wrote to the English Board of Trade in 1771 that ?It has been a practice for a good while past, for negroes to run away from their Masters, and get into the Indian towns, from whence it proved very difficult to get them back.? When British government officials pressured the Seminoles to return runaway slaves, they replied that they had merely given hungry people food, and invited the slaveholders to catch the runaways themselves (Schafer 2001:96).
http://www.africanaheritage.com/black_seminoles_1.asp
Without looking it up the reference, there is a vaudevillian who is on record as saying that his in his grandfather's day...
OK, I looked it up.
Vaudvillian Tom Fletcher heard the following account from his grandfather, "The cake walk, in that section and at that time, was known as the chalk line walk. There was no prancing, just a straight walk on a path made by turns and so forth, along which the dancers made their way with a pail of water on their heads. The couple that was the most erect and spilled the least water or no water at all was the winner."
Steppin' on the Blues. by Jacqui Malone. University of Illinois Press. 1996. page 43. ISBN 0-252-022114
Perhaps this was a parody of white people dancing, but it's also extremely common to see people carrying substantial loads of whatever on their heads in Africa. (I refer specifically to Tanzania, where excellent posture is very notable, but I don't think I'm overgeneralizing about where/how things are carried in sub-Saharan Africa. I may be??)
So, does the popularity of "the Cakewalk", which in itself seems to allow for/has been composed of, many different movements, go back as far as the late 1700s, before blacks and Seminoles mixed? And if so, where can I confirm that?
I'll have to look at my books to find which one(s) specifically reference it, but the slaves were being put against one and other and bet on by there masters, these dance contests date to the 1600's. The derision dances come directly from Africa, the strut the main step in the Cakewalk shares a number of elements in common with a few dance steps from the Agbor, Akan, and Kalabari. While it is impossible to say that the Strut step was formed by these three tribes, their dances precede slavery and these three tribes were among those taken from Africa and brought to the American South. It could be coincidence, but I think the claim of descent makes more sense than the Seminole...
Being part Native American (though these days who isn't, right?) I certainly love the idea of their having a direct part in the creation, but the dates just don't add up, and if the largest amount of evidence cited is a resemblance between the too, I think the Grand March done by both the French and English have just as much chance of being the inspiration (and have already been pointed out as the most likely inspiration in a number of books).
Being part Native American (though these days who isn't, right?) I certainly love the idea of their having a direct part in the creation, but the dates just don't add up, and if the largest amount of evidence cited is a resemblance between the too, I think the Grand March done by both the French and English have just as much chance of being the inspiration (and have already been pointed out as the most likely inspiration in a number of books).
rembrandt44
New Member
Charleston roots in Lindy (1929)
There are many dances that came before the Charleston era, such as black bottom, ragtime, etc. But there can be no doubt that the Lindy hop was developed right out of the Charleston era in Harlem, as dancers like Shorty George began to "Swing out" from their partners. And the term Lindy hop was coined.
as evidence I submit the following (1929(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di5eYAtf0f0
The Savoy ballroom in Harlem was one of the most integrated places in the country. Black, white, it didn't matter as long as you could dance. From this era swing spread around the country taking on different names and styles. Certain dances like Carolina shag, west coast swing, balboa, may have roots other than Charleston, but that is all part of the evolution of dance. Tracing it is difficult because new dances often draw from many different influences. However, there can be no doubt that the Lindy hop was developed right out of the Charleston era, which was a huge era of music and dance across the country that cannot be ignored when talking about the Lindy hop.
There are many dances that came before the Charleston era, such as black bottom, ragtime, etc. But there can be no doubt that the Lindy hop was developed right out of the Charleston era in Harlem, as dancers like Shorty George began to "Swing out" from their partners. And the term Lindy hop was coined.
as evidence I submit the following (1929(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di5eYAtf0f0
The Savoy ballroom in Harlem was one of the most integrated places in the country. Black, white, it didn't matter as long as you could dance. From this era swing spread around the country taking on different names and styles. Certain dances like Carolina shag, west coast swing, balboa, may have roots other than Charleston, but that is all part of the evolution of dance. Tracing it is difficult because new dances often draw from many different influences. However, there can be no doubt that the Lindy hop was developed right out of the Charleston era, which was a huge era of music and dance across the country that cannot be ignored when talking about the Lindy hop.
My research tells it slightly different.... Apparently, the slaves were asked to perform dances, and the winner was awarded.. you got it.. a cake
Thanks for bringing up the Cakewalk.
This seems to be the sum total of evidence regarding cakewalk
If anyone had any additional accounts from "plantation days", please let me know.
First Person Accounts
In the 1981 article "The Cakewalk: A Study in Stereotype and Reality" Brooke Baldwin cites "an almost exhaustive compilation of those accounts which have been found so far".[3] This compilation consists of eyewitness accounts by ex-slaves from Virginia and Georgia recorded by WPA researchers in the 1930's, along with second hand accounts from other sources. Baldwin notes that "when the reasearchers of the Federal Writer's Project of the W.PA. interviewd aged ex-slaves in the 1930's, there was no longer any need to suppress information about the happier moments of slave life."[4]
Louise Jones; "de music, de fiddles an' de banjos, de Jews harp, an' all dem other things. Sech dancin' you never seen before. Slaves would set de flo' in turns, an' do de cakewalk mos' all night"."[5]
Georgia Baker said that she sang a song when she was a child. "Walk light ladies, De cake's all dough" She laughed and added, "Us didn't know it when we was singin' dat tune to us chillun dat when us growed up us would be cakewalkin' to de same song".[6]
Estella Jones; "Cakewalkin' was a lot of fun durin' slavery time. Dey swep yards real clearn and set benches for de party. Banjos wuz used for music makin'. De womens wor long, ruffled dresses wid hoops in 'em and de mens had on high hats, long split-tailed coasts, and some of em used walkin' sticks. De couple dat danced best got a prize. Sometimes de slave owners come to dese parties 'cause dey enjoyed watchin' de dance, and dey 'cided who danced de best. Most parties durin' slavery time, wuz give on Saturday night durin' work sessions, but durin' winter dey wuz give on most any night."[7]
Second Hand, Oral Tradition Accounts
A South Carolinian told of Griffin, a fiddler who played for the dances of the whites as well as for the "annual cakewalks of his own people".[8]
A story told to him by his childhood nanny in 1901 was repeated by 80 year old actor Leigh Whipple, "Us slave watched white folks' parties where the guests danced a minuet and then paraded in a grand march, with the ladies and gentlemen going different ways and then meeting again, arm in arm, and marching down the center together. Then we'd do it too, but we used to mock 'em every step. Sometimes the white folks noticed it, but they seemed to like it; I guess they thought we couldn't dance any better."[9]
Ex-ragtime entertainer Shepard Edmonds told in 1950 of memories related to him by his parents from Tennessee; "...the cake walk was originally a plantation dance, just a happy movement they did to the banjo music because they couldn't stand still. It was generally on Sundays, when there was little work, that the slaves both young and old would dress up in hand-me-down finery to do a high-kicking, prancing walk-around. They did a take-off on the manners of the white folks in the "big house", but their masters, who gathered around to watch the fun, missed the point. It's supposed to be that the custom of a prize started with the master giving a cake to the couple that did the proudest movement."[10]
Baldwin concludes that the Cakewalk was meant "to satirize the competing culture of supposedly 'superior' whites. Slaveholders were able to dismiss its threat in their own minds by considering it as a simple performance which existed for their own pleasure" (p. 211). [11]
Not included in the Baldwin article, vaudevillian Tom Fletcher, heard the following account from his grandfather, " The cake walk, in that section and at that time, was known as the chalk line walk. There was no prancing, just a straight walk on a path made by turns and so forth, along which the dancers made their way with a pail of water on their heads. The couple that was the most erect and spilled the least water or no water at all was the winner."[12] Fletcher also commented that, "The old "chalk-line walk was revived with fancy steps by Charlie Johnson a clever eccentric dancer... The "chalk-line walk" then became known as the "Cake Walk."[13]
The dance was popularized by minstrels.
This seems to be the sum total of evidence regarding cakewalk
If anyone had any additional accounts from "plantation days", please let me know.
First Person Accounts
In the 1981 article "The Cakewalk: A Study in Stereotype and Reality" Brooke Baldwin cites "an almost exhaustive compilation of those accounts which have been found so far".[3] This compilation consists of eyewitness accounts by ex-slaves from Virginia and Georgia recorded by WPA researchers in the 1930's, along with second hand accounts from other sources. Baldwin notes that "when the reasearchers of the Federal Writer's Project of the W.PA. interviewd aged ex-slaves in the 1930's, there was no longer any need to suppress information about the happier moments of slave life."[4]
Louise Jones; "de music, de fiddles an' de banjos, de Jews harp, an' all dem other things. Sech dancin' you never seen before. Slaves would set de flo' in turns, an' do de cakewalk mos' all night"."[5]
Georgia Baker said that she sang a song when she was a child. "Walk light ladies, De cake's all dough" She laughed and added, "Us didn't know it when we was singin' dat tune to us chillun dat when us growed up us would be cakewalkin' to de same song".[6]
Estella Jones; "Cakewalkin' was a lot of fun durin' slavery time. Dey swep yards real clearn and set benches for de party. Banjos wuz used for music makin'. De womens wor long, ruffled dresses wid hoops in 'em and de mens had on high hats, long split-tailed coasts, and some of em used walkin' sticks. De couple dat danced best got a prize. Sometimes de slave owners come to dese parties 'cause dey enjoyed watchin' de dance, and dey 'cided who danced de best. Most parties durin' slavery time, wuz give on Saturday night durin' work sessions, but durin' winter dey wuz give on most any night."[7]
Second Hand, Oral Tradition Accounts
A South Carolinian told of Griffin, a fiddler who played for the dances of the whites as well as for the "annual cakewalks of his own people".[8]
A story told to him by his childhood nanny in 1901 was repeated by 80 year old actor Leigh Whipple, "Us slave watched white folks' parties where the guests danced a minuet and then paraded in a grand march, with the ladies and gentlemen going different ways and then meeting again, arm in arm, and marching down the center together. Then we'd do it too, but we used to mock 'em every step. Sometimes the white folks noticed it, but they seemed to like it; I guess they thought we couldn't dance any better."[9]
Ex-ragtime entertainer Shepard Edmonds told in 1950 of memories related to him by his parents from Tennessee; "...the cake walk was originally a plantation dance, just a happy movement they did to the banjo music because they couldn't stand still. It was generally on Sundays, when there was little work, that the slaves both young and old would dress up in hand-me-down finery to do a high-kicking, prancing walk-around. They did a take-off on the manners of the white folks in the "big house", but their masters, who gathered around to watch the fun, missed the point. It's supposed to be that the custom of a prize started with the master giving a cake to the couple that did the proudest movement."[10]
Baldwin concludes that the Cakewalk was meant "to satirize the competing culture of supposedly 'superior' whites. Slaveholders were able to dismiss its threat in their own minds by considering it as a simple performance which existed for their own pleasure" (p. 211). [11]
Not included in the Baldwin article, vaudevillian Tom Fletcher, heard the following account from his grandfather, " The cake walk, in that section and at that time, was known as the chalk line walk. There was no prancing, just a straight walk on a path made by turns and so forth, along which the dancers made their way with a pail of water on their heads. The couple that was the most erect and spilled the least water or no water at all was the winner."[12] Fletcher also commented that, "The old "chalk-line walk was revived with fancy steps by Charlie Johnson a clever eccentric dancer... The "chalk-line walk" then became known as the "Cake Walk."[13]
The dance was popularized by minstrels.
For the most part I agree with rembrandt44, but it's a bit more complicated than that.
According to Ethel Williams, who helped popularize the Texas Tommy in New York in 1913, the Texas Tommy "was like the Lindy", and the basic steps were followed by a breakaway identical to that found in the Lindy. "You add whatever you want there." Two additional dancers stated that: "The Texas Tommy had a different first step than the Lindy, or Jitterbug, that's all." "I saw the Texas Tommy around 1914. It was just like the Lindy Hop".[3]
Savoy dancer "Shorty" George Snowden stated that, "We used to call the basic step the Hop long before Lindbergh did his hop across the Atlantic. It had been around a long time and some people began to call it the Lindbergh Hop after 1927, although it didn't last. Then, during the marathon at Manhattan Casino, I got tired of the same old steps and cut loose with a breakaway..." [4] Fox Movietone News covered the marathon and took a close-up of Shorty's feet. When asked "What are you doing with your feet," Shorty replied, "The Lindy". The date was June 17, 1928.[5] The Stearns write that, for that time and place, Snowden had invented the breakaway, the essence of Lindy.[6]
Note that the Stearns write "for that time and place, Snowden had invented the breakaway". Note further that many European dances involved partners separating, and coming back together again (Think dances like the minuet. There were many others that were common in "the colonies", etc. Ever seen square dancers?), which is probably what the Streans had in mind.
According to Ethel Williams, who helped popularize the Texas Tommy in New York in 1913, the Texas Tommy "was like the Lindy", and the basic steps were followed by a breakaway identical to that found in the Lindy. "You add whatever you want there." Two additional dancers stated that: "The Texas Tommy had a different first step than the Lindy, or Jitterbug, that's all." "I saw the Texas Tommy around 1914. It was just like the Lindy Hop".[3]
Savoy dancer "Shorty" George Snowden stated that, "We used to call the basic step the Hop long before Lindbergh did his hop across the Atlantic. It had been around a long time and some people began to call it the Lindbergh Hop after 1927, although it didn't last. Then, during the marathon at Manhattan Casino, I got tired of the same old steps and cut loose with a breakaway..." [4] Fox Movietone News covered the marathon and took a close-up of Shorty's feet. When asked "What are you doing with your feet," Shorty replied, "The Lindy". The date was June 17, 1928.[5] The Stearns write that, for that time and place, Snowden had invented the breakaway, the essence of Lindy.[6]
Note that the Stearns write "for that time and place, Snowden had invented the breakaway". Note further that many European dances involved partners separating, and coming back together again (Think dances like the minuet. There were many others that were common in "the colonies", etc. Ever seen square dancers?), which is probably what the Streans had in mind.