Our friend Anna singing for the very first time with the New Traditions big band. I think she was a little nervous at first, but really hits a home run on the ending. Her grandmother, who sang with big bands in the swing era, would be very proud! I know we all are!

For those of you wondering about the roots of Lindy Hop, here is some footage from the 1929 short “After Seben”. It is some of the earliest known footage of Lindy Hop and features one of the original innovators of the dance, “Shorty” George Snowden. You can see the strong roots in Charleston and the very early swing outs.

The demo videos for our classes were looking a bit dated, so we decided to film a new one for our upcoming Lindy Hop and Charleston classes. You can view it by clicking on the image above, or you can watch the high definition version if you have the monitor space.

It’s nothing fancy. We just wanted to demo some of what we teach in both classes with a few options of what you can do with it. The way we filmed it was somewhat of an experiment. Both Dawn and I thought it came out looking pretty good! We’ll probably do some more videos in the near future. Keep an eye out.

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.