Having already fallen in love with Lindy Hop in 2022, about a year ago, I started learning West Coast Swing and instantly fell in love with that, too. The two styles feel so different; in fact, when our founding group at West Coast Swing Cape Town first began socials, intended to entice dancers from other dance scenes, we decided to cut Lindy Hop from the Salsa, Sokkie, Lindy, and West Coast mix because it was too jarring. Lindy’s bounce made getting back into the West Coast flow quite challenging, and the old swing jazz was too incongruous with the modern sounds of the other dances.
I love Lindy Hop because it’s high-energy, bouncy, and fun. I love West Coast because it’s languid, stretchy, and musically diverse. What they have in common is that they provide space for creativity and improvisation. In both dances, the follower can instigate a conversation, add their flair, and redirect the dance. In both, the leader allows for and enjoys this autonomy, rather than dictating the dance. While many of the moves are similar, the general feel is so different that it’s hard to believe that West Coast grew from Lindy Hop.
Since I often seem to be persuading people to take up one or the other (or both), I get asked a lot, “What’s the difference?” And then East Coast Swing also enters the picture: Surely it’s regular Lindy Hop; two variations of Swing Dance: East Coast (Lindy) or West Coast? Maybe they’re thought to be rivals, like hip hop in the 1990s.
This is certainly not the case, and with this blog, I hope to shed some light on the origins of and differences between Lindy Hop, East Coast, and West Coast Swing.
Swing dance is the umbrella term for a group of lively partner dances that originated in the 1920s–40s to swing jazz music, characterised by rhythmic footwork, improvisation, and a joyful, energetic style. Lindy Hop was one of those Swing dances (along with Charleston, Balboa, and Collegiate Shag), and from it, East and West Coast Swing were born. They share a common ancestor, but each has its own personality, music, and movement style.
Lindy Hop: The Original Swing
Origins
Emerging in Harlem around 1928, Lindy Hop evolved naturally among African American dancers, blending jazz, Charleston, tap, and breakaway into a high-energy partner dance. It quickly gained prominence in the 1930s during the swing era, especially through the Savoy Ballroom, and featured iconic moves such as the swing out and air steps (though these are reserved for competitions, not the social floor). Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers helped launch the dance to fame, with international performances and Hollywood movies. It began as a Black, vernacular dance, but Lindy’s popularity spread like wildfire and became extremely popular among white dancers.
Lindy Hop enjoyed a whirlwind heyday, and people all over the world couldn’t get enough of it. But, as we will see in the next section, it ran out of steam and was taken over by a simpler form. However, the dance experienced a revival in the 1980s, thanks to original Lindy Hop dancers like Frankie Manning and Norma Miller, who worked tirelessly to keep the dance alive. Swing became a subculture, and Lindy Hop became a craze once more, but this time it endured the passing of time and remains popular today.
Charactaristics
- Lindy Hop is not a pattern dance. Although it became somewhat codified in learning spaces to 6- and 8-count, dancers completely break out of those patterns and expertly follow individual weight shifts.
- The swingout is an 8-count staple.
- While the swingout is linear, partners often rotate around each other during a dance.
- It’s athletic and improvisational, with signature, aerials, swingouts, and a distinct “bounce.”
Music
- Classic swing jazz and big band music from the 1930s–40s—think Count Basie, Chick Webb, and Duke Ellington.
East Coast Swing: The Simplified Cousin
Origins
If you watch old footage of the original Lindy Hop dancers, you’ll see how wild and unconstrained it was! As it gained popularity among white folk, it was somewhat tamed to be more teachable. So, in the 1940s, a simplified, studio-taught version of Lindy Hop was designed by ballroom dance instructors—particularly within the Arthur Murray and Fred Astaire studio networks—to make swing dancing more accessible to the general public.
While Lindy Hop was improvisational, East Coast Swing standardised the steps into a basic 6-count pattern (rock step, triple step, triple step), which was easier to teach to beginners in a short time. This codification coincided with the rise of big band swing and early rock ’n’ roll music, making it a perfect social dance for the era’s popular tunes.
By the 1950s, East Coast Swing was widely taught across the U.S., became a staple at high school dances and community events, and served as the foundation for many later swing dance variations. It became synonymous with the Jitterbug and even influenced Rockabilly dance styles. The Jitterbug had instilled itself in US culture, spread to other parts of the world, and become disassociated from its Harlem roots.
Why did East Coast Swing become known as the Jitterbug? Well, in 1934, Cab Calloway wrote a song called “Call of the Jitterbug.” In African American jazz slang of the time, a jitterbug could mean a nervous or hyperactive person, or someone who’d had a bit too much “jitter sauce” (alcohol). It is widely thought that white audiences, hearing the term through music and films, began using “jitterbug” to describe Lindy Hop. However, Norma Miller states in her book that the name was coined by black Lindy Hoppers who thought the white dancers looked like “jitterbugs” jittering around the floor with no real sense of rhythm and style!
Characteristics
- Predominantly a 6‑count dance, though some 8‑count variations exist.
- Basic footwork often follows rock step – triple step – triple step (chasse)
- Bouncy, energetic, with rise-and-fall dynamics and playful flicks and kicks
- Circular or spot-style movement.
Music
- Fast swing, rock ’n’ roll, jump blues, rockabilly—the faster, the better.
West Coast Swing: Smooth, Slotted, and Versatile
In the 1930s, Lindy Hop made its way to the West Coast, where it was adopted by white dancers. Probably of most importance was actor and dancer, Dean Collins, a Lindy Hopper from New York who was heavily influenced by the Harlem dancers. He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1930s and brought that Harlem style to dance halls and competitions. It was unlike anything California had seen before! Collins won numerous competitions and starred in movies with partners Bertha Lee and Jewel McGowen. The dance’s popularity led to a smoother, more linear adaptation of Lindy Hop, shaped by both the constraints of crowded dance floors and the influence of Hollywood film choreography. By the 1940s, it had become more like the slotted style we see now, where partners move back and forth along a line rather than in a circle.
This evolving style was later influenced by Western swing music, blues, and slower tempos, which encouraged a more upright posture and an elastic connection between partners. By the 1950s, the dance was sometimes called “Western Swing” or “California Swing.” It was only in the 1960s that it became widely known as “West Coast Swing”.
From the 1970s onward, instructors like Skippy Blair helped codify the dance with modern teaching methods, introducing the term “anchor step” and developing a clear syllabus. Over time, West Coast Swing expanded beyond its jazz and blues roots to embrace R&B, funk, soul, and contemporary pop, making it an incredibly versatile Swing dance.
In her biography, Norma Miller observes the emergence and takeover of West Coast Swing as a matter of inevitable societal change. While she laments the demise of Lindy Hop and worked hard (along with others such as Frankie Manning and his son Chazz Young) to keep it alive, she shows no hostility or resentment towards the direction the dance took: it simply became the new flavour.
Its versatility has allowed West Coast Swing to endure. Musically and stylistically, it is incredibly adaptable, and with my Westie friends, I’ve danced to a huge variety of tempos and genres, even electronic house music. With the changing music through the ages, the dance itself changes and adapts. Nowadays, contemporary dance influences can be seen at the competition level; the balletic pirouettes and expression make the footwork rule almost obsolete. But within the same competition, you will see hip hop, blues, and funk influences, too. Plus a great deal of artistic licence and humour in interpreting the songs.
Characteristics
- Known for its “slotted” movement—partners travel back and forth in a narrow line rather than rotating in a circle.
- Basic patterns like push‑break, side pass, whip, and sugar push; includes both 6‑ and 8‑count structures and the characteristic “anchor step”. Like Lindy, patterns are broken to allow for improvisation and interpretation.
- Smooth, elastic connection with emphasis on stretch and compression.
- Highly improvisational, with room for both partners to add styling.
Music
- Originally danced to big band swing, it later became highly adaptable: blues, R&B, contemporary pop, funk, and even slower tempos.
So, we can think of Swing dance as the collective term for the dances that emerged during the swing era. They paved the way for new styles to emerge from them, or to simply keep evolving, until almost all traces of the dance that birthed them are erased. East Coast Swing is not another word for Lindy Hop, nor is it the rival of West Coast Swing! Both grew from Lindy Hop as a result of the changing times. To use East Coast Swing as a synonym of Lindy Hop is to deny the latter’s importance in history as a pioneering, rebellious, and society-changing Black dance. Being so musically and stylistically different from the original Swing dances, it’s easy to think that West Coast Swing is a style all of its own, born perhaps from contemporary or Latin dances. Yet it emerged as a direct result of Lindy Hop’s popularity, and at first was not so distinct.
Personally, I don’t believe that one dance style is superior to another- if they get people moving and smiling, then great. I do think, however, that we should know where our dances came from and credit them correctly.
