Lindy Hop is in uncharted territory now because the dancers of the original generation didn't concern themselves with issues like bringing in newbies or retaining students. They didn't worry so much about how the change in music would affect the dance because they grew with that change and either changed their dancing or stopped dancing altogether.

The main difference between now and then is that people have worked very hard to deliberately establish institutions designed to sustain interest in the dance. Herrang Dance Camp just celebrated 30 years of existence. The International Lindy Hop Championships just six, but is broadcasted live over the internet with the help of Yehoodi.com. And it’s not just big events: Rochester just hosted Steven Mitchell and Virginie Jensen for the 16th year in a row which is longer than what most people consider to be the "Swing Era."

The essential irony here is that the events themselves—rather than the internet—are responsible for the marked similarity in dance style both nationally and internationally. Recall that the rise of YouTube and of major events was nearly simultaneous. In terms of dancing, the two things fed one another, but an emphasis on the internet has led critics to ignore the leveling effects of a dance culture that embraces frequent travelling for weekends.

Additionally, while serious students of the dance will often point to vintage films for examples of how dancers looked differently from each other, they forget that their sample size is both absurdly small and absurdly talented. Most of those performances are by some of the best dancers of that generation. The members of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers had near daily access to practice in the Savoy Ballroom where Chick Webb and some of the greatest musicians of that era rehearsed. While these people are great inspirations, they are not practical examples to follow, nor are they indicative of what it would have been like to be a normal dancer during the swing era.

But even if we do not limit our discussion to those great dancers of New York City and Southern California, remember that those old timers also reminisce about how you could tell what ballroom or even what neighborhood a dancer was from. That was not because they valued individuality any more or less than we do today. Most of those people simply did not have the means to travel as extensively as people do today.

What is interesting to note is how many of the best dancers of this generation came out of scenes that were well established by the time of the Neo-Swing boom. The New York Swing Dance Society, Swedish Swing Society, London Swing Dance Society, Pasadena Ballroom Dance Association, Ithaca Swing Dance Network, Northern California Lindy Society, Washington Swing Dance Committee were all hosting regular dances and workshops that allowed people to concentrate on dancing and socializing. Dancers from smaller scenes will attest that running a local scene and getting better at dance are not always compatible goals.

Furthermore, these same great dancers have logged what can only be considered an astonishing number of hours on the dance floor. They've long since passed through the phase of copying old masters and moved on to leaving their own mark on the dance. This takes time, which is why it’s in many ways quite silly to lament the lack of a varied styles. Most of us simply do not have the time—or, honestly, the talent—to be marvels of creativity and inspiration. That's not to say we should not aspire to those heights, we just need to be mindful of certain realities.

Next Steps

In this small attempt to assess the state of the Lindy Hop scene, I've tried to tackle the two most common complaints about the modern situation (music and style) while placing it all in a context that complicates rather than streamlines the simple explanations put forward. At the beginning of this piece, I suggested that Lindy Hop is bursting at the seams with new dancers, events, and ideas, but this is not to say that there aren't problems in the scene, or, to put it in a more complex way: risks.