Rhythmic Resilience: An exploration of the African American Lindy Hop Community in New York City, USA

Abstract

Lindy Hop is a Harlem born African American social partner dance which has gone through several cycles of cultural appropriation and is most prominently danced as a gentrified version practiced within the global Lindy Hop scene (GLHS). However and despite a popular narrative claiming otherwise, the dance persisted in the community of origin and continues to be practiced by African American dancers in New York City, particularly in Harlem and the Bronx. The purpose of this study was to firstly investigate the story of Lindy Hop from the point of view of the African American practitioners. Secondly, I attempted to determine the relationship current Black American dancers have with their cultural tradition, within and without the GLHS. My work shows that the continuation of Lindy Hop transmission in the African American community of New York city remains unbroken. Moreover, the dance continues to be a resource for community resilience and a symbol of resistance, particularly as Black practitioners become more and more active in rescuing their cultural heritage from gentrification by the global scene. African American dancers play a crucial role in recentring the Black American cultural context of the dance, notably through people from the lineage connected to the Harlem Savoy Ballroom tradition of dance. Finally African American dancers are involved with many strategies for safeguarding this intangible cultural heritage: through intergenerational social events, youth programs in schools and institutions, and performances centring the representation of Black bodies in movement and showcasing the continuum of Black dance in America. KEY WORDS: LINDY HOP ⦁ NEW YORK CITY ⦁ CULTURAL GENTRIFICATION ⦁ COMMUNITY RESILIENCE ⦁ SAFEGUARDING