Swing Dancing in Untamed Youth ~ Swing, jazz and blues - Dance to the music

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Swing Dancing in Untamed Youth

Dance is intimately connected to music. When the music style changes so does the dance. If you dance the same way as you are used to, you not really paying attention to the music. Your dancing style should reflect what the music expresses.

When early rock and roll appeared in 1950's the music became rougher with the introduction of the electric guitar, the music was wilder and more rebellious . The dance of course reflected the music.

Here is a movie clip from the film Untamed Youth from 1957 where there is a lot of wild swing dancing going on. Mamie Van Doren sings to a song by Eddie Cochran.




When you are swing dancing to rock and roll music, you need to be aware that the music often has 4 bar breaks (and even 8 bar breaks) instead of 2 bar breaks as in classic swing music.

What do you think of the video clip with swing dancing from Untamed Youth? Tell me.

4 comments:

Lindsey said...

Love it! All their movements are so...precise, yet with a spontaneous feel; so fun and easy to watch. Makes we wanna dance!

Henrik said...

Then I've succeded with my goal: To present music that makes you want to dance.

Why don't you dance in your living room? ;-)

Great to hear from you again Lindsey!

Lindsey said...

Actually, I dance in my living room, my bedroom, my bathroom, my kitchen...I can't be stopped! =)

Anonymous said...

"When you are swing dancing to rock and roll music, you need to be aware that the music often has 4 bar breaks (and even 8 bar breaks) instead of 2 bar breaks as in classic swing music."

More info: This particular song has the same structure as an ordinary blues (blues-12). Then the breaks "always" is 4 bars, and always in the beginning of a chorus - not in the end as in classic swing music.