Jive
Jive grew from dances created by African Americans in the early 1930s, among them lindy hop, which began in Harlem around 1928. The word comes from African-American slang, popularised by Cab Calloway's 1938 dictionary of jive talk. American soldiers brought lindy hop and jitterbug to Europe around 1940; in the United States swing became the usual term, while Britain adopted jive.
Britain also codified it for competition: the ISTD's 1947 Latin syllabus included Swing, or Jive. Although grouped with the Latin dances, its roots lie in swing rather than Latin music. The WDC lists a tempo of about 42 measures per minute, and jive is one of the five International Latin dances. British variants such as skip jive, danced to trad jazz, were popular in the 1950s and 1960s.
Sources
- Jive (dance) — Wikipedia
- Lindy Hop — Wikipedia
- Swing (dance) — Wikipedia
- History of Latin American dance — Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing
Organisations connected with this dance
- Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD), Latin American Dance
- World DanceSport Federation (WDSF)
Listed as references; being listed is not an endorsement by or of the organisation.