Lindy Hop

Lindy Hop is the original swing dance, born in African American communities in Harlem, New York, in the late 1920s. It is energetic, playful and largely improvised, danced to swinging jazz, and today it is danced socially in cities around the world.

At a glance

Styles

Swing

Time signature

4/4

Tempo

about 30–55 bars per minute (120–220 beats), typical WDSF publishes a range for each International dance. The NDCA publishes one figure for each dance it lists and lets the music director move it by one bar a minute (two for Nightclub dances). Where neither publishes a tempo, the range is typical, not a rule.

Hold

Closed and open hold

Competition levels

Swing event contests (Jack and Jill, fixed partner, routines), usually by level

Origin

Harlem, New York Late 1920s

Lindy Hop grew up in Harlem's dance halls in the late 1920s, drawing on the Charleston, tap, the breakaway and other jazz dances of the day. Its best known home was the Savoy Ballroom on Lenox Avenue, which opened in March 1926, kept a policy of admitting dancers regardless of race, and closed in 1958.

Accounts of the name differ. It is commonly said that the dancer George (Shorty) Snowden named it in 1928, around a Harlem dance marathon, in a nod to Charles Lindbergh's 1927 flight across the Atlantic, which newspapers called a hop. Other accounts point out that dances with similar names were already appearing in 1927, and that hop was an existing word for a dance.

In the 1930s, troupes such as Whitey's Lindy Hoppers took the dance to stage and film. Frankie Manning (1914–2009), one of the troupe's leading dancers and choreographers, is credited with the first Lindy air step, an over-the-back move, in 1935. After World War II the dance faded, and a revival from the 1980s in Sweden, Britain and the United States brought Manning and other original dancers back to teach.

Lindy Hop is grounded and athletic, with a relaxed, pulsing bounce and plenty of improvisation. Partners open out and come back together, and a single song can move between close partnering, solo jazz steps and Charleston variations. It feels conversational: both partners respond to the band and to each other.

The signature figure is the swingout, an eight-count move in which the follower is drawn in, turned around the leader and sent back out. It combines triple steps, a rock step and a stretchy connection, and much of the dance's character comes from how dancers phrase it with the music.

Basic count

1, 2, 3 & 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8

Time signature

4/4

Tempo

about 30–55 bars per minute (120–220 beats), typical

Hold

Closed and open hold

Lindy Hop has no governing tempo. Social dancers typically enjoy it from about 120 beats per minute up to around 220, with faster tunes for experienced dancers and contests. Most patterns are eight counts long, mixed freely with six-count patterns from the same family as East Coast Swing.

Dancers often talk about styles rather than rules: Savoy style is named for the Harlem ballroom, while Hollywood style is associated with dancers who worked in Los Angeles film studios. Air steps, in which a dancer leaves the floor, are performance moves and are kept off crowded social floors.

Basic figures

• Swingout
• Lindy Circle
• Tuck Turn
• Sugar Push
• Texas Tommy
• Send Out
• Side-by-Side Charleston
• Tandem Charleston

Figure names are given as the syllabi write them, in English.

Lindy Hop is not part of the ballroom syllabus. Its closest ballroom relatives are East Coast Swing in American Rhythm and Jive in International Latin. Lindy Hop has its own contest scene at swing dance events, including Jack and Jill contests with random partners, fixed-partner contests and choreographed routines. For the ballroom side of the story, see the history of competitive ballroom.

Lindy Hop is danced at swing nights, classes and weekend festivals in many cities, often to live bands. Large camps and exchanges draw dancers from many countries, and local scenes usually run beginner series that teach the swingout within a few weeks.

1. Learn the basic rhythm first, two steps and a triple, then build up to the eight-count swingout.

2. Stay low and relaxed in the knees. Lindy Hop is danced into the floor, not up on the toes.

3. Keep your arm connected but soft, so momentum rather than muscle carries the swingout.

4. Learn some solo jazz and Charleston. They make partnered dancing easier and more musical.

5. Save air steps for class and performance with a trained partner; they do not belong on a social floor.

Lindy Hop is danced to swinging jazz: 1930s and 1940s big band swing, small-group jazz, jump blues and modern bands playing in the same idiom. The music should swing, with a lilting, uneven feel to the eighth notes, and tempos run from relaxed to very fast.

• East Coast Swing

  East Coast Swing explained: its Lindy Hop roots, the American Rhythm competition tempo, the triple step basic, key figures and where people dance it.

• West Coast Swing

  West Coast Swing explained: the slotted swing from California, typical tempos, the sugar push and anchor step, WSDC points levels and where to dance it.

• Jive

  Ballroom Jive explained: its swing roots, the WDSF tempo of 42–44 bars per minute, the basic rock and chasses, and how it compares with East Coast Swing.

1. Frankie Manning Foundation, Biography
2. Wikipedia, Lindy Hop
3. Wikipedia, Savoy Ballroom
4. World Swing Dance Council, The Evolution of West Coast Swing (2015)

What this page was written from. DanceFlow is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sanctioned by any of these organizations.

Last checked against its sources on November 3, 2026.

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