Swing dance is a group of social dances that developed with the swing style of jazz music in the
1920sā1940s,
with
the
origins of each dance predating the popular "swing era". Hundreds of styles of swing dancing were developed; those
that
have survived beyond that era include Lindy Hop, Balboa, Collegiate Shag, and Charleston. Today, the
best-known of
these dances is the Lindy Hop, which originated in Harlem in the early 1930s.
While the majority of swing
dances
began in African-American communities as vernacular African-American dances, some influenced swing-era dances,
like
Balboa, developed outside of these communities.
"Swing dance" was not commonly used to identify a group of dances until the latter half of the 20th century.
Historically, the term swing referred to the style of jazz music, which inspired the evolution of the dance.
Jitterbug
is any form of swing dance, though it is often used as a synonym for the six-count derivative of Lindy Hop called
"East
Coast Swing". It was also common to use the word to identify a kind of dancer (i.e., a swing dancer). A
"jitterbug"
might prefer to dance Lindy Hop, Shag, or any of the other swing dances. The term was famously associated with
swing
era
band leader Cab Calloway because, as he put it, "[The dancers] look like a bunch of jitterbugs out there on the
floor
due to their fast, often bouncy movements."
The term "swing dancing" is often extended to include other dances that do not have certain characteristics of
traditional swing dances: West Coast Swing, Carolina Shag, East Coast Swing, Hand Dancing, Jive, Rock and Roll,
Modern
Jive, and other dances developed during the 1940s and later. A strong tradition of social and competitive boogie
woogie
and Rock 'n' Roll in Europe add these dances to their local swing dance cultures.