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Swing dances: From Blues to Boogie through Balboa and Shag
A FASCINATING JOURNEY TO DISCOVER SWING DANCES
We have already seen how from the Breakaway and the Charleston came the Lindy Hop. (Read here)
We will now take a journey to discover the other dances that are part of the swing world, how they developed and their characteristics.
A DIVE INTO THE BLUES, THE DANCE OF THE ORIGINS
Also at the turn of the 800 and '900 must be placed the development of the Blues, which can be danced both alone and in pairs, with natural movements strongly linked to the earth and naturally of clear African influence, with a strong playful and joyful component.
Initially it was called Jookin and danced in the Juke joints, small places of recreation and rest for black workers: had as reference music the delta blues; then, during the Swing Era, on much larger tracks, the slow drag/ballroomin was imposed, which had as reference music the slow swing and a more jazzata form of blues. As for the style, is characterized by the position in "close embrace" (dance embraced or closed position), standing posture and wide walks.
VINTAGE JAZZ, ALL POWER TO IMPROVISATION
Vintage Jazz also has its origin in the culture of the first African-American communities settled in the Harlem area of New York. When one speaks of Vintage Jazz - also known as Vernacular, Authentic Jazz or sometimes as Original Jazz - one refers to the Jazz dance of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, which, unlike the contemporary 'modern jazz dance', was obviously not influenced by steps and techniques of later dances.
Vintage Jazz is danced solo and performed through improvisation or choreography. Its main characteristics are individuality and rhythm: each dancer is free to express his or her personality by developing an individual style. It is characterised by downward movements, i.e. it is centred on the use of the legs; this applies in particular to the Charleston Solo. The rest of the body gains in lightness, ending up giving the dancer a disenchanted and playful expression. The movements are on the whole very rhythmic and often influenced by Tip-tap.
If danced alone it can have this free and improvised style, its choreographies instead have codified and universally recognised names and characteristics in the Swing world, such as the Shim Sham Shimmy, the Big Apple and the Tranky Doo.
DREAMING OF CALIFORNIA: THE ELEGANCE OF BALBOA
In Balboa, therefore, the feet of the dancers always move in tune, without turns or dynamic moments of space between the couples. The basic step is on 8 times divided into 2 moments of 4 times. Most of the movements are performed by the feet with rather rapid changes of rhythm, although one can dance to slower rhythms. Parallel to pure Balboa, however, Bal-Swing has developed, a more dynamic version of Balboa that leaves space between couples by including movements such as spins, dips, tricks and aerial figures.
THE COLLEGIATE SHAG, FROM STUDENTS TO CARTOONS
Collegiate Shag can be defined as a direct emanation of the Charleston. It is characterised by a rich vocabulary of movements from different original African-American dances. It became popular in the 1930s especially among students, hence the term Collegiate. In reality, this dance was not linked to academic structures, but was popular among young people in the various music schools, who invented faster and faster figures in order to excel. Lo Shag ha infatti bisogno più di energia che di grazia. It is usually danced using a 6-step pattern in closed positions, although open figures are not lacking. Leader and follower, in closed positions, take each other's hand and hold it in the air above their heads. Depending on the rhythm, shag can be subdivided into single, double or triple. In the case of collegiate shag it is a double and is known for its basic step, small jumps that create the typical ‘rocking’ feeling and a high energy in the footwork that differentiates it from other forms of swing and other types of shag such as ‘Carolina Shag’ or ‘St Louis Shag’. To some, the dancers remind one of those cartoon characters, from Bugs Bunny to Beep Beep the running bird in Wile E. Coyote, who move their feet at a whirling pace, while remaining rigid, almost impassive, in the rest of their bodies. It's a fanciful and in some ways unrealistic image, but one that makes the point...
BOOGIE WOOGIE: FROM JUST STEPS TO ROCK & ROLL
There is no doubt that this music induced people to dance, but a form of dance codified with the name Boogie would not emerge until much later and, moreover, in Europe, in the footsteps of the Rock and Roll of the 1950s. The Boogie is in fact danced to a fast-paced 4/4, which lends itself well to acrobatic manoeuvres by couples. For many years, the Boogie Woogie style was called ‘Rock and Roll’, but only because of the music: the two dances are objectively different. Up to that time, more than Boogie dancing, one can speak of Boogie steps included in Lindy dancing (boogie forward, boogie back). It happened in fact that, especially after the birth of Big Bands in the 1930s, the rhythms and sounds became more pronounced, less suited to the ‘stretched’ movements typical of Lindy Hop. The bounce more energetic and more ‘springy’, the connection between leader and follower closer and more vigorous. The Aerials component was strong, the use of the ‘kick’ marked, especially as a variant of the ‘triple step’. The result of this strange evolution is that, as a codified dance, the Boogie Woogie exists only in Europe while the dance most similar to the Boogie Woogie practised in the United States is the one known as East Coast Swing, which remains a standardised interpretation of the Swing dances of the 1930s and 1940s.
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