Whitey's Lindy Hoppers

The great times of Swing and Big Band!

If I could do this, I'd rock.

However, I have the coordination of a banana, so I don't think I would be very good at this.

I think these dancers are amazing and there are more lindy-hoppers today than you might think.

*heh* I happened to have my iPod on and just watching the video and the song that started at exactly the same time I hit play on this video was the Beastie Boys Body Movin' Fatboy Slim remix (that's the one they use in the Body Movin' video) and it was remarkable well they synced up.

Haw haw, I actually have a copy of the film HELLZAPOPPIN.

Impressive! Lots of elements of everything from breakdancing to swing in there.

It would surprise me if that wasn't sped up at least a little bit. Definitely doesn't look quite natural.

If you liked that check out www.indavideo.hu/video/Josephine_Baker12

How fit would you have to be.

Firstly, good gravy they are amazing.

Secondly.

1941?

Wow those are some amazingly short skirts for the 40s.

Amazing. I wonder how many bruises and broken limbs they got training for it!

Not sped up, I've seen people do almost the same routine real-life :)

Black people were allowed to have short little skirts in those days. They didn't need to keep themselves decent, apparently.

Look up "lindy hop" or "swing dancing" on Youtube and be amazed :D There's lots of us lindyhoppers and swing dancers the world over!

Oh, that's definitely not sped up. The guy in the bib overalls is Fankie Manning, who still teaches lindy workshops at 94. I took one last spring. What an interesting guy. He and his friends there basically invented most of the lindy moves. Here's his website if you want more info: http://www.frankiemanning.com/

-Katie (who loves dancing lindy!)

I tried posting this once already, but it never seemed to make it up. I just wanted to say that I'm another present-day lindy hopper and I'm thrilled to see this clip make its way into "mainstream" internet culture (as opposed to our fairly small, insular community of dance nerds, where it's a classic).

No one does it better than these guys - they are all true innovators - but if you want to see the new guard of Lindy Hoppers, do a youtube search for "ULHS Liberation" to see contest footage (largely unchoreographed) from my favorite modern era contest.