Jittahbug™ »» ﻱam dέcoяŧ »»

So i guess those of you who don’t know me will ask what’s with the name “Jittahbug” and what’s with the dancing?

the name “Jittahbug” is my own variation of the word “Jitterbug” which i have , in a way, ‘gheto-nized’ as it is the name of the dancing which i have been doing for over seven months now.

Jitterbug can be used as a noun to refer to a swing dancer or various types of swing dances, for example, the Lindy Hop, Jive, West Coast Swing, and East Coast Swing. This has led to confusion within the dance community, since jitterbug can refer to different kinds of swing dances. It can also be used as a verb to mean someone dancing to swing music. For example, “People were top-notch jitterbugging, jumping around, cutting loose and going crazy”.

Although i have been learning ‘Lindy-Hop’ for over seven months now (With huge thanks to Sara Shenair who introduced me to this amazing world i didn’t know about) i almost immediately took preference to a variation of Lindy Hop, which is Charleston.

The Charleston is a dance named for the city of Charleston, South Carolina. The rhythm was popularized in mainstream dance music in the United States by a 1923 tune called The Charleston by composer/pianist James P. Johnson which originated in the Broadway show Runnin’ Wild and became one of the most popular hits of the decade.

I prefer the Charleston as it is much faster, energetic, wild, unpredictable, whacky, and just damn fun! You can pretty much style it out un-noticeable to those watching you perform without them even noticing you have slipped or added a move in backwards lol!

While it developed in African-American communities in the USA, the Charleston became a popular dance craze in the wider international community in the 1920s. Despite its black history, Charleston is most frequently associated with white flappers and the speakeasy. Here, these young women would dance alone or together as a way of mocking the “drys,” or citizens who supported the Prohibition amendment, as the Charleston was then considered quite immoral and provocative.

While the Charleston as a dance probably came from the “star” or challenge dances that were all part of the dance called Juba, the particular sequence of steps which appeared in Runnin’ Wild were probably newly devised for popular appeal. “At first, the step started off with a simple twisting of the feet, to rhythm in a lazy sort of way. [This could well be the Jay-Bird.] When the dance hit Harlem, a new version was added. It became a fast kicking step, kicking the feet, both forward and backward and later done with a tap.” Further changes were undoubtedly made before the dance was put on stage. In the words of Harold Courlander, while the Charleston had some characteristics of traditional Negro dance, it “was a synthetic creation, a newly-devised conglomerate tailored for wide spread popular appeal.” Although the step known as “Jay-Bird”, and other specific movement sequences are of Afro-American origin, no record of the Charleston being performed on the plantation has been discovered.

Although it achieved popularity when the song “Charleston”, sung by Elisabeth Welch, was added in the production Runnin’ Wild, the dance itself was first introduced in Irving C. Miller’s Liza in the spring of 1923.

The characteristic Charleston beat, which Johnson said he first heard from Charleston dockworkers, incorporates the clave rhythm and was considered by composer and critic Gunther Schuller to be synonymous with the Habanera, and the Spanish Tinge.

Charleston was one of the dances from which Lindy Hop and Jazz Roots developed in the 1930s, though the breakaway is popularly considered an intermediary dance form. A slightly different form of Charleston became popular in the 1930s and 40s, and is associated with Lindy Hop. In this later Charleston form, the hot jazz timing of the 1920s Charleston was adapted to suit the swing jazz music of the 30s and 40s. This style of Charleston has many common names, though the most common are Lindy Charleston, Savoy Charleston, 30s or 40s Charleston and Swing(ing) Charleston. In both 20s Charleston and Swinging Charleston the basic step takes 8 counts and was danced either alone or with a partner

Solo 20s Charleston (Sams Favourite)

Solo 20s Charleston has recently gained popularity in many local Lindy Hop scenes around the world, prompted by competitions such as the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown (in 2005 and 2006 particularly) and workshops in the dance taught by high profile dancers such as the Harlem Hot Shots (formerly known as The Rhythm Hot Shots) and a range of independent dancers. Usually danced to hot jazz music recorded or composed in the 1920s, 20s solo Charleston is styled quite differently to the Charleston associated with the 1930s, 1940s and Lindy Hop, though they are structurally similar.

Solo 20s Charleston is usually danced to music at comparatively high tempos (usually above 200 or 350 beats per minute, with tempos above 300 BPM considered ‘fast’), and is characterised by high-energy dancing. Faster movements are often contrasted with slower, dragging steps and improvisations.

As it is danced today, solo 20s Charleston often combines not only steps from dances associated with the 1920s (such as the Black Bottom and the Cakewalk), but also jazz dance. The most valued form of solo 20s Charleston combines choreography with improvisation and creative variations on familiar dance steps. Above all, the most popular and most “successful” solo 20s Charleston dancers respond to the music in creative ways to express themselves.

Solo 20s Charleston is often danced in groups on the social dance floor or in formal choreography.