The jive is a dance style that originated in the United States from African Americans in the early 1930s. The name of the dance comes from the name of a form of African-American vernacular slang, popularized in the 1930s by the publication of a dictionary by Cab Calloway, the famous jazz bandleader and singer. In competition ballroom dancing, the jive is often (mistakenly) grouped with the Latin-inspired ballroom dances, though its roots are based more on swing dancing than Latin dancing.
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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.
Latin dance is a general label, and a term in partner dance competition jargon. It refers to types of ballroom dance and folk dance that mainly originated in Latin America, though a few styles originated elsewhere.
The category of Latin dances in the international dancesport competitions consists of the Cha-cha-cha, Rumba, Samba, Paso Doble, and Jive.
Jitterbug is a generalized term used to describe swing dancing. It is often synonymous with the lindy hop dance but might include elements of the jive, east coast swing, collegiate shag, charleston, balboa and other swing dances.
Swing dancing originated in the African-American communities of New York City in the early 20th century. Many nightclubs had a whites-only or blacks-only policy due to racial segregation, however the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem had a no-discrimination policy which allowed whites and blacks to dance together and it was there that the Lindy Hop dance flourished, started by dancers such as George Snowden and Frank Manning. The term jitterbug was originally a ridicule used by black patrons to describe whites who started to dance the Lindy Hop, as they were dancing faster and jumpier than was intended, like "jittering bugs", although it quickly lost its negative connotation as the more erratic version caught on. Both the Lindy Hop and the "jitterbug" became popular outside Harlem when the dance was featured in Hollywood films and Broadway theatre, starring the performance group Whitey's Lindy Hoppers.
Modern Jive is a dance style derived from swing, Lindy Hop, rock and roll, salsa and various other dance styles, the main difference being the simplification of footwork by removing syncopation such as chassé. The term "French Jive" is occasionally used instead, reflecting the origins of the style, as is the term "Smooth Jive". The word "modern" distinguishes it from ballroom Jive.
The swingout is the defining dance move of Lindy Hop.
The swingout evolved from the breakaway, which in turn evolved from the Texas Tommy. The first documented mention of the swingout pattern that resembles breakaway was in 1911, to describe a "Texas Tommy Swing" show done at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. Its variants are used in Jive, East Coast Swing, West Coast Swing and Modern Jive.