Sharon Davis

My name is Sharon Davis

I am a dancer & choreographer, based in London.
I specialise in dances from the 1920s to 1950s.
I dance Swing, Lindy Hop, Charleston, Blues & Burlesque.

email: sharonmdavis@me.com / phone: +44 (0)777 444 6100 (UK)

Blog

// On swing dancing, jazz, burlesque and other things in my life

My latest music video: Carsie Blanton’s “Backbone”

Finally it’s here! The official music video for Carsie Blanton’s tune “Backbone”, which I choreographed and also danced in, along with Carsie herself and the lovely Sarah Breck. Here it is! And here’s some on-set shots! We filmed in Asheville (USA)....

“Ula Ula” Music Video for Illya Kuryaki & The Valderramas

In September I filmed a music video in Buenos Aires, with Juan Villafane, Dax Hock and Sarah Breck. The song is called Ula Ula, the band is Illya Kuryaki & The Valderramas, and the film was directed by Hernan Corera. We shot in an enormous green screen studio, with a colourf...

Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown 2012: 1st Place!

Phew, Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown 2012 is over! What an amazing festival and championship, with all live New Orleans jazz, so good you want to dance your feet off! Congratulations to Amy Johnson for running another great festival. The competitions were hard work, but we’re ...

Swingin’ Festival Buenos Aires

Congratulations to my wonderful dance partner Juan Villafane, for his amazing festival this week in Buenos Aires. It was the inaugural Swingin’ Festival in Buenos Aires, and was a non-stop program of concerts, master classes and a spectacular theatre show featuring Lindy Ho...

National Jitterbug Championships 2012: 1st Place!

Here is our new Classic Lindy Hop routine, to Buddy Johnson’s song Shufflin’ & Rollin’! We performed it for the first time at Camp Hollywood in Los Angeles on 28th July 2012 in the Showcase division at the National Jitterbug Championships, and won 1st place...

Stompology 2012: “Analysing Improvisation” Class Recap

This weekend at Stompology 2012 I taught a class called “Analysing Improvisation”: “Improvisation is part art, part science. This class looks at the science side. By the end of this class you will have a solid sense of your own strengths and weaknesses, and a ta...

Stompology 2012 Photos by Bobby Bonsey

Bobby Bonsey strikes again! Damn, love these photos of Juan and I at Stompology 2012. What an amazing event, every year I just love it. If you haven’t been yet, put Stompology 2013 on your calendar now, seriously. Shout out to Bobby Bonsey for these totally sweet photos, if...

Stompology 2012 Critique Class Recap

Thanks to everyone that came to the critique and feedback class with myself and Mike Faltesek at Stompology last weekend! Everyone had an amazing attitude and it was really inspiring to see a group of people brave enough to put themselves out there, and be genuinely open to criti...

World Burlesque Games: 2nd Place in the World Female Crown!

Well, the World Burlesque Games are over, and what a spectacular week of burlesque. I really enjoyed all the shows I attended, and also loved meeting the lovely burlesque ladies from around the globe backstage. The results are in, and I didn’t quite take out the top place, ...

Solo Jazz workshop track at ESDC 2012

The Authentic Jazz stream we’ve put together for European Swing Dance Championships this year is really spectacular. As far as I’m aware, there’s really no event in the world with a track like this. Check out those instructors, seriously! I want desperately to t...

Lindy Hop Blooper Reel

Here is the Lindy Hop blooper reel I put together, as promotion for the European Swing Dance Championships. Thanks to everyone who sent me their blooper videos! There’s plenty of myself falling over, to make it fair Coming soon: the sequel, this one will be “when it g...

Flyer for my Lindy Hop Workshop in Buenos Aires

Here’s the flyer for the workshop here in Buenos Aires that Juan and I are teaching (with our lovely friends Maxi Prado & Agustina Zero) on 11th December 2011. For more information on the workshop click here....

My Anti-Inflammatory Diet

For a few weeks now, I have been on this new diet: it’s an anti-inflammatory diet. The basic idea behind the diet is to alleviate foods that cause inflammation in the body, and eat a lot of foods that have anti-inflammatory properties. I became interested in the idea becaus...

Photographs by Bobby Bonsey

The oh-so-talented photographer Bobby Bonsey (“man’s man, lady’s man, man about town”) snapped a few photos of me in Herrang, Sweden recently. We went out and explored some of the stunning landscapes surrounding Herrang… at 4am! Yes, in Swedish summe...

VintageJazzArt.com

My friend Mike Thibault just launched the new website for Vintage Jazz Art, which sells gorgeous prints of – yes, you guessed it – vintage jazz art. I’m so excited about this, I’m breaking my personal vow to stop blogging until after ESDC. But this is so g...

Three truly great Lindy Hop photos

My Facebook friend Frida Häggström Gerdt just posted up an amazing photo of Juan and I, competing at the 2010 Stockholm Jazz Jam in the finals of the Lindy Hop battle. This photo alone is worth posting. It really captures how crazed we were in the contest – we were all exha...

Embracing Our Embarassing Swing Past: Part II

On that topic, watch Andrew & Karen doing some wholehearted embracing of their own in the Camp Jitterbug 2010 couples final, a few weeks ago: It’s easy to see why Andrew and Karen are the most popular couple in swing dancing. You guys rock, love your work! (Oh, and did ...

Bob Fosse!

Anyone who’s taken my jazz classes recently knows I’m on a huge Bob Fosse kick (it all started when I began looking for inspiration for my new Beatnik routines, my current pet project). Nah, not 1970s “Spirit Fingers” Fosse, but the way cooler 1950s Fosse....

So, what’s a Killer Diller anyway?

I got asked three times recently, where the name of our team The Killer Dillers comes from. The phrase “killer diller” is jazz slang, in common use in the 1920s, 30s and 40s. To be a “killer” or a “killer diller” meant you were red hot, back in...

Stompology Inspiration

As promised, I’m posting up all the video clips that I referenced during Stompology 2010. Ballin’ The Jack, choreographed by Gene Kelly for a television special (with Donald O’Connor) in 1960: And here are the numbers that inspired my Beatnik Routine! Firstly...

Stompology Stompoff!

Stompology 2010 is this weekend! I just arrived in Rochester, New York for the event, and I’m resting up a few days so I’ll have all my energy for the weekend. Stompology is an all-jazz weekend, and this year the instructors are myself, Juan Villafane, Bethany Powell...

Killer Diller Show, Bologna Italy

The Killer Dillers performed live with the Nine Penny Big Band in Bologna Italy for the Swing Brother Swing Festival, May 2010. It was an epic show, with ALL LIVE MUSIC! Many thanks to the Nine Pennies for learning our arrangements, it was a real pleasure! In case you don’t...

Hot Mikado

Here is colour 16mm footage (no sound) from the 1939 production of The Hot Mikado, at the New York World’s Fair. The musical was an all-black adaptation of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado, with jazzy tunes, big-name performers and famous dancers, including Bill Bo...

Go Down Death 1944

Here’s that snippet of a black couple dancing in the 1944 film Go Down Death that I mentioned to some people recently. Juan stumbled across a compilation clip someone had thrown together on YouTube, and the first half of it was all vintage burlesque from Harlem, so he was s...

DJ Set: Rockin’ in Rhythm, Dublin Ireland, April 2010

Photos: Red Nichols (left), Bob Howard (right) At The Clambake Carnival, Cab Calloway, 186 bpm Nice Work If You Can Get It, Teddy Wilson & His Orchestra with Billie Holiday, 1937, 165 bpm You’ve Got To Give Me Some, Clarence Williams, 185 bpm Ballin’ The Jack, Red...

Barswingona 2010 Jazz Choreography

Well done to all the ladies in my jazz classes at Barswingona 2010 in Barcelona a few weeks ago. I had such fun, you were absolute troopers learning so much choreography in such a tinsy tiny amount of time, and then getting up in front of hundreds of other dancers and performing!...

London Girls Jazz Classes: Edited Songs

As promised, here are the final song edits for both the Josephine Baker routine (Golden Wedding, by Woody Herman), and the jazz routine (Lucy Brown, by The Larks), for those lovely London ladies to download: Josephine Baker Routine Song Edit Jazz Routine Song Edit (Lucy Brown) Ja...

London Girls-Only Jazz Classes

As promised to my gorgeous London students tonight, here are the songs for the two choreographies I am teaching in London over the next three weeks. These are the whole songs, and I may edit them down to be shorter for the next two lessons, but you can practice to these in the me...

Lindy Classic Showcase, Munich February 2010

Harvest Moon Ball

This weekend in Munich for the Rock That Swing Festival, Juan and I taught a class of moves from the Harvest Moon Ball. As promised, here is the footage I showed at the beginning of class. It’s a compilation I put together of a bunch of the surviving footage, overlaid with ...

Face of Camp Jitterbug 2010!

And what a pretty face! Oh dear me! Anyway, very proud to be on this year’s Camp Jitterbug flyer and on the website header: www.campjitterbug.com The photo on the flyer was taken during my tribute act to Josephine Baker in last year’s Jump Session show. Josephine is, ...

Near Death Moment

Near-death end of song almost-collision with our buddies Nick & Nina in the Invitational Strictly Lindy at Lonestar Championships 2010, beautifully captured by Igor Roshchin. Sometimes hitting the end of a song is more important than floorcraft…...

Nathan Bugh: The Most Underrated Individual in Swing

Nathan Bugh is pure genius. I’m serious. This guy is brilliant. He lives in New York. He’s the best dancer, the best musician (Masters at Juilliard, people!), he sings and plays piano and who knows what else (recent acquisition: Banjo Ukulele from 1920), his slides ma...

I Heart Korea!

I just got back from a whirlwind tour to Seoul Korea, for Camp Swing It! A million thanks to Kang Seok for bringing Juan and I out, it was an amazing experience! We can’t wait to go back, it was agony being there for such a short time (only 4 days!!!). Here are a few [...]...

Who Inspires Me: Vera-Ellen

Definitely one of my great idols, she had the most beautiful lines with her graceful ballerina’s legs. If Cyd Charisse was the womanly femme fatale, Vera-Ellen was sweet, innocent, childlike, even a little goofy. She combined classical ballet and pointe work, with the 1940s...

Lonestar Championships, Austin Texas

Just had to share a few of these wonderful photographs that David Holmes took this past weekend in Austin, Texas for the Lonestar Championships. It was one of those mad and magical dance weekends, that sometimes can’t be captured in photos, but actually David has really man...

Jazz Manouche & the Buenos Aires Jazz Festival

So I had the good fortune of arriving in Argentina a few weeks ago, in time for the Buenos Aires Jazz Festival! That never happens! Whenever I arrive in a new country, I’m always greeted by “Oh, if only you had been here last weekend! What a shame!“ But not thi...

New footage of Frankie Manning

I just got pointed towards a snippet of footage of the late great Frank Manning, social dancing in the Savoy Ballroom in 1937! I have so much vintage footage in my collection (over 2,000 short clips on my laptop alone), that sometimes it seems impossible that I could ever stumbl...

Jumpin’ Jive: The Girls vs The Nicholas Brothers

If you ask ‘Who was the greatest flash act of the 1940s?’, a lot of people might suggest The Nicholas Brothers. Ok, fair enough. But I stumbled across a pretty wild clip of some high-kicking, full-splitting and fast-flipping ladies who show that it wasn’t just t...

Judging a Book By Its Cover: Tales of the Jazz Age

Maybe the fact that F. Scott Fitzgerald has been one of my favorite authors since long before I discovered jazz dancing, goes to show that it was always in me, even if I didn’t know it yet. I don’t know if many of you know it, but I actually have a bachelor’s de...

Get your Nagasaki on!

Well, the lyrics may be wildly politically incorrect these days, but Nagasaki is in my opinion a slammin’ little jazz tune. I’ve got renditions I love by Django Reinhardt, Adrian Rollini, Gene Krupa, Benny Carter, Don Redman, Fletcher Henderson, Putney Dandridge, Will...

Hot Jazz in Hell

From its very inception, jazz and the devil were thrown into the same basket (like this 1921 article and this 1938 news story). Well, I’m not a religious person, and quite frankly hell for me would be a world without jazz, but anyway, the imagery linking hot jazz and that ...

DJ Set List: Blues Dance, Buenos Aires Argentina, December 2009

A short set I played at a cozy little Buenos Aires blues dance last week… Too Tight Blues, The New Orleans Wanderers, 1926 (106bpm) Mobile Blues, Duke Ellington, 1938 (80bpm) Feeling Good, Nina Simone (78bpm) Blues in the Dark, Count Basie with Jimmy Rushing, 1938 (86bpm) B...

Shorty George

I just stumbled across this clip of Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire dancing ‘The Shorty George’ in the movie You Were Never Lovelier (1942). A nice, if slightly odd, little tribute to one of our legends, George “Shorty” Snowden. George was a first generatio...

Western Swing

My buddy Dax just gave me a few cool tracks from an album called Western Swing: Everybody’s Truckin’, by the Modern Mountaineers Panhandle Shuffle, by the Sons of the West Sundown Blues, by the Texas Wanderers All thoroughly danceable, nice strong rhythm and plenty of...

ABC Magazine Cover 1927 with a gorgeous Charleston Illustration

1920s Charleston

My new enormous 1920s Charleston compilation, with more vintage footage of the Charleston than you can shake a stick at (as we would say in Australia). See if you can spot these dancers: Joan Crawford, Leon James, Josephine Baker, Al Minns, Frankie Manning, Ginger Rogers, Pepsi B...

Dance Until You Drop: Dance Marathons of the 1930s

Modern Dancing by Irene & Vernon Castle

Below is the entire text of the book “Modern Dancing”, written in 1914 by the famous husband-and-wife ballroom dancing couple, Irene and Vernon Castle. They are credited with invigorating the popularity of modern dancing. They were inventors of a number of dances, inc...

LIFE Magazine August 1943

On 23rd August 1943, LIFE Magazine featured the Lindy Hop and declared that “a true national folk dance has been born in the USA”. It featured a short article and a 10 page photographic editorial (pages 95-103). The dancers were Leon James and Willa Mae Ricker (of Whi...

Provence Swing Festival and our new routine!

I’m recovering now from the charming Provence Swing Festival, in France. Here’s two videos – first, of our brand new Lindy Classic routine, and second, of a short feather fan dance I did. The classic routine is to Scram, by Fats Waller. Enjoy!...

John Bubbles in Cabin in the Sky (1943)

I’m down in Buenos Aires, Argentina right now, Juan’s hometown. Tonight we went out to see a kickin’ gypsy jazz band (Django style) called Swing Tzigane. It was a concert more than a gig really, in a beautiful white marble hall at the university. The Lindy Hoppe...

The Three Peppers

My dance partner Juan just gave me the Three Peppers Chronological Classics CD, hoorah! These things are hard to find these days, although a lot of them are available for mp3 download on Amazon now, which is brilliant! Not this one though, unfortunately. Anyway, I’ve had t...

Mura Dehn’s “The Spirit Moves”

Juan and I are constantly harassing our poor students for not having seen The Spirit Moves. This documentary is absolute essential viewing for any swing dancer! I watch and re-watch it constantly, and every time I see something new. There’s not only Lindy Hop, but also Char...

Holiday in Paris!

My mum and I just decided to have a holiday in Paris, a few weeks from now! Woopee! After the Provence Swing Festival in a few weeks time, I’m going to abandon Juan and flit off to gay Paree to meet ma mere and trip the light fantastic for a week, before heading on to [...]...

1st Place Team at ILHC 2009

Damn, I just realized how lame I am. I didn’t blog about the International Lindy Hop Championships at all!! Well, actually I did post up some photos over at SwingFashionista.com, but that’s not what I’m talking about… I’m talking about The Killer Dil...

Girls swingin’ out…

All the girls dancing together in the last video I posted, reminded me of this brilliant photo. Seems to be the theme of the moment – in the latest Killer Diller routine, I have to swing the lovely Jo Hoffberg out. This would be great if I could lead a swingout like Kevin S...

1939 New York World’s Fair

1939 New York World’s Fair Savoy Ballroom Exhibit Souvenir Program My boyfriend was in a vintage clothing store recently, and bought himself an antique souvenir tie clip from the Chicago World’s Fair of 1933 (aka The Century of Progress Exposition). It reminded me tha...

Waltz Phenakistoscope c1893

What a gorgeous phenakistoscope animation of dancers! From Wikipedia, via Morbid Anatomy. Click here to see more animations/images of the same phenakistoscope. Wikipedia gives the following information: CREATOR Muybridge, Eadweard, 1830-1904, artist. TITLE The zoopraxiscope* ...

Video Clip: Great Swing Moves of the World That Never Quite Caught On

Maybe I’m just the last swing dancer in the world to have seen this little Herrang creation from way back in 2004, but it’s just adorable, I had to post it: Recorded at the Herrang Dance Camp in 2004. Nikolas “Lloyd” Lloyd and Mindi “Mindi” Lun...

The Berry Brothers

Rusty Frank has written a short, but truly lovely biography of The Berry Brothers, for the American National Biography Online. The Killer Dillers might just be The Berry Brothers’ biggest fans, as you may have figured out. So what a nice excuse to post a few videos. Here&#...

My DVDs are finally available!

My burlesque company in Australia, Sugar Blue Burlesque, has just released a series of five instructional DVDs, including a 3-volume Burlesque series (featuring myself, plus the other Sugar Blue Burlesque instructors!), as well as my very own “1920s Charleston & Other Vintage...

Southern Belle Swing Bash: Following Technique Clinic

As promised, here’s that list of Top 10 Leader Pet Peeves (as per a survey I took recently) that we worked on in my Following Technique Clinic this weekend at Southern Belle Swing Bash in Atlanta. We worked through some drills, tests and exercises to see if we were perpetra...

DJ Set List: Southern Belle Swing Bash, August 2009

I played a nice gentle set for one of the late-nights at Southern Belle Swing Bash last weekend, here’s the set list as requested! Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho – Sidney Bechet, 1949 (178 bpm) No More Love – Buddy Johnson, 1951 (125 bpm) Savoy – Lucky M...

Southern Belle Swing Bash 2009!

I had an absolute blast this past weekend at Southern Belle Swing Bash in Atlanta!!! What a brilliant event, I got to meet a bunch of sassy ladies, plus it wasn’t just a girl-fest all weekend long, there were charming gentlemen volunteers, that actually out-numbered the lad...

Jazz Primer by Marc Sabatella

Want to understand jazz music and improvisation better? Check out this jazz primer online text by Marc Sabatella: http://www.outsideshore.com/primer/primer/index.html You can purchase the paperback version, but the entire text is generously available online. I’m no musician...

SwingFashionista.com

I have a new blog, collaboratively with a group of other swing dancing ladies, called SwingFashionista.com It’s a blog and look book, about swing fashion – both swing era vintage (1920s, 30s & 40s), and also those special fashions that sweep through the swing comm...

DJ Set List: Grenoble Lindy Exchange, France, July 2009

I DJ’d a short set at the Grenoble Lindy Exchange in Grenoble, France last weekend, so I played a handful of my current favourite tunes to swingout to… Swingin’ On That Famous Door – Roy Eldridge, 1935 (199bpm) Cherry – Eddie Condon & His Tow Hal...

Names to Inspire You

I had a blast at Stompology in Rochester this past weekend, what a brilliant all-jazz event! Highly recommended for any dancer interested in vernacular jazz, Charleston, blues, tap and any solo jazz dancing! Thanks to Jojo Jackson, Mike Faltesek and Mikey Pedroza for all the insp...

Fascinating Rhythm

The two main men in my life, and fellow Killer Dillers, Juan Villafane and Kevin St Laurent, are currently training for a recreation of the Berry Brother’s number Fascinating Rhythm, from the film “Lady Be Good”. Cane tricks, soft shoe tap and acrobatics –...

Sandra’s Stroll at Sweet Molasses Blues Weekend Boston

Julie, Megan, Sami and the ladies at the Sweet Molasses Blues Weekend in Boston, recently performed a group version of Sandra’s Stroll, a blues line dance I choreographed many a year ago now. The dance was in honour of Sandra ‘Boogie’ Gibson, and inspired by her...

Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers in Hellzapoppin’ (1941)

Excerpt from the 1941 film Hellzapoppin’. The musicians are Slim Gaillard and Slam Stewart (with the Slim & Slam Allstars). The dancers are the most famous swing dance troupe in history, Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, from Harlem, New York. The dancing couples are: Willi...

Showgirl Wish List: Giant Cocktail Glass

Wishlist #3: A giant glass to splash in… Who knows what the attraction is to a pretty girl splashing around in a giant martini glass or champagne saucer? I’ve only seen it live once (Dita Von Teese in Senigallia, Italy), but it is every bit as enticing as it sounds. A...

Burlesque FAQ: Does burlesque involve nudity?

Burlesque Frequently Asked Questions Part 4 Does burlesque involve nudity? Not necessarily. If you go to a modern neo-burlesque night, you will probably see a variety of acts, most of which will involve an element of tease, and some of which will have the performer stripping down...

Showgirl Wish List: Big Cat

Wish List #2: A really big pussycat… When Josephine Baker opened at the Casino de Paris in 1930 she was presented with a pet Leopard named Chiquita, who would appear with her onstage, and who she would walk on a diamond leash through the streets of Paris. Social commentator...

Showgirl Wish List: Paper Moon

Wish list #1: A giant moon to lounge on. The paper moon effect has been a popular photography set, since photography’s earliest days, and has become a covetable glamour set piece for cabaret and burlesque performers…. including me! I want one!...

Burlesque FAQ: Burlesque vs Stripping?

Burlesque Frequently Asked Questions Part 3 What is the difference between burlesque and stripping? The main difference between burlesque and stripping is the idea of the tease. Stripping is simply about revealing nudity, whereas burlesque is an entertainment art, based around da...

Burlesque Star Sally Rand

Born as Harriet Helen Gould Beck, the young Sally Rand literally ran away to join a carnival as a teenager. Over the years she worked as a nighclub cigarette girl, life model, cafe dancer and stage actress (working under the name Billie Beck), before finding herself in Hollywood,...

Savoy Ballroom Timeline

1912: A jazz orchestra organised by James Reese Europe plays at Carnegie Hall 1913: Darktown Follies at Lafayette Theater (the “beginning” of Harlem nightlife) 1919: 369th Regiment (AKA the Harlem Hellfighters) parades up Fifth Avenue to Harlem after WWI 1920: Nationa...

Burlesque FAQ: Is all burlesque the same?

Burlesque Frequently Asked Questions Part 2 Is all burlesque the same? Burlesque takes many different manifestations, as varied and unique as the many individuals who strut the burlesque stage. Burlesque is not a danceform that you need to conform to, but a danceform that moulds ...

1942: Jitterbug Jumps From Low To High

The 12 October 1942 edition of the New York Times (page 13) gives us this little gem, an article about the New York Society of Teachers of Dancing finally accepting jitterbug – in a modified form – into the world of ballroom dance. This is the beginning of the end for...

1939: Doctor Advises Jitterbugs to Train

A short article I found in the New York Times, 25 January 1939 edition (page 18). Advises Jitterbugs to Train Jitterbugs should train in the same way that athletes do, or face the prospect of thick ankles, broken, maladjusted feet and exhausted nervous systems, according to Dr. J...

Burlesque FAQ: What is Burlesque?

Burlesque Frequently Asked Questions Part 1 What exactly is burlesque? Burlesque is the hottest trend in town, a type of performance bringing together a sizzling dance style with elaborate vintage costumes, cool retro tunes and a lot of sassy fun! Burlesque as an entertainment ar...

Swing Dance Etiquette

Here is an article I wrote years ago for the Perth Swing Dance Society. Funny to read it years later, but it still holds true… Social dancing is what swing is all about, and just like any other social situation there’s a level of etiquette required to make sure everyo...

From Syncopated Sin to American National Dance: Lindy Hop and the Dominant Racial Order

This is a paper I wrote whilst studying US history at university, to do with racial issues surrounding Lindy Hop. It covers some of the history of Lindy, though there are some generalisations (it was written for the academic eyes of a lecturer who had no interest in dance). It...

What is Lindy Hop and why’s it so special?

Here is an article I wrote for AusDance magazine a few years ago. It’s more of an academic/professional magazine, read mostly by dancers in other styles (especially contemporary, classical and ballroom), who in Australia don’t tend to know much about Lindy. So it̵...

The Lindy Hoppers Fund

If you’re a swing dancer and you haven’t heard about The Lindy Hopper’s Fund yet, this is dead important. Essentially, it’s a not-for-profit organisation run by a group of passionate and caring Lindy Hoppers (including many names you’ll know well), t...

Rhythmic Happiness

Whilst in Suffolk this weekend, a lovely lady by the name of Anne gave me a short chapter to read from a book she had with her, “The Nature of Happiness” By Desmond Morris. The chapter was entitled “Rhythmic Happiness: The Dancer”, and here it is – a...

1943: Jitterbug Accepted as Ballroom Dance

Ahh, how the times were a-changing. In contrast to some of those scathing anti-jitterbug articles from the 20s and 30s that I’ve already posted, here is an article from the 20th September 1943 edition of the New York Times (page 23): Jitterbug Accepted as Ballroom Dance New...

1938: Archbishop Warns of Effects of Swing on Youth

Here is a charming article from the New York Times on 26th October 1938 (page 20). My favourite bit is “cannibalistic rhythmic orgies” – cannibalistic? Wow. Again, I guess I’m going straight to hell. The full article reads: WARNS OF EFFECTS OF ‘SWIN...

1933: Dixie Dance Hall Closes, Savoy Remains One of a Kind

A 1933 newspaper article from the New York Amsterdam News (May 3rd). This one headlined “Dixie Dance Hall Closes, Savoy Remains One of its Kind.” Click on the thumbnail below to view the scan of the original newspaper article: The article reads: Dixie Dance Hall Close...

1921: Does Jazz Put the Sin in Syncopation?

I just adore this article from the August 1921 edition of the Ladies Home Journal (pages 16-34). It was written by Anne Shaw Faulkner, head of the Music Department of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. According to Miss Faulkner, I am clearly going to hell. Enjoy! Doe...

1932: Savoy Shatters Its Own Record

Another 30′s newspaper article I dug up, this one reading “Savoy Shatters Own Record “, from the Wednesday 5th of October 1932 edition of the New York Amsterdam News. Can you imagine that lineup – all four bands, in one ballroom, on one day!?! Click on th...

1930: Savoy Ballroom, Fess Williams, Fletcher Henderson and all things good

Lindy Hoppers can geek out over this newspaper article from the New York Amsterdam News, Wednesday 1st October 1930 about the Savoy Ballroom. Check out the advert in the bottom right entitled “Savoy Night of Happiness”. Mentions of Fess Williams’ and Fletcher He...

My name is Sharon Davis

I am a dancer & choreographer, based in London.I specialise in dances from the 1920s to 1950s. I dance Swing, Lindy Hop, Charleston, Blues & Burlesque.

email: sharonmdavis@me.com / phone: +44 (0)777 444 6100 (UK)

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I am a dancer & choreographer, based in London.
I specialise in dances from the 1920s to 1950s.
I dance Swing, Lindy Hop, Charleston, Blues & Burlesque.