How to Jitterbug Single Swing: Center, Rhythm, Movement

This video will explain the Rhythm and Movement used in Single Time Swing or Jitterbug. You will also learn how to Center yourself to create perfect balance which allows you ease of movement and connection. These principles are use in the beginner, intermediate and advanced level.

[@skipper523]

My mom and aunt used to jitterbug all the time. Now, i want to learn how to do it!! Good memories, watching them dance.....

[@triciapalo1]

my mom and aunt did too...back in the day. they had fun, and they would sing and yodel together. not as professionals, but just for fun...

[@hansg6336]

I've taken dance classes but no instructor has ever explained these fundamentals. Really good way to build a foundation for all dancing. Thanks so much for this very professional tutorial.

[@camey66]

Had 6 years of ballroom dance lessons and loved it. This video brought back such wonderful memories.

[@piirand]

Thank you for explaining and demonstrating what seems like the most basic information-how the lead should hold her hand, where she should be placing her hand on her partner’s shoulder, which foot each dancer should start off with, etc. My 15-year old daughter and I are going to learn how to jitterbug so we always have moves at parties/weddings, etc. It’ll also be good exercise for us! Although we’ll just be amateurs learning the most fun dance we can find, we’d like to learn to do it correctly so we can translate these skills to other partners in the future! Thanks for your very informative video!

[@brickcity9mm896]

And when should she twerk and pulse?

[@pfavayi]

Unfortunately, in order to learn how to dance , you need to count so that you don't lose your step or if you do you can easily correct, and practice thoroughly the most basic step in the most basic way... Details of many things that make the dance smooth and exciting are confusing and a waste of time for the beginner. Technicality and musicality - those are for after you learn how to dance. You will always be improving them during your dance career / journey. Even your dance teacher is not technically and musically perfect. Most of the time they are around 60 to 70%, and they have been dancing all their lives. It's better to be able to boil an egg and eat so that you don't die of hunger than to wait until you can cook like a MasterChef before you can eat.... Being technically perfect but missing steps on the dance floor is a thousand times worse than being very basic with no technical excellence but not missing any step on the dance floor....

[@denjpic]

During this isolation time, we decided to teach ourselves to jitterbug. Excellent explanation - we enjoyed it very much. Thank you. Hoping there are more.

[@jamespalmer4727]

I don't know anything about dancing, and I like the explanations.

[@pfavayi]

Explanations are just like a soap opera - Entertaining...!!!!

[@karenhantsche6271]

I loved these explanations. I had an ex who was great at this, and I never really understood the science behind his moves. I like all the information about balance and tension.

[@pfavayi]

You don't need any science behind any moves for you to become a great dancer.... Most of the great dancers , especially the great dancers who created this swing dance , never went to a dancing school , or understood science... What you need in order to learn any dance is the count of the basic step.... Counting makes you understand which foot you are moving and when. And when you make a mistake it's very easy to correct you because they will tell you what count it should have been, and you can very easily correct it..... Theories and science, that's for passing time and showing our own importance.... If you don't get up on the dance floor and start dancing a basic step while you're counting , you'll never learn how to dance easily, if at all...

[@michaeldell4712]

Great information. Just the direction on the rock step helped a lot. No one ever told me to keep the weight over the front leg. HUGE difference.

[@Concerned63Citizen]

Thank you for this excellent tutorial. This provides an excellent foundation for learning the correct technique. Very much appreciated. Taking group classes you don't get any of this information.

[@michaelwhitney4196]

Best one I’ve seen…makes sense…I get confused when they just call number of steps…your both great! ❤

[@nikolaikim4057]

Very good points, excellent explanation, thank you very much. I would love to see more about swing/jitterbug.

[@mahaguru1]

Wow this is the information I was looking for.

[@TheUnkus]

that was awesome. I'm getting married shortly, and my mother asked if we could play a jitterbug. I want to surprise her. Thank you.

[@sensimania]

I hope it went well 😎

[@stargirl33343]

I love this explaination, thank you!

[@summerscindy1946]

I love Jitterbug and swing I was great at it being thrown all around my dancing came natural

[@kcsnow9447]

Brilliant, and thanks so much. I probably couldn't, with an entirely destroyed left achilles tendon, but it's still nice to see how it's done. A link to the Lindy Hop would be appreciated too.

[@marilynmurray3700]

nice!!

[@dionmontgomery9371]

I KILLED IT

[@chrisocon]

I asked Google Assistant what it liked to dance and it brought me here

[@johannabaumbaugh386]

Yeah, me too.

[@fresnoswingdance]

Useful video, but pardon me: what ballroom dancers call jitterbug, isn't. It's East Coast Swing. From the Wikipedia page on East Coast Swing "The dance was created by dance studios including the Arthur Murray dance studios in the 1940s, based on the Lindy Hop. Lindy Hop was felt by dance studios to be both too difficult and too unstructured to teach to beginning dancers, but there was market demand for training in Swing Dance. The dance studios had initially dismissed Lindy Hop in particular as a fad." The term Jitterbug comes from the 1930's and originally referred to dances being done at that time, e.g. Lindy Hop and the like.

[@largelester]

Yes it is. I have had Jitterbug lessons, ECS and WCS lessons and Lindy lessons. None of them are fads since I'm sure they're all older than the Ronald McDonald of dancing. Anyway, they (along with many others) are all swing dances and share most of the same moves with their own particular style of footwork. Jitterbug basic is 4 steps on a 6 count. RS (1 2) Step (3-4) Step (5-6). Btw, I have the feeling the name jitterbug and its basic footwork go right back to the beginning of the jazz age if not much earlier!

[@DavidAllen-dj7sd]

Its a black culture dance and was too black for those people. Just look at the atomic dog dance on KZbin and see of you can find white people doing it.

[@Thepixiebella]

I wish I had a partner. :/ forever alone.

[@geoffreycarson2311]

IF A MAN CAN DO THIS DANCE and LOOK Like a PROPER TEDDY BOY !!!HE WILL !!!PULL all The BEST BIRDS !!😁I know COS I WAS Back then 😂g

[@AmyMarieCajigas]

Hello @DrDanceRight ! I'm looking for a professional jitterbug/swing dancer to help me analyze a photograph from 1938 of a pair of swing dancers performing a swing move. This is for a history project at my university and I'd greatly appreciate your help! Is there a way I may contact you, if that's okay?

[@DrDanceRight]

Hi. Sure. Please text the photo to 760-445-7849

[@user-kn4hy3he3m]

step by step show me

[@richardhaley4459]

Irishcountrydancing

[@podcast9606]

there is definitely tension in dance. its called connection

[@DrDanceRight]

The only dances that use tension in their connection are "terrible dancers". Great connection is always relaxed, fluid and complimentary. Tension knocks the partners off balance and creates stiffness rather than rhythm. Never use tension or resistance when dancing. Great dancers stay very elastic when connecting to their partner.

[@fd9431]

Shontel. More Shontel.

[@chazinmo58]

I am a musician and have a real problem learning any of the so called swing moves because they all seem to be based on three beats and all swing music is in 4/4 time.

[@Susie_Spann]

I had the same problem when I start dancing a little over 6 years ago. It was easier for me when I realized that it takes three measures at 4/4 time to finish two complete patterns in the 'basic' step. So, one and a half measures for one complete basic, the beginning of the second basic is the last half of the second measure, and the third measure finishes the second basic. If I could write in musical notes, I would. When I started dancing I actually used graph paper and divided it into 'measures' so I could draw the step patterns. I still see most patterns as though they are written in music notes and divided into measure. Hope this helps a little.

[@DrDanceRight]

I agree. The original form of swing was the lindy hop which is an 8 count timing and makes more musical sense. When lindy hop came out in the 1930's it had 8 counts so it would take two measures of music to complete. Much more logical and natural. The dance studios back then thought that it would be too difficult for their students to learn so they changed the dance to 6 counts. It was easier but not as exciting. All the swing dances contain 8 count variations and you will probably get to them eventually. In west coast swing they are called whips. If you would like to do dances that have more of an 8 count base, you may want to switch to lindy hop or balboa.

[@bernardbrown5336]

Is this a dance lesson or an anatomy lesson?

[@rhiannonishere7148]

Slow learners who need things explained to them exist bud just go find other videos when videos talk too much for you instead of complaining

[@43Rhein10]

This is ALL? NO performance of the real thing? It wouldve bee nice, if in the end you could give us 30 seconds dancing-show (instead of ONLY explaining how-to Jitterbug).

[@pfavayi]

Dancing is DOING , not theory and explanations. You can explain for a million hours and the student will never be able to dance. But just get up and start dancing and the student will follow and even dance better than you... The 8 minutes of extended explanations in this video is time wasted. The student really learns when they see you doing those simple moves which are only difficult for a disabled person.... And the moves are so simple that you only need to do them once, twice at most, for the students to do them the way you're doing them...

[@bernardbrown5336]

Just shut up and show us!

[@user-kn4hy3he3m]

you too much talk show me as motion

[@bernardbrown5336]

BORING!!!