Hollywood Style Lindy Hop

Hollywood Style Lindy Hop

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I chose the Erik and Sylvia number because I was a pupil of theirs until their divorce in 2002 or so. They are both so smooth and glide gracefully across the floor as if they were skating on a layer of melting ice. Note how she keeps her legs together and by swiveling her feet back in forth in synch with her legs together she has better hip gyration and with her upright posture she can maintain her elegance and poise as a lady and also giving her more of a Latin style of movement. How Erik’s presence is felt even as he simply does a basic step (a swing out). He let’s her be the picture and he is the frame. Although, in this dance, it’s not always the girl that gets to be the picture.

Me & Silvia - long Time Ago

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There are also bastardized variations that the kids make excuses for combining the two styles. Meaning, they are doing a variation of combined Savoy and Hollywood styles. That’s all fine, because who’s really counting? But the truth is, that by combing the two it’s hard to maintain continuity and can be confusing for the follower, the audience (and yes, someone is always watching) and the movements between the moves. –I’ve re-read that several times and I simply don’t know how to put it any other way. So to rephrase that, I should say: To form one move that may have it’s roots in a Savoy style then, go to a Hollywood style of move, is simply unpleasant for everyone involved. Can you do it and get away with it? Of course you can, you can paint a Rolls-Royce neon pink too. Bad taste is bad taste no matter which side of the bed you wake up on, the thing is, folks with bad taste aren’t aware that this is the affliction they suffer from.

Most of the mistakes that I see being made in this dance genre are from:

1) Lack of Discipline - Americans usually, I single out Americans for a reason that I’m not going into right now, doing whatever they want and as long they receive praise from those whom don’t know any better, what do they care?

2) Genuinely Don’t Know Any Better – This sadly, is one of the least experienced reasons I’ve encountered. But it is worth noting that it’s because they took some dance lessons at a Lindy workshop, which are usually done by traveling salesmen..ahem, instructors that could be from and specialize in whatever style they want. Maybe one workshop was from a guy whom style was Savoy and then a month later they took a workshop form someone whom was more of a Hollywood styled dancer. Most instructors do not note what style they are teaching and don’t go into all the details with everyone in the class. Only the more advanced students will know the difference between the two. Giving the newer dancers a lot longer learning curve to acquire this new skill.

3) Dancers Adaptability – This would be someone whom has just danced with a Savoy styled partner and now they just latched onto a Hollywood dancer. This person really needs to know how to adapt and haven’t truly grasped the idea of being a chameleon and bleeding those colors with your partner. Of course, you don’t have to give entirely. After all, one has his or her integrity, but there must be some flexibility otherwise it wouldn’t be a partnered dance and it would be called Ballet, Tap or Jazz

4) And finally, Genes - Yes, that’s it genes. I know it sounds stupid, but many people have genetic dispositions. Me, personally, I like to dance all night long and I’m getting old...er. I can’t be swing dancing like the kid I was ten years ago, wow, ten years ago I ended my career because I was getting too old! I can feel it in my joints! Whereas I know guys that are twice my age doing twice as much as I ever did in this field. A girl with skinny legs and may always dance in heels is going to have a much different style than a shorter girl that showed up in a pair of flats. It doesn’t matter as long as he or she owns it. A chubby, tattooed bearded guy is going to look good no matter what though.

Swing Kats

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I could simply talk about the Hollywood style for considerably longer. I certainly hope that I’ve shed some light into this world a little more for you and even more so, I hope that you found this, borderline diatribe, paper interesting. I did want to go into more of the dress, the snubbing, and the more of the etiquette of this subculture. I feel there can be a lot to learn and lots to be taught in this field. But I think I should’ve stopped writing two or three pages ago and to me the history is simply more important on this matter and the rest simply falls in line. That’s only my opinion. If you’ve read this in its entirety thank you for your time.