itspinahile, eh?

Down the road I go, been dancing to older style live music lately and I find myself wondering about that gap that seems to be growing between the gymnastics of Hip Hop and the social dance my generations have come to love known as swing. It seemed for a while, at least, that the Lindy dancers and the hip hoppers had a lot in common. They appeared to like the side by side patterns, the flips, the slides, the splits, and spins. And because they both require a sort of gymnastic physicality they both seem best suited to the young.

But now I see that this illusion can't hold. The crowds of youth that hang their jeans low and turn the bass high are not the same as the crowds who venerate the tap dancing glide of Frankie Manning. By their nature each of these groups excludes rather than includes.