Swing Dancing Comes To Roosevelt Island In Celebration Of Black History Month Saturday February 26 At Good Shepherd Community Center - Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing

Image From RIOC

The Roosevelt Island Seniors Association (RISA) together with the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC)  are celebrating Black History Month with A History Of Swing Dance night from 6 - 9 PM this Saturday night at the Good Shepherd Community Center.

According to RIOC:

In Celebration of Black History Month, the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation presents in partnership with the Roosevelt Island Senior Association: A History of Swing Dance!

Join us at the Good Shepherd Community Center 543 Main St. and bring your dancing shoes! Light Refreshments will be served immediately afterward at the Senior Center located at 546 Main St.

Wikipedia describes swing dancing as:

...a group of dances that developed concurrently with the swing style of jazz music in the 1920s, '30s and '40s, although the earliest of these dance forms predate swing jazz music. The best known of these dances is the Lindy Hop, a popular partner dance that originated in Harlem and is still danced today. While the majority of swing dances began in African American communities as vernacular African American dances, a number of forms (Balboa, for example) developed within Anglo-American or other ethnic group communities.

Swing jazz features the syncopated timing associated with African American and West African music and dance — a combination of crotchets and quavers (quarter notes and eighth notes) that many swing dancers interpret as 'triple steps' and 'steps' — yet also introduces changes in the way these rhythms were played — a distinct delay or 'relaxed' approach to timing.

Today there are swing dance scenes in many countries throughout the world. Lindy Hop is often the most popular, though each city and country prefers various dances in different degrees. Each local swing dance community has a distinct local culture and defines "swing dance" and the "appropriate" music to accompany it in different ways. ...

and here's a pretty good example of swing dancing from the 1941 movie Hellzapoppin

You Tube Video Of Lindy Hop From Hellzapoppin

Remember, it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.

You Tube Video Of Duke Ellington's It don't mean a thing...