1950s Dancing
However you try to dance to 1950s Rock n Roll songs, it'll fall into one of three categories.
There are different variations of all the dances, but the basics remain the same.
Learn the basics, follow some simple rules of etiquette, dress appropriately and you'll be good to go!
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JivingThis requires a partner and has various forms. |
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StrollingDancing more slowly in time to a set pattern. |
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BoppingDone individually by anyone. |
Knowing which dance is suitable for a particular piece of music can be a bit more tricky, especially at events which follow a more traditional approach. If you're not sure, just wait and see what everyone else does :)
A quick word of warning about online dancing videos
You can find lots of great examples of Rock n Roll and Rockabilly Jive on platforms such as YouTube, however there's also plenty of video content that shows it incorrectly...
The problem is that many video creators edit other people's videos together with a different piece of music. This is done to create videos that they can advertise on their channel to build traffic and profit.
Unfortunately, they usually don't credit the original video, music or dancers, steal copyright material and don't know or care what dance is being done in the video. More importantly, this often results in dancing that is no longer in time to the music!
You'll also see videos claiming to be Rock n Roll or Rockabilly Jive that actually show Lindy Hop and Boogie Woogie; different dances entirely. Keep an eye out for the following which could point to a misleading video clip:
- Dancing out of time with the music
- Dancers stopping or doing acrobatic moves that don't fit with the flow of the song
- Millions of hits
- Comments that don't look genuine
- Flashing borders :)
- Pixellated areas of screen where the owners details have been masked