Throwback Thursday: Lindy Hop in NYC in the the late 90s
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"Swing City" is a fun little documentary produced by PBS on the lindy hop scene in the late 1990s in New York City. Featuring clips of both legendary dancers like Frankie Manning and Dawn Hampton and regular folks just out having a good time, it's a window into the past for dancers of that neo-swing generation like myself.
Other featured dancers in the documentary include: Janice Wilson, Paolo Lanna, Bill Kline, Nathalie Gomez, Clem Poussaint and Etta Dixon.
What do you notice that has changed in the scene since that documentary was filmed? I remember people doing their best to dress up when they went out back then, which I do kind of miss. There was a looseness to the dancing -- both the connection and the technique -- that marks the new-ness of the dance for many of us. But there was also unbridled joy and excitement that you see in the dancing and the way that we talked about it back then. You can see at the end of the documentary how many places there were to dance in New York City at that time. That's probably not the case in most scenes today.
Ah memories. What do you remember from that time, those of you who were there?
