Performing the Inside Turn in Swing Dance

Series Summary

Swing dancing began in the 1920's in response to the swing music produced at the time. Most forms of swing dancing developed by African Americans, but some forms like Balboa originated in Anglo communities. The syncopated timing associated with swinging and dixieland jazz recalls both African American and West African music. Among the many types of swing music are: Lindy Hop, Charelston, Jitterbig, East Coast Swing, Collegiate Shag, Boogie-Woogie, and Jive.

In this free video series, our expert Spencer Weisbond will show you how to do an inside turn, outside turn, and quick stop in Lindy Hop swing dance. Spencer will also teach you how to do a texas tommy, a run and point, a free spin, and a solo turn. He will also show you some grapevine variations and the low down dance move. Finally, Spencer will teach you the basket swing, water skier slide, and the yo-yo cork screw.

Video Transcript

"On behalf of Expert Village I'm Spencer Weisbond from Hop Swing and a Jump. Hop Swing and a Jump is located in New Orleans, Louisiana and this is my lovely partner Jessie Pats. Today we'll be showing you Lindy Hop level 2. Our first move we'll be doing is the swing out variation called the inside turn. The swing out as you might remember is an eight count move that goes 1 2 3 and 4 5 6 7 8. All variations will start on 5 so we'll get to 4 1 2 3 and 4, on 5 I'll turn my hand this way and she'll start to turn counter clockwise following her hand. She will step 5 6 7 and 8 so again that is going to go like this, from this angle. We'll get to 4 1 2 3 and 4 on 5 you start to motion your hand against your body leaders and she'll follow 5 6 7 and 8."