Lindy Hop comes from the Black community and Black experience in Harlem in the 1920's - 1940's. Its history is complex, political, joyful, compelling and truly American. As we know, so many Black cultural contributions have been overlooked. It's understandable that to see the Queer history of Lindy Hop you have to dig even deeper. Below are clips of dancers old and new that embody gender diversity in
Lindy Hop as wetwo of Harlem's original Savoy Ballroom Lindy Hoppers!
Al Minns and Leon James.
Adam and Máté are the first competitively successful openly gay, same sex couple in Lindy Hop. They teach and perform all over the world. Adam is the founder of Queer Swing Seattle. Find out more about them HERE
"Switch Dancing" is when dancers distinctly change "roles" and positions during the dance. Adam and Rafal were actually disqualified from this contest since the judges were not prepared to judge this new way of dancing.
A staunch LGBTQ supporter, dancer and cabaret singer. Dawn lead, followed and more than anything embodied the music in everything she did. Dawn's dancing and messages have been heavily influential in the ideas behind Queer Swing Seattle. Here she dances with Jonathan Bixby, enjoy!
This video is amazing! West Coast Swing is a younger cousin of Lindy Hop. You will notice that the announcer says "cameras off" joking that it would be inappropriate to view two men dance together. Up until very recently same sex dancers and queer dancers were often not allowed to compete together,
and if they did it was presented as a joke.
These two - are no joke.
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