Dance in the 1940s
Synopsis: Swing dance- This dance developed with the development of jazz and swing music. The The 1940s dance styles were all centered around swing dance. This dance developed with the development of jazz and swing music. The dance was different in many ways, all around the country. Professional ballroom dancing, as opposed to everyday dancing, began to take a form entertainment and artistic sport during the 1940’s, thus officially marking the birth of DanceSport.
Examples:
Examples:
- jitterbug= swing dancers who danced without any control or knowledge of proper dance moves, typically because the dancers were drunk (from slang, alcoholics with the “jitters”)
- various types of swing dances, including the Lindy Hop, Jive, the Big Apple, West Coast Swing, the Whip, the Push, and the East Coast Swing, were referred to as the “jitterbug” dance.
- west coast swing-- straight lines, thinner slots-- made in Hollywood so more people’s faces could fit in the screen for a movie while still dancing
- Jive: introduced by UK, Cab Calloway’s “Hepster’s Jive Talk”, calmer version of jitterbug/east coast swing
Primary Source:
Eastern "Hep Cats" were considered jive experts. “The jitterbug originated in the east, so it is natural that the far west should be the last to take up the craze and be the least proficient. California and the northwest have their own ideas about what a jive should be, and it crops out as a combination of them all. Much as I hate to, I’ve got to put Callfornians at the bottom of the jitterbug heap.” -Story from the Salt Lake Tribune – January 2, 1943 Final Analysis: The 1940s was a crucial decade for American dance, crystallizing the experiments of the two previous decades and establishing the dominant forms of dance until the 1970s. In this era, jazz, tap, and swing music influenced everything. This is why swing dance had such an emphasis put on it in the 1940s. |