Jive (or the correct term jitterbug jive) is named after a 30's Mickey Mouse cartoon where Mickey and Minnie danced a country style jitterbug. The name came from Jitterbugs being the dancers and Jive meaning fake or not right.But, the dance steps are actually derived originally from country dancing. The turns and overhead moves are a direct descendant of some very old English country dances where couples cross over in a diagonal. Jive actually has nothing to do with the Lindy Hop, Charleston or any other body lead dance of the time, this is due to the dance being hand lead rather than body lead as in all the other swing dances of the 30's and 40's.
Real 30's jive dancing is very smooth and with sliding footwork whereas later the footwork was not as smooth due to the dancers lifting their feet so as not to trip on rough floor boards or the local rough country entertainment establishments.[citation needed] American soldiers brought these dances to Europe around 1940, where they swiftly found a following among the young.
After the war, the boogie became the dominant form for popular music. However, it was never far from criticism as a foreign, vulgar dance. The famous ballroom dancing guru, Alex Moore, said that he had "never seen anything uglier". English instructors developed the elegant and lively Jive, danced to
No comments:
Post a Comment