A social is a gathering where people dance. Sometimes it has live music, other times a DJ is playing. People don’t have a fixed dance partner. They can ask anyone if they would like to dance with them. Accept a no and if you can dance both lead and follow it is nice to ask which role the other person would like to dance. You can also switch roles within the dance.

This video has multiple songs, you can skip thorugh it a little. It is just to get an impression on how it looks like.

Like back in the day most fotage that exist are dances from performaces or competitions. Well and a bunch of teaching videos as well

„Heebie Jeebie“ by Louis Armstrong. He starts singing at minute 1:25.

And a more modern version of scatting.

A 8 minute introduction to Blackfacing. Watch minute 0:52 -2:12 for now maybe.

They are covering recent events in the beginning, or better scandals invloving Balckface.If you wanna skip that you can forward to minute 0:52. It switches to Minstrel Shows at minute 2:12.

A short clip of inside the Savoy Ballroom (with very shitty audio quality). To be seen is the Corner and a competition.

If you are intersted in other places in Harlem back then you can find some here.

This is a clip of the Harvest Moon Ball from 1937. It is a bit longer, maybe just take a peek of the first minute.

If you want the full story of the 1935 Harvest Moon Ball click here. It also briefly explains the Harlem Riots in the beginning.

A short clip of Big Bea and Shorty George. Witht their iconic move were Big Bea is carrying Shorty Geroge on his back.

Shorty George led one of the first professional Lindy Hop dance troupe – the Shorty Snowden Dancers.

They often performed as individual couples in more like a competition style. The couples seen in this clip are Madeline and Freddie Lewis, Little Bea and Leroy “Stretch” Jones, and Mattie Purnell and Shorty Snowden

A short clip of Whity’s Lindy Hoppers in the movie A day at the Races (1937). The dancing starts at min 1:30

The Harlem Cangaroos

You can read more into the Whyte’s Lindy Hoppers here and on some dancers biographies here.

If you wanna see more clips: here

A 4min part of the documentary with Norma Miller describing how she started dancing in the Savoy Ballroom.

A (very rushed) short introduction to the Whitman Sisters with a little more informations about them.

The Texas Tommy at Barbary Coast (first half)

This dance duo is probably Johnny Peters and Ethel Williams, who traveled from coast to coast, at this time, demonstrating the dance between 1910 and 1913.

A very short introduction to the Big Apple (from min 0:50) as part of white college culture.

The choreoraphy that we call today Big Apple. At the end are the different dancers pointed out. Frankie Manning is the choreographer.

A medium long clip from Laura Glass explaining the origins of the Big Apple and other interesing side fact. The first ~2min are maybe good for here. But I recommend wahcing the whole clip – it is very interesting to watch!

The Shim Sham danced by Al Minns and Leon James

And the shim sham how it is mostly known today. At least in Europe.

Movies

• The Indians Who Rocked the World
  • A documentary that explores the influence Native Americans had on the developement of muisc.

Books

Podcasts

• Here you can find a whole collection of podcasts with a short introduction on what they are about.