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Swing Dance

The mid-1990's upsurge of interest in what came to be called 'swing dance' started in California and centred on the Dean Collins version of jitterbug that had been around since the late 1930's. There emerged a new wave of dancers who had studied the original Collins style and began popularising it. It features a distinct leaning back look by the partners.

This new interest got an enormous boost from the Gap Ad that was closely followed by the attempt of the record industry to implant some retro-swing bands into these developments. 'Swing Dance' had originally been the local Southern Californian name for Lindy Hop/Jitterbug style of dancing in the 1930's but it spread rapidly into national usage and became the generalised term for all the different dances that had descended from the Lindy. Even Ceroc/ Leroc can loosely be regarded as a Swing dance according to this definition.

However, there is another widespread usage of the term, especially among African Americans, which restricts the term 'swing dance' to a description of general social dancing to swing music - as opposed to the term 'Lindy Hop', meaning the more exhibitionist competition and performance modes of the dance.