really cool videos from brown!

Fun! Terminology is always a troubling beast. This is the first time I see someone using the words "jitterbug" and "lindy hop" to mean different things. My guess is that the lindy hop (not yet on the site) will be mainly the 8 count moves.
 
yeah, I had already problems in the internet with different terminology :D
Where do these problems come from? Because of EC and WC?
luh
 
blue said:
Terminology is always a troubling beast. This is the first time I see someone using the words "jitterbug" and "lindy hop" to mean different things. My guess is that the lindy hop (not yet on the site) will be mainly the 8 count moves.
Click to expand...
If I recall correctly d nice has commented in the past that the most typically used timing for jitterbug is six count vs. lindy hop that most typically uses eight counts (although, of course, one can use either count in either dance).
 
Interesting! As lindy hop is the older name and jitterbug a newer, it makes sense to associate the word jitterbug with more 6 count moves.

It seems terminology in swing dances vary a lot. I am in nothern Europe, and d nice in the States... I always heard the terms were synonyms. Here, it seems if you say "lindy hop" you're inside our main swing community but if someone says "jitterbug" it means they have some vague memory of a TV shot of what people did on the dance floor here in the 50's. Not 100 % true, but the trend is obvious. Any jitterbug that was done here before the revival in the 80's is pretty much frowned upon by today's hardcore lindyhoppers, so I guess often lindy folks don't really want to relate to the name "jitterbug".
 
Have you seen the old clip (40s? 50s?) where the couple has one black and one white shoe, and the voice-over says lots of more or less humourous stuff? It baffled me to not only hear them call the dance jitterbug - but also dance it to music that I most definately call boogie woogie. I had a boogie woogie pianist in my class in high school, and I recognise that piano style when I hear it. The dance called "boogie woogie" seems to be danced to lots of music styles, but seldom to boogie woogie...

So yeah, swing terminology seems pretty messy. We have a few threads from before on that covering various swing versions, I think.
 
is that so uncommon - black and white wing tip shoes?
I also have some (or better - get some in 2 weeks). They are really cool. They still have a little grip but you can slide already pretty good!
luh
 
In the clip I am referring to the dancers wear one white shoe and white black, plus one white and one black sleeve etc. Then the voice over makes a joke out of dance instruction stepping white-black-white-black etc. I don't remember what the clip is called though.
 
It's called the "Groovie Movie."

And I would disagree that Boogie Woogie is danced only seldom to Boogie Woogie music. Boogie Woogie also works well to some early Rock'n'Roll stuff (Bill Haley comes to mind), esp. the songs which have a boogie bass line. Boogie Woogie, as a dance, makes no sense if it doesn't fit the music.

Oh, and yes, lots of the dancing in the beginning of the Groovie Movie is boogie woogie.

Lots of people use "jitterbug" as a blanket term for many types of swing dancing.
 
LindyKeya said:
It's called the "Groovie Movie."
Click to expand...
Ah, thanks!

I think I heard somewhere that what is called boogie woogie in different countries, can differ a bit. I have not seen that much of bw, but what I have seen have been danced to some kind of rock music/jump blues/similar. That I have not seen it done to pure boogie woogie does not mean that does not exist of course... One of the guys who compete says that as a competition form, it was originally planned to be called "Rock'n' roll of the 50s" but as there already was the acrobatic Rocknroll as a competition form this would be too confusing.

If this means it is the competitiors (or rather their organisations) who decides what is a separate dance and what is not, then I find this kind of funny!
 
blue said:
In the clip I am referring to the dancers wear one white shoe and white black, plus one white and one black sleeve etc. Then the voice over makes a joke out of dance instruction stepping white-black-white-black etc. I don't remember what the clip is called though.
Click to expand...
Groovie Movie

It's considered a swing classic.

I think part of the "jitterbug" confusion is that it was generally applied by those outside the swing community of the time (30's & 40's) and used in a perjorative sense, kind of like most of us oldsters would call all the dance and music that the kids do nowadays "hip hop", whereas I'm sure that within that "hip hop" community there are several different styles, only one of which would qualify as hip hop.

Also, we can thank the [over-]zealous efforts of the swing community as they had set about reviving and reconstructing those dance forms and determined, sometimes arbitrarily, what each form must be called.

BTW, I've been hearing "jitterbug" used to refer to ECS, even though much ECS is itself a bastardized form of swing that was simplified down for the dance-studio chains to feed to the general public.

But then I've also found that we can't take everything we're told about swing history too seriously.
 
i think it would be good to give the sources in this case.
I'm gonna quote from http://www.brown.edu/Students/Swing_Club/Styles.html

Jitterbug - This was 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. The main difference is that it's based around a 6 count basic as opposed to an 8 count one. Its name hails from the rapid and excited look of the people that dance it. Usually this is what the beginning swinger learns first.

hope it helps

i also was just looking at wikipedia.org, but there is nothing too helpfull
luh[/b]
 
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