Jive

Despite its age and the lack of any guiding council to promote it as a dance form, Jive regularly flares up, re-igniting enthusiasm among new generations. 
Terry Monaghan explains it’s history

Quite apart from the slew of current musicals that reference its 1950s high-point – Grease, Hairspray etc – its inclusion in the recent hugely successful BBC dance reality series “Strictly Come Dancing”, followed by the not so popular “Strictly Dance Fever”, demonstrates an enduring appeal. It seldom falls foul of the “Disco Dad” syndrome either! “Jiving” parents invariably arouse admiration rather than embarrassment among their off-spring.
Yet there is a “but.” Some “Strictly Come Dancing” entrants put their finger on it when noting the difficulty they had with the Ballroom Jive category as opposed to the rest. Jiving remains the odd one out in the “Latin and American” group of competitive ballroom dance forms. Its inclusion as the only “American” dance in an otherwise all “Latin” category, sometimes gives rise to the misleading practice of calling it a “Latin dance” which it most certainly is not!
Further back, before Jiving emerged from Jitterbug and Lindy Hop, the latter occupied a similar isolated status when included in New York’s main ballroom dance contest which ran from 1935 to 1974. Despite providing the popular concluding category for this huge event, its results didn’t count towards determining the overall winning couple. The general failure to explain how this odd status fits into almost 80 years of continuous and at times insane popularity has resulted in various myths that need some clarification:
“Isn’t Jiving mainly about throwing your partner in the air?” That’s like saying ballet is “mainly about the male partner lifting the female”. Whereas such movements tend to be crowning gestures their success and significance depends on the preceding floor work. Although each dance form uses different techniques in this respect the effectiveness of both depends on the smoothness with which elevation flows from what came before.
“Didn’t Jiving begin in the 1950s?” The mid-1950s release of the record and the film Rock Around the Clock saw thousands of youthful filmgoers rioting in order to imitate the dancing they saw on screen, followed by the emergence of Elvis Presley. Although this proved to be the most spectacular of its reincarnations to date, all its main musical and dance elements, including the name Rock ‘n’ Roll, were not, however, new. In particular Jiving evolved out of the Jitterbug and Lindy Hop.

“Aren’t Jitterbug and Lindy Hop different dances?” The recent confused attempt by “Strictly Dance Fever” to differentiate Jitterbug and Lindy Hop demonstrated instead their essential similarity, which their two names might be thought to deny. First known as the Lindy Hop when created in 1928 by African-Americans in Harlem, New York City it became generally called Jitterbug in the early 1940s as its popularity surged during World War II. The name changed, but the dance remained.
“Didn’t Jitterbug arrive in the UK with the GIs in WWII?” Given that the first UK Jitterbug Championships took place in 1939, while GIs didn’t arrive in significant numbers until late 1942 this is obviously not true. However their mass presence did force UK ballroom managers to allow jitterbugging where previously they had banned it!
“Wasn’t the Lindy Hop spontaneously named in celebration of Charles Lindbergh’s first solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927?” As Lindbergh flew the Atlantic a year before the Lindy Hop dance came into existence, and the dance itself acquired its actual name three months after that, this is most unlikely. A more likely explanation is that a little while after both events a clever marketing person coined the name after seeing the potential of establishing a link between the flight and the dance.
“Jiving is just another American dance craze.” Eighty years of still flourishing performance, competition and social modes of many different versions suggests otherwise. First taking shape in competitions and in performance its social version appeared approximately six months later. Thus its defining and unique partnering technique of two people dancing as a couple being separately able to rhythmically improvise attracted considerable interest from leading figures in the ballet world. The dance evolved into three main sections, the core “swing-outs” or in Jive “underarm turns”, the routines in which the partners let go to dance in parallel, and the “air steps”.

THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF JIVE

Successive dancing generations have inscribed different meanings on Jiving along the way, which usually resulted in new versions. Their introduction or inception in the UK is outlined here approximately in order of appearance:

ORIGINAL LINDY HOP/JITTERBUG

Remnants of original Lindy Hop and Jitterbug that derive from original sources can still be spotted:
The initial touring by Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom experts, known as Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers in 1935 and 1937, or from their film appearances, or the mass invasion of GI’s in WWII, or even the Jamaican immigrants who kept the Jitterbug alive after the GI’s left. The WWII GI’s left us with the name Jive that has remained the preferred term on this side of the Atlantic. A Glasgow group led by Betty Allen still dances a four-count style learned from GIs.

SKIP JIVE

The US revival of interest in New Orleans style of jazz music, known popularly as “Trad Jazz” which spread to the UK in the late 1940s gave rise to a distinctive home grown version. While some dancers stuck to the Jitterbug others took to a new skipping style that loosely replicated rhythms otherwise seen in the old New Orleans style of parade dancing. Easily danced in half or normal time it meant even beginners could cope with the wide range of New Orleans music tempos. It is still enthusiastically danced in the invariably sold-out annual Ken Colyer’s Trad-Jazz dance weekend each October in Norfolk.

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL JIVE

It was the aging Hollywood Jitterbugs dancing in the film Rock Around the Clock, rather than Bill Haley’s music, that initially unleashed in 1956 the tidal wave of enthusiasm for this new music-dance combination. Being mostly self-taught, apart from those lucky enough to have jitter-bugging parents, it was typically danced in two or four beat sequences with the male leader being the central pivot around which his female partner moves. This true kind of UK  Jive has never lost its legions of dedicated devotees.

JIVEÁILE

This Irish version of the same 1950s enthusiasm evolved in the Irish Gaelic speaking areas on the west coast into a strict tempo and invariably quickly danced style that has the distinction of becoming a traditional dance in the sense of being subsequently passed on from generation to generation.

BALLROOM JIVE

This for-competition-only version was formulated by Walter Laird in 1960 as part of the Latin and American syllabus. Based on a six-beat pattern of two-side chassés and a back rock-step, it prohibits any kind of “air steps” and is usually danced in an enhanced bouncy style.

This revival of interest in 1950s pop music, especially as signalled by the movie American Graffiti led to the emergence of a range of new groups, often with the word “cat” in their names usually playing in a Rockabilly style. Featuring a number of well known DJs like Tom Ingram, who quickly developed an extensive knowledge of 1950s US recorded music which they played rather than the better known original hits.

Associated with the original film and then stage versions, this type of dancing is usually more show jazz than actual jiving. Like
Ballroom-Jive it features extended arms and legs that stylistically are alien to the original form as they interrupt the core rhythmic flow. How different this version can look from the real thing could be gauged by the lack of impact Susan Stroman’s prize-winning choreography for the Jive number had in the West End version of her show Contact, when danced in this way.

A whole family of French Jive dances called Ceroc, Leroc etc. began establishing a major presence in the UK from the early 1980s. Most of this style is centred on a defined variety of arm movements with a simple side-to-side stepping of the legs. It is thus easy for anyone to dance with anyone else trained in this style, and to a wide variety of popular music.

The Mama Lou Park’s Harlem based dance company brought the Lindy Hop back to London in September 1983. From there the Jiving Lindy Hoppers dance company emerged and in turn their teaching and performing created a still expanding Lindy Hop scene across the UK. Subsequently there has been a widespread scene-shift towards emphasising the look of the dance rather than its rhythmic essence.

Although apparently trying to tear each other’s arms out of their sockets, rank beginners often seem to grasp the point of jiving better than many experts. Although technically wrong, they at least have an inkling of the enjoyment to be derived from two independent rhythmic contributions producing a unified end result. Next they need to get on the same beat by jointly listening to the music. They will then be capable of defining their own partnering style through giving expression to a unique personal sense of joint creativity. 

UK Jive Events to look out for in 2007
www.hemsbyrocknroll.co.uk the truly “monster” 1950s themed event that takes place
each October on the Norfolk Coast.
www.swingdanceuk.com/main/LLHF.htm details of the return of the London Lindy Hop Festival in the outskirts of London also in October where the original style of Jive can be learned.
www.rhythmriot.com another 1950s themed event, but in November on the Sussex Coast and featuring a sensational line up of performers.

Contact the ISTD or UKA for syllabus, class and competition details for the Ballroom Jive versions of the dance.

Fact Boxes:
The First Jivers
While all “new” dances evolve from previous ones, the first-known couple to dance the earliest recognisable form of Jive were “Shorty George” Snowden and Mattie Purnell in June 1928 (pictured above at the Manhattan Casino in Harlem, July 1928) . Called a little later on the Lindy Hop, this dance developed on the ballroom floors of Harlem and was characterised by rhythmic “swinging-out” as the partners moved right away from each other and then come back close together. In later UK jiving, the leader tends to be the pivot with his partner, performing various types of underarm terms instead, but it still has the same spirit. Thus although Snowden is often described as the first lindy hopper he couldn’t have done it all on his own!

More info on the net:
www.youtube.com for key film clips
www.howtojive.com for a wider range of Jive dance definitions
www.uk-jive.co.uk has an up-to-date list of national Jive events
www.planetjive.co.uk has an excellent range of links covering where to learn, find bands and shop in style
www.thisgigguide.fsnet.co.uk – advertised as “the complete UK gig guide”
www.jiveafter5.co.uk Kav Kavanagh has been teaching Rock’n’ Roll style Jive for over 20 years now!
www.savoyballroom.com for info on the original home of the Lindy Hop
http://swing-dancer.com/page.php?45 – read more on the history of Jive.

Terminology

Jitterbug, Jitterbug-Jive and Jive all basically mean the same thing as the Lindy Hop, i.e. the original style of ballroom partner dancing that uniquely enables both partners to improvise. The dance has changed over its 80 years, but it is very difficult to tie those changes to changes of name which usually occurred for non-dance reasons.

Rock ‘n’ Roll – used in Europe to mean dancing a Jitterbug style dance to 1950s style Rock ‘n’ Roll music which thus gives the dance a different look. In the US the same term is used to describe the music and dance that developed in the 1960s and later.

Films, DVD’s and Books

www.howtojive.com/video.htm for the best selling instructional DVD How to Jive”
Let’s Lindy by Simon Selmon, a basic “how to Lindy” booklet
Jazz Dance – The Story of American Vernacular Dance by Marshall and Jean Stearns, has three chapters on the Lindy Hop and the Savoy which describes how the dance got under way.

There are many Jive film sequences – but five examples are:

A Day At The Races (1937) contains a good example of original Lindy Hopping literally straight from Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom.

1941 (1979) despite being totally choreographed this film’s use of stage Jive to create the feel of a Californian ballroom full of enthusiastic dancers during WWII is thoroughly convincing.

The Mask (1994) contans a modern “revivalist” version of Jitterbug that’s full of technical tricks, but expertly done to bring out the essential dynamism of the dance.