Australian History

Many contemporary Lindy Hoppers don’t know of history of the dance in Australia and Sydney – though thanks to events such as the Trocadero Dance Palace (during the 2011 Sydney Festival) and the Bondi Jitterbug Exhibition in 2009 awareness is growing.

I’m working on putting together a list of online resources for the history of Lindy Hop in Sydney as well as blogging about it from time to time. If you know of anything, particularly from the pre-WWII period, let me know.

• Meet Me At The Trocadero – Extracts from ‘Meet Me At The Trocadero’ by Joan Ford. A history of the bands, events and dances that visited the Trocadero Dance Palace, Sydney from 1936-1970.

• Frankie in Melbourne – 1939 – Frankie Manning visited Melbourne in 1938/1939 performing, amongst other things the Big Apple.

• The Lost Art of Beachobatics – Audiovisual biography of George Caddy, champion jitterbug dancer and amateur photographer

• Why I Like Swing – Australian Women’s Weekly, 4 March 1939 – Article on swing music and swing dancing.

• List of Jitterbug clips held by the National Film and Sound Archive

• Swing Dance History Australia Facebook page

Recent History

• List of key events in the revival of Lindy Hop in Australia

International History 

There’s plenty out there about the development of Lindy Hop and the revival in the 1980s. Wikipedia is a good start and there are a number of excellent books as well by Frankie Manning, Norma Miller, The Stevens sisters and The Stearns. I want to focus more on Australian, and particularly Sydney, history so this list of links is more about cool sites I’ve found than anything else.

• An Index of Basic Classic Clips – Swungover has recently compiled this excellent list of historic and important clips of old-timers dancing the Lindy Hop, Shag, Balboa, Charleston and solo jazz.