Of course, the norm from 1920s to the 1950s was for men to lead and women to follow. But these clips show that it wasn’t unheard of, and was even common, to see people taking on the “non-traditional” role.



The Term is A Barrier for People

Beyond just being inaccurate, the term “Jack & Jill” may discourage people from trying lindy hop. For anyone who believes that people, regardless of gender, should be able to take on whatever role in society they wish, the idea of a “Jack & Jill” contest seems anachronistic and restricting.

If you are LGBTQ in particular, you may finding it off-putting to watch a dance contest called a “Jack & Jill” and see mostly men leading and women following. What kind of message would this communicate to a gay or lesbian couple taking their first dance lesson? I think it would be that this dance isn’t for you.

Language Informs Our Choices

To be clear, many Jack & Jills today don’t actually restrict who can enter because of gender. And that's fantastic. But regardless of the rules, if we call a contest a “Jack & Jill” we communicate the message that this is the standard, the template.

Words matter. What we call things communicates our values and norms. If we say a contest is for everyone, but we label it with a man’s name first and then a woman’s name after, then that’s our expectation of what the contest should look like.

Lindy Hop Is For Everyone

Frankie Manning believed that lindy hop is for everyone. If we believe that, we should remove as many potential barriers to entry as we can, including in the terms we use.

Fortunately, we have many creative and smart people in our community. I believe we can come up with better terms that capture what we want to express about the Jack & Jill contest, and doesn’t exclude people. There are already some interesting suggestions out there:

The J&J

The Jess & Jo

The Pat & Chris

Mix & Match

Social Switch Competition

The Social Division

Mixed Doubles (via Devona C)

What Jack Carey came up with in the 1950s has greatly added to our dance. It’s made competing much more accessible to all levels of dancers. It’s emphasized a lot of what makes swing dancing so awesome. We owe him a debt of thanks for that.

But lindy hop is not a static entity that never changes. It’s a dance that evolves and adapts to the times. We can make informed choices that presents this awesome artform to current and future dancers in the best possible light. That includes the language we use to label things.

So what do you think? Does it matter to you what we call this contest? Is there a better term you think works better? Let us know in the comments.