Finally, my gay ballet-dancing friend has returned from his tour around the country and is now back in London. It's time to lindy-hop!
Lindy-hop is an African American tongue-in-cheek variant of swing that developed in New York in the late 1920s and 30s. Racial segregation was still a fact of life in those days, and African Americans who were excluded from dancing venues for whites developed the lindy-hop in part as a mockery or parody of white ballroom dancing. Thus it is a fusion of many dances, but with added playfulness and mischief and sexual undertones. The moves are often really impressive, including daring throws and jumps – it looks absolutely amazing (check out a fantastic video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAAAV7BB1HU).
There are tons of places you can go to in London, every day of the week if you should so desire, but what does it look like on the southside? So far, I’ve only found three places for the south londoner:
52nd Street Jump do classes every Thursday in the Royston Club on Royston Road in Penge (a bit of a trek, innit...)
Swingland have classes and freestyle dancing every Tuesday at the great South London instution the Bedford in Balham
Hula Boogie hold five week courses and drop-classes in the South London Tiki Pacific on Kennington Road.
Well, not a great selection. But that's no excuse!
Boogie
Boogie-woogie
All night long
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