Jitterbug in the context of "Lindy Hop"

The country/western two-step, often called the Texas two-step or simply the two-step, is a country/western dance usually danced to country music in common time. "Traditional [Texas] two-step developed, my theory goes, because it is suited to fiddle and guitar music played two-four time with a firm beat [found in country music]. One-two, one-two, slide-shuffle. The two-step is related to the polka, the Texas waltz, and the jitterbug.

As with other country/western dances, there are many different versions of two step across the United States, and there may be no one truly "correct" way to perform a particular dance. Even individual dance halls may have their own unique variations which they consider correct.

Swing dance is a category of social dances that developed with the swing style of jazz music in the 1920s–1940s, with the origin of each dance predating the swing era. Hundreds of styles of swing dancing were developed; those that have survived beyond that era include Charleston, Balboa, Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing, and Collegiate Shag. 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, such as Balboa, that developed outside of these communities.

Swing dance was not commonly used to identify a group of dances until the second half of the 20th century. Historically, the word swing referred to a 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". One who danced swing was called a swing dancer. Jitterbug might refer to Lindy Hop, Shag, or 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 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.

Hand dancing, also known as D.C. hand dancing or D.C. swing, is a form of swing dance that can be traced as far back as the 1920s, from Lindy Hop and the Jitterbug, to the 1950s when dancers in the District of Columbia developed their own variety. It is characterized by gliding footwork and continuous hand connection/communication between the partners, hence its name. It fell out of favor during the disco era, but in the 1980s, Hand Dance resurfaced in the Washington dance community.

In 1993, the Smithsonian Institution recognized Hand Dance as an American Art Form, and the Smithsonian exhibit led to the establishment of the National Hand Dance Association.