Jive

The ‘jitterbug jive’ is named after a 30’s Mickey Mouse cartoon where Mickey and Minnie danced a country style jitterbug (‘jitterbugs’ being the dancers and ‘jive’ meaning fake or not right). This uninhibited style of dance originated among African-Americans in the early 1940s and was brought by American servicemen to Europe where it became popular amongst the young as the ‘boogie’. Yet it was never far from criticism as a foreign, vulgar dance and was banned from ballrooms for being too wild and exuberant. It was English instructors who developed the jive into an ‘acceptable dance’.

Syllabus

Bronze

  • Basic in Place
  • Basic Fallaway
  • Change of Place R to L
  • Change of Place L to R
  • Link
  • Change of Hands Behind Back
  • Whip
  • Promenade Walks
  • American Spin

Silver

  • Double Cross Whip
  • Curly Whip
  • Throwaway Whip
  • Reverse Whip
  • Fallaway Throwaway
  • Ball Change

Gold

  • Stop and Go
  • Windmill
  • Chicken Walks
  • Rolling off the Arm
  • Spanish Arms