The year was 1927. American pilot Charles Lindberg, affectionately known as "Lucky Lindy" had just made history by becoming the first to fly solo, nonstop from New York to Paris. Newspapers carried the headlines, "Lindy Hopped the Atlantic".

Rhythm and dance were as much a part of the Afro-American culture at the time as language. Many of their dances didn't have names, but developed through copying. Formal sequences were not followed, and the dances involved much free expression. Different styles therefore developed in different areas.

In Lindberg's city of departure for his epic journey, New York, Afro-Americans were dancing a lively dance to the popular 8-count music at the time at the well-known Savoy ballroom.

The dancing was observed by a newspaper reporter who asked one of the Savoy's officials, "what's that dance called"?

With Lindberg's Newspaper headlines fresh on the respondent's mind, "Lindy Hop" he replied.

And a new dance the Lindy Hop was created.

The movements in the Lindy Hop were a fusion of movements in other Afro-American dances such as tap, breakaway and the Charleston and like the music evolving at the time, improvisation was an important element of the dance. The ability to adapt steps from other dances has made the Lindy Hop popular. It is danced to almost all jazz music as well as to the blues and other music with similar rhythm.

On the other side of the continent at around the same time, another dance was developing in the crowded ballrooms of Southern California. The dance was the Balboa. Like the Lindy Hop, the Balboa is danced to 8-count music, but is characterized by a close and strong partner connection. Leader and follower dance with a firm chest to chest connection. Over time, the dance did develop some more open moves and the dance with these moves became known as the Bal-Swing. Although today, the title Balboa is generally given to these variations.

Back on the east coast, another more lively dance developed from the Lindy Hop called the Jitterbug. The name was coined by an observer who likened the fast, bouncing up and down of the dancers, to someone who had the "jitters" as in involuntary rapid movements caused by excessive use of alcohol and the disease called Delirium Tremens (DT's). "They look like a bunch of jitterbugs out there on the floor", said band leader Cab Calloway.

A version of the Afro-American dances started to be taught in Anglo-American dance studios. This became known as the Jive. The Jive has now become one of the five International Latin Dances in Ballroom competition.

Jive is often also used as a generic term for this whole genre of dances. Another term used for the genre is Swing.

The genre includes: Lindy Hop, Balboa, Shag (with variatons called the Carolina Shag, Collegiate Shag and St. Louis Shag), Jitterbug, Boogie-Woogie, Turkey Trot, Bunny Hug, Grizzly Bear and Texas Tommy* (*not to be confused with the dance move having the same name).

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