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Great post. Thank you. I'm on mobile, but if someone wants to look up "spirit moves disc 1" and "spirit moves disc 2" you'll find them on YouTube. I also know a dancer who has a comprehensive list of Whiteys Lindy Hoppers videos. I'd also love to see resources compiling all the California dancers' stuff. Plus I just saw a video of John Bedrosian doing St Louis Jitterbug and St Louis Shag pass through Facebook the other day. If someone wants to grab those and put them in one place that'd be wonderful, otherwise I'll update this comment with links (that can hopefully be added to sidebar?)

Edit:
Spirit Moves Disc 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjguncQiw70

Spirit Moves Disc 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHf4tBmAlpI

Shorty Snowden:

After Seben (1929)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcnpZfsfwDA

Ask Uncle Sol (1937)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Sdk3mqVSRA

Whitey's Lindy Hoppers:

A Day At The Races (1937):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di-a-jf1c6g&t=3

Radio City Revels (1938)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGAOpTcEyJw

Keep Punchin (1939)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfgKMfexdPQ

Hellzapoppin (1941):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahoJReiCaPk

Hot Chocolate (1941):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_262uUGwzgk

Cootie Williams and Orchestra (1943):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnpcPFnHLUQ


Jitterbug History:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8UkX71MbPY&index=7&list=PLmgkit3LB0tdgRzwPSQE_-YdxqbA1tpg5






Misc. Other Notable Clips:
It Goes To Your Toes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKKO_fYv6JE&feature=youtu.be

Bli-Blip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pthpr7sI9C0&feature=youtu.be

Rip It Up (1956):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLDwMWkp1Iw

Caravan (1946):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14QEoEIvUuk&feature=youtu.be

Swing Fever (1943):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1-LqqPnkf0





Okay I have A LOT more where that came from but I have to step out, going dancing :D

I'll update a second time with more!

Edit 2: I CANNOT emphasize enough how amazing Frankie's autobiography is. It makes so many things make so much more sense. It is an easy read and a FASCINATING one. I highly highly recommend it. I'd make it required reading if I was teaching a class (like, in school) on it. It has so much context. He is such an interesting, charming, warm, genuine guy. With a shocking memory. That book changed my whole perspective on dancing.

Buy it here: https://www.amazon.com/Frankie-Manning-Ambassador-Lindy-Hop/dp/1592135641

Edit 3:
Some context - Shorty Snowden was what they call a "first generation" savoy dancer. He and his group were the people that inspired Frankie Manning and Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. Their style was more upright, and less refined.

Whitey's Lindy Hoppers danced a lot more like Snowden and his group in 1937-8, but as you can see, in 1941 they did more of the Lindy hop we know and love. Around this time and later, Dean Collins and a lot of dancers in LA did some pretty iconic dancing. I am not nearly as tuned in on the LA clips as I'd like to be, but Swing Fever and Groovie Movie feature some of these guys.

Anyway, there's a lot of amazing stuff in those clips - note the prevalence of the California routine in the later Whitey's clips. To identify the California routine, spirit moves 1 goes one by one through a lot of the line dances and group choreographies. I also would love to add more clips of Al Minns and Leon James later, who are heavily featured jn spirit moves.

If you ask me though, spirit moves 2 is the real gem. The only clips we have of social dancing at the Savoy. It also features the al and Leon Shim sham, a contest (to prepare for the harvest moon ball), Mambo night (which I need to study a lot more, an amazing blend of dances), and my personal favorite, the Cats Corner, a part of the dance floor marked out specially for the top dancers to really cut. My favorite social dancing clip is here, featuring Leon James, slick slides and spins.

Well I can speak from personal experiance. I am one of those you would call "beat-deaf". If you dig my post history you will see that I posted here before asking for help. So here are my tips on how I did it, and then how to make it better:

How I did it:

1. I put on HOUSE and soft house music. Yes you read that right.
   
2. You cannot miss the beats of house music - it is so prominent that the next step up would be a metronome app.
   
3. Anyways - I practised walking to the said beats for a month.
   
   How to make this better:
   
   
4. Teach them charleston! This is much more fun to dance to, and play something around 120 bpm.
   
5. I recommend electroswing. (or even soft house, who cares?)
   
6. Teach some solo jazz - jump charleston to be precise.
   
7. Once they are getting the hang of it, start with moves like a sendout. Keep the electroswing music.
   
8. Gradually mix songs with really clear beats - and then go on with tuck turns, swingouts, frisbees.
   
   You can have nice and smooth songs playing too, but make sure people get the hang of the beat. Look, my dance teacher started with 5...6..7..8..
   ..but I had no idea what the fuck that 5 was? Why 5? Why not 1? or 2? (Yes I had no clue about music).
   
   
   Take a day to teach them what the 8 count is. Play some popular songs (katy perry would do as well!!!) and show them how this 8 counts of repeating beats are present in many dance songs. Get them to recognize the pattern. A good book to read (which I did) is this one: http://www.amazon.com/Every-Survival-Guide-Ballroom-Dancing/dp/093025144X
   
   (yeah ... that isnt a survival guide - it teaches musicality).
   
   Above all - ask them to forget the technicalities and enjoy it! :-)

Welcome to the friendliest, awesomest cult^ Wgroup of people on earth! :-) What scene do you dance in? We might be able to come up with more locally-relevant links. That said...

Things that pop to mind:

• Yehoodi. Don't miss the welcome wagon, and check out Swing Talk.
  
  
• LindyExchange Start figuring out your travel budget. :-)
  
  
• Bobby White's blog
  
  For instruction: iDance
  
  If you haven't read Frankie Manning's autobiography, I highly recommend it. It's cheap, it's a quick read, and it will help you understand where swing in its current incarnation came from.
  
  Swag:
  
  

• Get yer Aris Allen on from Dancestore.com.
  
  
• Want some sweet repro vintage shoes?
  
  
• Yet more repro vintage clothing!
  
  

One need not look very far to see that blackface is a sensitive issue in many countries outside of the U.S., Wikipedia breaks it down by country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackface I am sad to read these words that you write - that the world does not care about degrading black people. I would encourage you to read more about the history of this dance, perhaps you will appreciate more the roots of the dance and develop more empathy for your fellow humans. I'll even give you a recommendation - I am enjoying this book right now, because it gives a lot of context to set up the story of how the Charleston came to exist as a dance and because the author writes with genuine interest and excitement for this topic: https://www.amazon.com/Doin-Charleston-American-Popular-Orphanage/dp/0615852033 Thanks to Bobby White for the recommendation via the Swungover blog. In spite of what you may believe, this issue is bigger than the US, it is not a self-contained issue, and I would encourage you to look outside of yourself, Russia, or whatever seems to be holding you to this unwavering opinion for more information.

>"When the band would see real fine dancers, the musicians would try to become a part of what they were doing. Really, the dancers inspired the musicians and vice versa. If the musicians did something exceptional, it inspired the dancers to do something exceptional, and then the dancers would inspire the musicians to do even more. It was a party, it was the best."

-- Legendary jazz singer Joe Williams. From Swingin at the Savoy, Norma Miller / Evette Jensen (1996), p. 215

> When you have so many young people swing dancing, why not throw in some younger music every now and then?

You're right! Let's!

Here's some standard music played by modern bands with great sound quality:

• Michael Gamble & The Rhythm Gamblers: https://www.amazon.com/Michael-Gamble-Rhythm-Serenaders/dp/B01GQZD5SG
  
  
• Jonathan Stout & His Campus Five: https://www.amazon.com/Rhythm-Jonathan-Campus-featuring-Alexander/dp/B0006A4KNM/ref=ntt_mus_dp_dpt_1
  
  
• Gordon Webster: https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/gordonwebster22
  
  
• The Rhythm Gamblers: https://therhythmgamblers.bandcamp.com/album/the-rhythm-gamblers
  
  You might say: Those are modern bands, but they're still playing all the songs I knew! What I really want is new songs altogether. Okay!
  
  
• Glenn Crytzer's Savoy Seven: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/glenncrytzerssavoyseven3
  
  
• Jonathan Doyle Quintet: https://jonathandoyle.bandcamp.com/album/the-fed-hop
  
  
• Joe Smith & The Spicy Pickles: https://joesmithandthespicypickles.bandcamp.com/album/high-fidelity
  
  
• Jeremy Mohney: https://jeremymohneymusic.bandcamp.com/album/smile-a-while
  
  No you still don't understand /u/AFistfulOfAww, what I really really want to do is dance to music that doesn't swing, but with the same-ish shapes that I learned in Lindy Hop classes!
  
  
• You'll fit right in at /r/westcoastswing! The dance shares our origin, and it is danced to all kinds of different music. Last I heard they even have some Zouk influence these days!

Confession: I've never owned a pair of Aris Allens.

This is my go to shoe that I buy probably once every 1.5 - 2 years.

Otherwise, I keep an eye out for actual shoes from the 1940s, with real leather soles. I have a pair of white bucks from the late 40s/early 50s that I had re-soled that I use for Balboa.

I know I'm in the minority here, but I actually like to tell my students not to get "fast" shoes too early in their dancing progress. There's nothing I can't stand more than dancers not picking up their feet when they dance, and wearing tennis shoes forces people to learn how to pick up their feet. I also think the ability to push off the floor makes doing swingouts easier than when wearing fast shoes.

For outdoor dancing I like something like this. If you do a little searching you can often find these Not Rated oxfords (and there are a couple of similar brands) for pretty cheap. The soles are a very lightly textured rubber that's actually pretty smooth to dance on, especially once you wear them in a little. They're similar to but smoother than the normal Keds sole, which I find too sticky. They're not shoes that are going to last long in any case, so if you don't pay much for them, you won't feel too bad about giving them rough treatment.

Beyond that, don't try to spin on concrete -- you're going to have to step through turns in a way that won't be as smooth as normal. You'll have to pick up your feet more between steps. Swivels may not work well either. You just have to compromise a little for the sake of your knees, which you don't want to mess around with.

You would probably like the Ken Burns documentary on Jazz. It's available free if you have Amazon Prime. If you don't have Prime, you can sign up for a free one month trial.

http://www.amazon.com/Gumbo-Beginnings-to-1917/dp/B002P3OCUE

> technica 120

Are you referring to this: https://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-AT-LP120-USB-Direct-Drive-Professional-USB/dp/B002S1CJ2Q

If so, that's a great turntable - it is direct drive (meaning it uses magnets to get up to speed, not a belt), so it is great for beatmatching and scratching, just in case you want to do a techno or hip-hop set late night ;) Also, it has 33, 45, AND 78 rpm settings, in case you get some old school 78 rpm records (although, be aware that a shellac 78 will not sound good on it, but it won't sound good on any electric turntable).

As for the TT amplifier, the mixer you selected will do that already. It will bump the turntable signal up to a line level signal, so the output from the DJ mixer can go directly into the sound system input (be that on the speakers, or a separate mixer for the room).

Regarding headphones, I would suggest big, over the ear phones, not in-ear. Since you aren't going to be beatmatching, it is less of an issue to have folding phones (which are great for beatmatching, put on one side on your ear, leave your other ear open to hear the music in the room, match the beat, then transition). Really, you'll just be listening to future records for a few things - tempo (is it faster or slower than your current track), level (is it louder or softer?), and key (if you modulate a half step, it will be kind of weird).

// , This sounds like the most flexible solution, although I do eventually want to buy a dance shoe.


I've found suede stick-ons on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/YAVOUN-Friction-reducing-Self-Adhesive-High-Heeled-Protector/dp/B07G116VL2/

​

I've considered adding these to something like the Merrell Vapor Glove or the vivobarefoot.com shoes mentioned above.

​

Vibram soles are pretty good for adhering, but I'm willing to keep a few spare pads of suede just in case.

I used to dance in a pair of Gola Capital Sneakers. They are super light shoes and have a semihard rubber sole (albeit with good flexibility) with minimal grippiness. They don't have much in the way of padding though so they probably aren't very good if you need foot support.

Also, I can't figure out if Gola even makes them any more, so I'm not sure if this helpful or not. But finding a similar running shoe might be an option.

I'm enjoying Ella Fitzgerald's gorgeous vocals on the 2017 released: (The Complete Decca Singles Vol. 1: 1935-1939) [https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Decca-Singles-Vol-1935-1939/dp/B06Y4J5MVP/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1492697384&sr=8-1&keywords=Ella+Fitzgerald%3A+The+Complete+Decca+and+Verve+Albums]

Love the Darktown Strutters on here. And the song it's Foxy, but the rhythm section vanishes under her vocals. I like it, but I'd hesitate to dj it. Does anyone know of a version of It's Foxy where the rhythm section, you know, "stays put?"

Why does it have to be leather? It's suede and it picks up dance floor grossness and gets smoother, unlike a lot of things. If shoe covers work better for you, go with those! Most people use suede like this: https://smile.amazon.com/Super-Strong-self-Adhesive-Backing-self-Stick-SUEDE-DIY-r01/dp/B00FEPCAPO/ I like cutting it to only be around the ball/front of the shoe. This stuff is great because it's adhesive on one side. Other people use scraps of leather from craft stores (again, suede usually) or have cobblers put on leather.


I have suede on my dance keds. I have other pairs of keds for outdoor/nondance use.

Recently bought and read Norma Miller's book "Swingin' at the Savoy" after the Harlem Swing Dance Society paid a visit to Baltimore. https://www.amazon.com/Swingin-at-Savoy-Norma-Miller/dp/1566398495

Really interesting look into the history and the life of one of 'the greats' - and tangentially includes stories about a lot of the rest of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers.

Doesn't include any sort of instruction, but good for history.

Having tried two types of shirt stays, I highly recommend the type which look like an inverted women's garter over the Y type which clips to the sock. The Y type gave all manner of discomfort when heavy dancing (from rubbing along my leg). They look like this: https://www.amazon.com/Garter-Style-Shirt-Stays-Adjustable/dp/B07BN1SQML/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=shirt+stay&qid=1564745571&s=gateway&sr=8-6

​

They're also easier to change when changing shirts without having to completely drop your pants to retrieve the clips as with the Y-type.

I really liked Michael Gamble & The Rhythm Serenaders

Check out Spirit Moves. You can start here and search from there, though it is copyrighted and therefore gets taken down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcqYQC0_t3I

​

This Book Jazz Dance by Marshall Sterns

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Dance-Story-American-Vernacular/dp/0306805537

​

Ken Burns Jazz is a good start too
https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Film-Ken-Burns/dp/B000BITUEI/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=ken+burns+jazz&qid=1562692802&s=gateway&sr=8-2

​

Remember no history is definitive, there's always other perspectives, revisions, corrections and new information. And also only about 10% of the documentaries, movies, etc out there ever made it onto the internet, and about 5% or less of the researched history has been converted to digital form, so go to the library too if you're serious about getting accurate info.

Here is the mobile version of your link

Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop !

The Frankie Manning Biography: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frankie-Manning-Ambassador-Lindy-Hop/dp/1592135641