Swing & Tap Dance
How Swing Dancing and Tap Dancing Come Together in Style
The evolution of Tap Dancing shows the involvement of Swing Dancing in its path to become a more accessible way of stomping the dance floor.
The original swing dance came out of Harlem New York. This original swing dance is called Lindy Hop. It is a fusion dance consisting of jazz, tap, breakaway and Charleston and proves to be highly energetic with crazy moves built for an athletic dancer. It became popular during the Big Band era of the 1930s and 1940s when dance halls were packed every night.
Although Lindy Hop is a partner dance, there are many times where each dancer improvises alone. At this opportunity to highlight one’s own individual talents, tapping becomes a popular choice amongst the “swingers”. With Flying Swing Outs and Flying Circles – both popular and basic moves in Lindy Hop – have a tap framework to them. Frankie Manning brought a new layer of dance into Lindy Hop when he introduced the aerial in 1935. With this, another aspect of partner dancing is amplified in the dance that essentially gave way to modern-day tap and jazz.
Tap dancing entails syncopation and improvisation, which are also very essential to swing dance with numerous triple steps and rock steps embedded into basic swing dance steps. In Lindy Hop, steps are mixed between six and eight count beats, which is also true to the American Rhythm West Coast Swing. This leaves room for improvisation and creativity for each individual dancer. Improvisation can either be done with the music, usually Big Band jazz in the case of all swing dance styles, or if can be follow the beats provided. An ambitious tap technique is to improvise without music, or in the breaks between Lindy Hop dances and steps through a capella dancing.
Since Lindy Hop is such a grounded swing dance with knees bend and the body tilted in a “ready-set-go” position. This athleticism is essential for Lindy Hop because it is such a fast-paced whirl-winded style of dance. With this grounded style, hoofing – a style of tap dance that uses the legs only, creating louder noises with the shoe itself (not necessarily a shoe with taps) – has become quite popular in Lindy Hop. The stomping between steps as a break from the basic Lindy swing out creates an energetic and typical Lindy persona to the dance itself.
Toronto’s own Swing and Tap Academy teaches both Swing dancing – from East Coast, West Coast to Lindy Hop and Single Rhythm Swing – and tap classes so the conjoining of the two can be easily accessible. The intricacies of tap only makes the fast past, fast-footed swing dancing even more delightful to dance and watch.
