About Us
Tumble Lindy Hop Jive started in 2023 and we haven’t looked back since!
We found we were travelling long distances to social events as there were no local dances so we decided to arrange our own. We picked a date and advertised a Tea Dance on a Sunday afternoon expecting a possible 10 people, we were blown away by the attendance and these dances have continued on a monthly basis.
We then approached Pat and Sian and asked if they would start teaching for us, they did and again there was a fantastic response to the lessons. We have now formed a Community Interest Company with the aim of tackling loneliness and exclusion using the medium of Lindy Hop Dance. We now take an adapted form of Lindy Hop out to Care Homes, Parkinsons Support Groups, Libraries etc. In fact, anywhere that wants us!
What is Lindy Hop?
Lindy Hop is a Black American dance that originated in Harlem, New York City, in the late 1920s.
Lindy Hop was danced mainly in large ballrooms, such as the Savoy Ballroom in NYC, and evolved alongside the popular music of the day, played by Black Big Bands. The dance developed from a combination of earlier dances such as the Charleston, Breakaway, Texas Tommy, and Cakewalk. All of these dances were danced to early Jazz music form artists such as Sidney Bechet, Buddy Bolden, King Oliver and James P. Johnson.
Each one of these dances has deep roots in West African dance, music and culture and therefore share the common Black American social dance values, such as individuality, spontaneity, rhythm, and improvisation. One of the groups that had a deep impact on the movement and music of jazz were the Gullah/Geechie, culminating, for example, in the creation of the Charleston step.
Lindy Hop appeared during a period known as Harlem Renaissance, which is considered the Golden Age of African American culture in music, stage performance, literature and art
