Jitterbug can be used as a noun to refer to a swing dancer
or various types of swing dances, for example, the Lindy Hop,Jive, and East Coast
Swing. This has led to confusion
within the dance community, because jitterbug can refer to different kinds of
swing dances. It can also be used as a verb to mean the act of dancing to swing music.
Various editions of
Arthur Murray's "How To Become a Good Dancer" contain the following
text: "There are hundreds of regional dances of the Jitterbug type";
"A favorite with young New Yorkers is the Lindy Hop" (1947); "Whether
it's called Swing, Lindy or Jitterbug..." (1954); "Formerly called
Jitterbug, Lindy Hop and various other names in different parts of the
country... Swing is the newer title" (1959).
Early history
The term jitterbug comes from an early 20th-century
slang term used to describe alcoholics who suffered from the
"jitters" (i.e., delirium tremens). The term became associated with swing dancers who
danced without any control or knowledge of the dance.In popular
culture, it became generalized to mean swing dancers themselves, or a type of
swing dance – for example "they danced the jitterbug", or the act of swing
dancing – "People were top-notch jitterbugging, jumping around,
cutting loose and going crazy".
Cab Calloway's 1934 recording of "Call of
the Jitter Bug" (or "Jitterbug") and the film "Cab Calloway's Jitterbug
Party"popularized the use of the word "jitterbug"
and created a strong association between Calloway and jitterbug. Lyrics to “Call
of the Jitter Bug” clearly demonstrate the association between the word jitterbug and the consumption of alcohol:
If you'd like to be a jitter bug,
First thing you must do is get a jug,
Put whiskey, wine and gin within,
And shake it all up and then begin.
Grab a cup and start to toss,
You are drinking jitter sauce!
Don't you worry, you just mug,
And then you'll be a jitter bug!
In the 1947 film Hi De Ho, Calloway includes the following
lines in his song "Minnie the Moocher": "Woe there ain't no more
Smokey Joe/ She's fluffed off his hi-de-ho/ She's a solid jitterbug/ And she
starts to cut a rug/ Oh Minnie's a hep cat now."
Regarding the Savoy
Ballroom,
dance critic John Martin of The New York Times wrote the following:
The white jitterbug is oftener than not uncouth to look at
... but his Negro original is quite another matter. His movements are never so
exaggerated that they lack control, and there is an unmistakable dignity about
his most violent figures...there is a remarkable amount of improvisation ...
mixed in ... with Lindy Hop figures. Of all the ballroom dances these prying
eyes have seen, this is unquestionably the finest.
Norma Miller wrote, however, that when
"tourists" came to the Savoy, they saw a rehearsed and choreographed
dance, which they mistakenly thought was a regular group of dancers simply
enjoying social dancing.
Popularity
In 1944, with the United States'
continuing involvement in World War II, a 30% federal excise tax was levied
against "dancing" night clubs. Although the tax was later reduced to
20%, "No Dancing Allowed" signs went up all over the country. Jazz
drummer Max Roach argued that, "This tax is
the real story why dancing ... public dancing per se ... were [sic] just out.
Club owners, promoters, couldn't afford to pay the city tax, state tax,
government tax.
World War II facilitated the spread of
jitterbug across the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. British Samoans were
doing a "Seabee version" of the jitterbug by January 1944.Across
the Atlantic in preparation for D-Day,
there were nearly 2 million American troops stationed throughout Britain in May
1944.Ballrooms that had been closed because of lack of business
opened their doors. Working class girls who had never danced before made up a
large part of the attendees, along with American soldiers and sailors. By
November of 1945 after the departure of the American troops following D-Day,
English couples were being warned not to continue doing energetic "rude
American dancing."Time Magazine reported that American troops
stationed in France in 1945 jitterbugged and by 1946, jitterbug had become a
craze in England. It was already a competition dance in Australia.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jitterbug]
Here’s an excellent article by Bobby White
(international swing dance instructor & author) called The Definition
of Jitterbug: swungover.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/the-definition-of-jitterbugI suggest you follow his blog. You can learn amazing stuff.
Before you go, check my Cab Calloway's Hepster Dictionary link under "Are you Hep to the Jive?" on the right side of this blog.
The Tranky Doo is a Jazz Dance choreography. It was
choreographed by Pepsi Bethel and first appeared at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem during the 1940s.
Frankie Manning remembers: "Using different jazz routines was a way of varying our act a little bit for the patrons who sometimes stayed on from the first to the second show. We had another number called 'Bibeau' (the nickname of the guy who created it for us), and one that I choreographed and named in tribute to the chorus girl who inspired it. I knew Tranky Doo (her nickname) from the Club DeLisa in Chicago, and she could really get down. Oftentimes, in show business, as the chorus girls were exiting the stage, one of the best dancers would be featured at the end of the line doing a couple of special steps before going into the wings. Tranky Doo held that spot. I used her exit steps, fall-off-the-log, shuffle, and bogeys, for the beginning of a moderate-tempo, two-chorus routine, made up of a bunch of other jazz steps that I put in a certain order. We sometimes did the Tranky Doo for an encore. The Congaroos used to do the Tranky Doo in the corner of the ballroom when we stopped by the Savoy, which was only occasionally at this point. People who watched us picked it up, and it got spread around that way. I still teach the Tranky Doo, using 'Tuxedo Junction' for music, although I've lengthened the choreography. The Rhythm Hot Shots, a Swedish jazz dance company, do it faster and have added some steps, which is fine with me. I don't mind if people change my choreography, as long as they stay in the same groove. In my opinion, that's what's kept the Lindy hop going all these years" (F. Manning & C.R. Millman, Frankie Manning - Ambassador of Lindy Hop, 209).
At that time, it was
danced to "Tuxedo Junction," however many modern day performances of the dance use
other swing jazz songs. It is most common these days to perform the dance with
the song "Dipsy Doodle" by Chick Webb & his Orchestra featuring Ella Fitzgerald because the dance appears in the Spirit Moves documentary film with a playback of the song. However the
film originally had no sound, and the song "Dipsy Doodle" was
artificially superimposed on that section of the film.
It was common to Lindy Hoppers, like the Shim Sham.
On YouTube I also found the Tranky Doo performed with Slim Gaillard's and Slam Stewart's "Jump Session", which goes very well with the choreography.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tranky_Doo]
The Spirit Moves: A History of Black Social Dance on Film, 1900-1986 is a documentary film by Mura Dehn chronicling the evolution of African social dance throughout most of the 20th century.
