We mentioned this vintage clip in our Shag class recently. This is a 1937 film of Arthur Murray teaching the Shag. Pay little attention to the… um… “watered down” version of Shag that Arthur is teaching. Of more interest are the couples that come out and do the demo in the middle of the clip. These were the actual Shag dancers of the day and their style and technique are more definitive Shag.

Another fun Shag clip from back in the day was the dance scene from the 1939 movie “Blondie Meets the Boss”. As with lots of the vintage clips, don’t pay attention to the actors, but watch the “extras”. In the swing era, it was customary to hire actual swing dancers as extras in dance scenes.

Oddly enough, this clip came up in conversation yesterday. This has to be one of the quirkiest of all the vintage swing dance shorts. This is the best quality version of it I could find online with a quick search, however, I know there are better quality ones floating around out there. I thought I would post it and share.

Oh, I probably should have said this before you hit the play button… warning… this annoying little song will get stuck in your head and drive you up the walls!

Count Basie was still the hottest act around even in 1972. This video proves it:

On this date in 1939, the New York World’s Fair opened. To celebrate, here is some rare early color footage of dancing at the fair. While color was new, portable film recorders did not yet have sound… so we’ll have to enjoy in silence. Note that the world famous and historic Savoy Ballroom had an exhibit.

A little inspiration from the 1943 short “Maharaja”.

Dancers: Hal & Betty Takier

Our friend Shelley sent us a video that has been floating around in email. It’s of Eleanor Powell & Fred Astaire dancing. The email says:

A bit of history:

It seems as if Eleanor Powell was just too good for Fred Astaire, as he never wanted to be paired with her again.

He evidently was played down by her, but they were both great, and the likes of this will never be seen again.

The year: 1940 (69 years ago).   The narrator is Frank Sinatra.

It was filmed in ONE unedited camera shot.  Amazing!

It is considered by many as one of the best dance scenes ever filmed

Personally, I tend to like this clip from the same 1940 film (Broadway Melody):

This is some rare color footage of Lindy Hop (as well as some Fox Trot) being dance to the Glen Gray Orchestra at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. This was amateur “home movie” footage that, unfortunately, did not have sound.

Looks like the had a shortage of leads back then.

Ever wonder where Michael Jackson got the inspiration for his dance moves from? This video, “Origins of the Moonwalk”, takes a look back at the dancing greats from the jazz era.

Lindy Hop legend Frankie Manning passed away today. He was an inspiration to many and memorials are in the planning.

As a tribute, here is Frankie (in overalls) dancing in 1941′s Hellzapoppin’.

In memory of Frankie Manning: May 26, 1914 – April 27, 2009

For those of you who are glued to TV channels like History and Discovery like we are, you may have seen this last week. For those who aren’t, the Discovery show “Time Warp” did a brief segment on Lindy Hop where they filmed a few moves with a high speed camera and then showed them in super slow motion. It featued dancers Nick Williams and Carla Heiney. Some of you may remember them as we brought Nick to Orlando for a workshop a number of years ago, and Carla was in Tampa a few years back. If you want to catch the show, just keep an eye out on the Discovery Channel as they re-air stuff over and over and over again.