摇摆历史课 | 什么是Lindy Hop?

The Lindy Hop was christened at the Savoy dance hall in Harlem, New York; it was named after aviator Charles Lindbergh's "hop" across the Atlantic (in May 1927) by the dancer "Shorty" George Snowden.

Lindy Hop来自于纽约Harlem和Savoy舞厅；在飞行员Charles Lindbergh“跳跃”大西洋（在1927）后，“矮子”舞者George Snowden给取的这个名字。

Although the name of the dance was new in 1927, the dance itself was not a completely new invention. Its styles and forms had evolved from a number of previously existing dances. The most well-known of these influences is the Charleston (the evolution from the Charleston Basic to the Back Charleston move in Lindy Hop is obvious), but other possible influences include the Two-Step (which shares an eight-beat even-odd-even-odd rhythm pattern with Lindy Hop), the Cakewalk, Black Bottom and the Texas Tommy.

尽管舞蹈的名称是在1927新取的，但舞蹈本身却不是一个全新的发明。它的风格和形式已经经过了以前很多种舞蹈的演变。其中影像最大的当属最有名的Charleston（早期Charleston基本步到Lindy Hop中的Charleston的演变是最明显的），其他可能的影响包括Two-Step舞（它的八拍结构，奇偶奇偶节奏模式与Lindy Hop是一样的），还有CakeWalk，Black Bottom和Texas Tammy等。

An unusual (for the time) feature of the dance was the inclusion of sections where the dancers would move apart from each other, and perform individual steps (known as the "breakaway"). Another unique feature that was introduced in these early days were the first airsteps. These daring manoeuvres were exciting for the audiences to watch, and were soon a staple of organized Lindy Hop performances.

这个舞的一个不寻常（在那个时代）特点在于，它舞蹈的部分中舞者可以彼此分开，并进行单独的步骤（称为“breakaway”）。另一个独特的特征是早期产生的airsteps舞步。这些大胆的动作能令观看的观众人兴奋不已，所以它很快就被加进Lindy Hop的表演当中。

Indeed, Lindy Hop was so exciting to watch that troupes like Whitey's Lindy Hoppers found themselves in demand for movie scenes, most famously in "Hellzapoppin'" and the Marx Brothers' "Day at the Races". These films were to prove important in the renaissance of Lindy Hop nearly fifty years later.

事实上，看Lindy Hop的演出实在太刺激了，以至于Whitey的Lindy Hoppers们发现连电影荧幕也需要他们，其中最著名的电影有“hellzapoppin”和马克思兄弟的"Day at the Races"。这些电影对五十年后的LindyHop复兴起到了非常重要的作用。

Evolution of Swing Dance

摇摆舞的演变

Over the next few decades, popular music changed, moving away from the big band sound of swing to styles like rhythm and blues and then rock and roll. Due to this and other factors, the Lindy Hop evolved and mutated into a number of different styles.

在接下来的几十年里，流行音乐改变了，从大乐队的摇摆爵士，到节奏布鲁斯，再到后来的摇滚乐。由于这个变化和其他多种因素的影响，Lindy Hop也进化和演变出了许多不同的风格。

The first variant was known as the Jitterbug; some consider this just to be an alternative name for the Lindy Hop, but some claim that it was distinguished by a prevalence of six-beat moves and a bouncier feel to the dance. Further evolution in this direction led to the Jive and Rock'n'Roll styles, which dropped all eight-beat and most Charleston-derived moves.

第一个变种被称为吉特巴舞（Jitterbug）；有些人认为它只是Lindy Hop的另外一个名字，但另一些人认为两者在流行的六拍动作和弹性的感觉上有明显区别。在这个方向的进一步演变，产生了牛仔和摇滚的风格，它们舍弃了八拍结构和大多数来自Charleston的动作。

The Jive styles of swing dance were introduced to Europe by American servicemen during the second World War. They quickly took off and were adapted in different ways across different countries. In mainland Europe the Boogie-Woogie style developed, and the airsteps from the original Lindy Hop were taken to their logical extreme in competitive acrobatic Rock'n'Roll. In the UK the Jive was adopted into the canon of ballroom dance forms, with Ballroom Jive becoming one of the ten standard dances—in a suitably codified and restricted form, of course.

牛仔风格的摇摆舞在第二次世界大战时期由美国军人引入到欧洲。他们很快就开始盛行，并以不同的方式在不同的国家进行了变化。在欧洲本土形成了Boogie-Woogie 风格，另外，Lindy Hop 中的airsteps在Rock'n'Roll的比赛中被发挥到极端。在英国，舞厅牛仔成为舞厅的必跳的经典，成为十大标准舞蹈之一，当然也还有了它一定的规定和限制。

Meanwhile, back in the US, swing dance was evolving in a different direction. On the west coast, the Lindy Hop evolved into a more upright dance, with tighter footwork and fewer Charleston-derived moves (a style often now described as "Hollywood style", with the original style known as "Savoy style"). In large part, this evolution was guided by Dean Collins, a dancer who moved from New York to Los Angeles in 1936. He was a prolific choreographer for television and film, and taught swing dance in Los Angeles for nearly fifty years.

同时，回到美国，摇摆舞也同样有了不同方向的发展。在美国西海岸，Lindy Hop变成了一个更加直立的舞蹈，严格的步法和更少Charlesto动作（这种风格现在经常被描述为"Hollywood style", 而原来的风格被称为“Savoy style”）。在很大程度上，这种演变是来自于Dean Collins，一个在1936年从纽约移居洛杉矶的舞者。他是一个多产的影视编导，并在洛杉矶教摇摆舞近五十年。

During this period, to reduce the problems of overcrowded ballrooms, it became common practice for the follower to always move along an imaginary line on the floor, known as a "slot". This allowed the slots for many couples to be lined up, reducing the chances of collisions. The end result of this evolution was known as West Coast Swing.

在这期间，为了减少舞厅拥挤的问题，Follower们会在地板上假想一条直线来移动，这已成为一种被称为“slot”的惯例。这使得舞池有了更多的间隙给成对的舞者们见缝插针见缝插针，从而减少碰撞的机会。这种进化的最终结果被称为西海岸摇摆舞。

Back in Europe, there was one further important step in the development of swing dance. Apart from the small community of ballroom dancers, partner dancing had almost completely disappeared from the UK by the 1970's, dancing being dominated by individual disco dancing. This was to change from the early 1980's, when a simplified version of Rock'n'Roll dancing was re-imported from France. The first version of this style was known as Ceroc, but its huge popularity soon resulted in a range of different organizations and names—now commonly described by the term Modern Jive.

再回到欧洲，在摇摆舞的发展中，有一个很关键的时期。到1970年代，除了舞厅舞者的小团体，双人舞几乎完全从英国消失，迪斯科成为主流。但从1980年代早期开始有了变化，一种简化版本的Rock'n'Roll重新从法国引入。这种风格的第一个版本被称为Ceroc萨洛克舞，由于其巨大的人气，很快产生一系列不同的组织和名字，但现在通常我们术语描述它为现代舞 ?Modern Jive. 。

Swing dance family tree

Modern Renaissance

摇摆舞的现代复兴

In the 1980's, by a strange coincidence a collection of different dancers around the world independently decided that they wanted to rediscover the roots of swing dance—from the US, Steven Mitchell and Erin Stevens; from Sweden, the Rhythm Hot Shots; from the UK, the Jiving Lindy Hoppers. Inspired by the classic movie dance scenes from the 1930's and 1940's, these (re-)discoverers converged on New York City.

在1980年代，出现了一个奇妙的巧合，世界各地不同的舞者不约而同的决定，他们想重新从找回美国摇摆舞的根源，例如美国的Steven Mitchell和Erin Stevens；来自瑞典的the Rhythm Hot Shots；来自英国的The Jiving Lindy Hoppers。受到1930年代和1940年代的经典电影舞蹈场景的启发，这些（重新）发现者们不约而同的聚集到了纽约。

In New York they discovered several of the Lindy Hoppers from the original days in the Savoy ballroom—Al Minns, Norma Miller, and Frankie Manning. To their surprise, they also discovered that Lindy Hop wasn't just about the frenetic, airstepping choreographies of the film sequences; the original dancers explaining that Lindy Hop could be danced to slower music, as a social dance without airsteps or prearranged choreography.

他们在纽约发现了几个经历了早期Savoy 舞厅岁月的Lindy Hopper ，包括Al Minns，Norma Miller，Frankie Manning。令他们吃惊的是，他们还发现Lindy Hop不仅仅是狂热的，像电影里编排airstepping；早期的向他们舞者呈现了还可以跳慢音乐的Lindy Hop，一种可以作为社交舞，而不只预先编排的airsteps。

These meetings in New York led to a diaspora of Lindy Hop knowledge around the world, where the enthusiasm of the teachers and the attractions of the style led to a resurgence in popularity of the original swing dance form. The key factor in this resurgence was Frankie Manning; in 1986 (at the age of 72) he emerged from retirement to start teaching around the world, providing a vital bridge between the history of the dance and its future.

这些在纽约的相遇，让林迪舞知识开传播到世界各地，让原有的摇摆舞普及到各地充满热情的教师那里，也让主流风格得到回潮。其中，这个复兴的关键因素是Frankie Manning；在1986，他已经72岁了。他退休后，就开始在世界各地教摇摆舞，他为摇摆舞的历史和未来提供了非常重要的桥梁。