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Jitterbug

Jitterbug

The Jitterbug is a swing dance, a subset of Lindy Hop, with an emphasis on 6-count moves and fast spins. The dance originated in the United States in the late 1930s and is predominantly associated with East coast swing and rockabilly music.

Basic moves

Six-count steps are the basis for Jitterbug,
- Basic
- Break
- Close
- Spin

Variants

The main moves may be executed in various ways, depending on the direction of the turn, kind of handhold and extras.
- Spin left or right
- Single or double spin
- Overhead or free spin (frisbee)
- Spin with straight arm
- Block or normal start
- change hands at end or not
- guy spin or not
- Lead with either hand
- Arm drop on shoulder for style
- Jump out from close: with tuck or straight
- hold left hand and kick?? (Cassandra)

Common variations


- Egg Beater
- Cuddles
- Pretzel
- Scooter
- Fan Kick
- Butt Spin
- Titanic
- Table Top

See also


- Dance move
- Lindy Basic
- Sugar push
- Side pass (dance move)
- Swing out
- Circle
- Groucho
- Skip up
- Aerial
- Lead and follow
- Connection (dance)
- Musicality
- Dance
- Swing
- Lindy Hop
- East Coast Swing
- West Coast Swing Category:Swing dances

Swing dance

Swing is a group of related street dances that evolved from Lindy Hop. Swing is a partner dance, where the couple consists of a leader and follower, who share a connection.

Forms of Swing

The three main dance forms of swing are Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing, and East Coast Swing. However, there are many other dances of this kind, such as Jive and Balboa.
- Balboa is an 8-count dance that emphasizes a strong partner connection and quick footwork. Balboa (sometimes referred to simply as "Bal") is primarily danced in a tight, closed position with the follow and lead adopting a firm chest-to-chest posture. This dance is particularly popular in settings with fast jazz (usually anything from 180 to 320 BPM) and/or limited floor space.
- Blues dancing is an informal type of swing dancing with no fixed patterns and a heavy focus on connection, sensuality and improvisation, often with strong body contact. Although usually done to blues music, it can be done to any slow tempoed 4/4 music, including rock ballads and "club" music.
- Boogie woogie is the European counterpart to East Coast Swing, danced to rock music of various kinds, blues or boogie woogie music but usually not to jazz.
- Carolina Shag
- Charleston is a classic 8-count dance that predates Lindy Hop and is often incorporated into Lindy dances. The Charleston originally developed as a solo performance dance in the brothels and speakeasies of the day, but it was adapted into a partner dance sometime during the 1930s. Today, it can be, and is, danced in both modes.
- Collegiate Shag is a simple 6-count dance that is typically done to faster music.
- Country Swing, also called Western Swing or Country/Western Swing (C/W Swing) is a form with a distinct culture. It resembles East Coast Swing, but adds variations from other country dances. It is danced to country and western music.
- East Coast Swing is a simpler 6-count variation. It is also known as Single-Time Swing, Triple-Step Swing, 6-Count Swing, Rock-a-billy, or Jitterbug. East Coast Swing has very simple structure and footwork along with basic moves and styling. It is popular for its forgiving yet elegant nature, and it is often danced to slow, medium, or fast tempo jazz, blues, or rock and roll.
- Hand dancing
- Jitterbug, a subset of Lindy Hop
- Jive is a dance of International Style Ballroom dancing. It diverged from Swing still further.
- Lindy Hop evolved in the late 1920s and early 1930s as the original swing dance. Its main draw is the style's openess to improvisation and ability to easily adapt to include steps from other 8-count and 6-count Swing styles. It has been danced to most every conceivable form of jazz music, as well as to the blues, and any other type of music with a blues or jazz rhythm.
- Push and Whip are Texas forms of swing dance.
- St. Louis Shag
- Skip jive A British variant, popular inthe 50s and 60s danced to trad jazz.
- West Coast Swing was developed in the 1940s and 1950s as a stylistic variation. Followers stay in a slot, which reduces their ability to move left and right but improves their ability to spin left and right. West Coast Swing is often danced with blues and rock and roll music, as well as to smooth and cool jazz. Traditionally, "Ballroom Swing" and "Street Swing" styles are distinguished. Ballroom Swing is a part of American style Ballroom dancing. Street Swing and Ballroom Swing are different in appearance. Ballroom Swing is danced in competition and is done strictly in patterns (a series of interlocking moves). Street Swing is danced in many different styles and places with thousands of differences. It is very open to interpretation.

Music

Originally, swing was danced to swing music, which is a kind of jazz. Some of the most well-known swing jazz performers were Count Basie, Woody Herman, and Ella Fitzgerald. Many dance forms fit their own music. West Coast Swing is usually danced to blues or rock and roll. Country Swing is usually danced to country and western music. Charleston is usually danced to ragtime music. Most dances fit many kinds of music. For example today, Lindy Hoppers dance to Ragtime, Swing, Bop, Blues, Rhythm and Blues, Rock and Roll, Disco, and Hip Hop. West Coast Swing dancers may dance to virtually any 4/4 music that is not too fast. Swing music had a revival in the late 1990s thanks to musician Brian Setzer, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, the movie Swing Kids, and a number of other bands. Category:Swing dances

Lindy Hop

Lindy Hop is a street jazz dance that evolved in Harlem, Manhattan, New York in the late 1920s and early 1930s that emerged with swing jazz. Lindy Hop is a fusion of many dances from all over the United States from the early 1900s, but is mainly based on the Charleston. Lindy Hop combines the movements and improvization of African dances with the formal 8-count structure of European dances. African dances usually separate the men from the women. Europeans invented partner dancing.

Social and performance dancing

Lindy Hop is a partner jazz dance popular in the United States and much of Europe (Including Russia, Ukraine, Hungary and other Eastern European countries). Large communities of dancers also exist in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Practitioners congregate to dance socially, in performances, or in competitions. While Lindy Hop is mainly practiced a partnered dance, it does contain many elements of jazz dance and early african-american dance forms such as jazz dance, tap, minstrel dancing, cakewalk, Black Bottom, Rumba and recently hip hop. Certain dancers would choose to include many elements of jazz dance in their partnered dancing sequences. Lindy Hop can also be danced without a partner, and many Lindy Hop routines are in fact concert dance choreographies, such as the following jazz era originals: Shim Sham, Big Apple, Tranky Doo, and the more recent Jitterbug Stroll. Other forms of solo Lindy Hop usually take the form of improvisation based on Charleston moves, Traditional Jazz moves (such as boogie steps, shorty george, Suzie Q, etc.) and contemporary jazz and modern dance movement. Solo Lindy Hop is sometimes executed as part of a partner dance when one or both of the partner initiates a "breakaway" causing the partners to separate their connection and dance solo with each other using (if at all) visual lead and follow cues. See links to various lindy hop jazz routines at the bottom of the article.

Social dancing

The purpose of social dancing is to have fun, socialize, and celebrate a shared love of movement and music. It is traditional for the man to ask the woman to dance, but at contemporary swing dances, both men and women ask each other. As with other partnered dances, most partnerships are with a male lead and a female follower, but other combinations do occur. More important than moves is connection (in simple form, any point of body contact between partners is connection), which allows both partners to communicate. Social dancers are generally concerned about connection, whether their partner "feels good," rather than whether their partner is capable of doing a number of moves in succession. This connection also allows both partners to style with each other and the music, resulting in a totally improvised, musical dance. Dancers at social events usually have a wide range of skill levels, so cooperating with one's partner matters as much as dancing skill. Dancing with a new partner is a study in flexibility and calibration. What can the new partner do? What are his or her limitations? What does he or she like to do? Dancing with a regular partner is an opportunity to play and practice difficult moves, such as aerials (which are dangerous without regular practice). Most social lindy hoppers dress casually, preferring loose pants and breathable materials. However, some dancers do dress in vintage clothing from the 1920s, 1930s, or 1940s, and some dancers dress in their best formal clothing (though that is a rarity among younger crowds). Lindy Hop is typically done at social events, bars, clubs, dance studios, college student organizations, or private parties. Many venues also provide lessons, either as a drop-in before the scheduled dance, private instruction, or class or progressive lessons. And occasionally, one will find workshops. Sometimes clubs and events have jam circles, where one person or a small group of people dance, alternating partners. Others join by "stealing" in. Jam circles often recognize birthdays and special occasions. When an especially fast-tempo song is played a jam circle will occasionally form in which various couples take turns showing off their skills. Social events have DJs or live jazz or blues bands. It is possible to dance Lindy Hop to even rock music, so DJs play a spectrum of music from the 1920s to today, tending to concentrate on big band music from the 1930s and 1940s. Bands can play a wide variety of music from big band standards to blues to original compositions.

Performance dancing

Lindy Hop is fun to watch. Choreographed routines are performed at clubs, at private parties, on stage, and in movies. Performances are opportunities for dancers to show off their best moves and aerials. Performance groups that had an impact on the development of Lindy Hop include the following:
- Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, New York City, founded in 1935
- Big Apple Lindy Hoppers, New York City
- Rhythm Hot Shots, from Sweden, founded in 1985, now called the Harlem Hot Shots. The Rhythm Hot Shots have been a major driving force in the worldwide revival of Lindy Hop from the 1980s onward.
- Loose Change, San Francisco, California. Blends Lindy Hop with hip hop and African-modern dance. Their influence on the future of Lindy Hop and its ties with hip hop remains to be seen. A professional Lindy Hop performance group is not different from other dance companies from different genres (Such as a jazz dance company). Some difference do exist due the nature of Lindy Hop as a social dance, its roots as a self-learned street dance, and the comparative lack of experts, schools, resources, and public demand that other genres may have (such as ballet or modern dance). Other dance forms also enjoy the advantage of having a tradition of starting a dance training at an early age. Essentially the main reason to be in a performance group is the love of dancing. The more a dancer loves to dance, the more they want to push on and achieve greater things. Reasons to form or be in such a company vary, but usually belong to one or more of the following categories:
- Artistic reasons (pursuing the art of dancing, and the continuous artistic expression through jazz dance and Lindy Hop),
- Commercial reasons (to perform at paid "gigs" - essentially continuing the tradition of Vaudeville and supplying entertainment for those who pay for it),
- Competition (to compete with a selected team, set choreographies and test one's skills versus other dance teams)
- Practice (to enhance the dancers of the participating dancers, work on new materials or engage in dance movement that is not possible on the social dance floor - such as aerials or other moves that require pre-arranged agreement between the dancers/partners)

Competition dancing

The two main forms of competition are Jack and Jill competitions and Showcase competitions. Jack and Jill: Jack and Jill competitions imitate social dancing. Dancers perform up to five different songs. The songs are often one to two minute clips with different speeds and textures. The songs are usually not announced ahead of time. Sometimes, dancers will have the same partner for all songs, and other times, dancers have a different partner for each dance. Sometimes dancers choose their partners, and other times, dancers are paired randomly. Some clubs hold Jack and Jill competitions about once a month. Showcase: Showcase competitions are for choreographed performance routines. Showcase competitions are usually done at regional and national events. Showcases can be for pairs or groups. Some of the major Lindy Hop competitions, many of which have both Jack and Jill and Showcase divisions, include the following:
- Ultimate Lindy Hop Show Down
- American Lindy Hop Championship
- Australian Jitterbug Championships
- Canadian Swing Championships
- Harvest Moon Ball
- National Jitterbug Championship
- World Jitterbug Championship

History

Lindy Hop is a fusion of American dances that emerged in the late 1920s, and continues evolving today. In the 1920s and 1930s, ballrooms across the United States sponsored dance contests, where dancers invented, tried, and competed with new moves. In the 1910s and 1920s, at the circuit of Vaudeville halls across the U.S., professionals honed their skills in tap and other dances of the era. In the 1910s through the 1950s, Harlem was an entertainment district, where people from all walks of life, all races, and all classes came together. The Cotton Club featured black performers and catered to the rich, glamorous, and white clientele, while the Savoy Ballroom catered to average, working, and mostly black clientele. So of course, Swing jazz and Lindy Hop evolved at the Savoy. Electric lighting and air conditioning made evening social entertainment available to everybody. This was a new era of dance halls and live music.

Pre-Lindy era (1920 to 1927)

Lindy Hop primarily evolved out of Breakaway, with influences from Charleston, tap, and many other dances. This era ended when the Black Bottom dance craze took hold of the country in 1926, sweeping away interest in the Charleston.

Tap Dance (Jazz) (1900 to 1955)

Tap dance was invented in the mid-1800s, possibly in New York City, where Irish, Scottish, African immigrants competed with each other in dance contests. The fusion of foot dances from many sources created tap. From 1900 to 1955, tap dance was the dominant performance dance form in the U.S. The Vaudeville and T.O.B.A. (black Vaudeville) circuits hired many professional tap dancers. There were skilled tap dancers in every city in the U.S. Vaudeville performers toured in circuits, performing in cities across the U.S. Travelling performers were exposed to dances all over the country, which laid the ground work for the fusion called Lindy Hop. In the early 1900s, tap dance was called jazz dance. Flying swing outs and flying circles are Lindy Hop moves with tap footwork.

Charleston (1922 to 1926)

The Charleston was invented by 1903, but it may have developed from a much older dance called the Branle. The Charleston was danced to ragtime jazz. Females who danced the Charleston were called flappers. The Charleston was featured in Harlem stage productions in 1913. On Broadway in 1922, the Charleston was featured in the Zeigfeld Follies. The next year, both the play Liza and the Aubrey Lyles show Runnin' Wild featured the Charleston on Broadway. A nationwide craze for the Charleston began in 1922 as a result of these shows. External link: [http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3chrlst.htm http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3chrlst.htm]

Black Bottom (1926 to 1927)

Black Bottom was a dance from New Orleans, Louisiana around 1900. In 1924, the stage play Dinah introduced the Black Bottom to the New York public. In 1926 and 1927, the George White Scandals featured Black Bottom at the Apollo Theatre. Black Bottom swept the country in 1926 and 1927 and replaced Charleston as the most popular social dance.

Other dances

The influences of other dances can be seen through the specific moves that remain in Lindy Hop, like shag basics, the Texas Tommy, and the Apache swing out. Apache: This dance was danced in closed position, except for the move where the follow moved out in an apache spin. Texas Tommy: This dance is remembered for the Texas Tommy spin. Tap Charleston (1925 to 1926): Leonard Reed was said to have invented Tap Charleston after he learned tap in 1925. Tap Charleston was the Charleston with breaks into open position to do tap steps. The connection between Breakaway and Tap Charleston is murky. It could be the same thing attributed to Leonard Reed or something else. Other: Other dances that influenced Lindy Hop include Collegiate Shag.

Classic era (1927 to 1935)

This era was inspired by ragtime jazz. Lindy Hop evolved from the combination of Breakaway and Charleston. Dancers, like George Snowden (Shorty George) opened up Breakaway and Charleston. The partners moved closer together and further apart while spinning to make the moves more interesting, eventually creating the swing out. According to legend, George Snowden renamed the dance from Breakaway to Lindy Hop at dance contests at the Harvest Moon Ball in Central Park in September 1927 or at the Savoy Ballroom in 1928 (the story varies). Lindy Hop was named in honor of Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic airplane flight in 1927. In slang of the late 1800s and early 1900s, a lindy was a young woman; it was also the popular nickname of aviator Lindbergh, often called "Lucky Lindy" (although he personally disliked the nickname). Many dance events at the turn of the century were called "lindy dances" or "lindy hops", so the transatlantic flight may not have been the origin of the name, but it did sanction and popularized the name. It gave a white identity to a black dance, making it possible for the whole country to enjoy. Lindy Hop dancers were originally banned from the Savoy Ballroom, because they took more space than other dancers and often kicked other dancers. The "Cat's Corner" began when Lindy Hop dancers gathered in one corner of the Savoy ballroom to dance. As Lindy Hop became popular, the Savoy relented and welcomed Lindy Hop dancers. (Reference: Frankie Manning's Northern California Lindy Society workshop interview, January 2002) The most notable dance troupe of the classic era was the Shorty George Trio, which inspired many other dancers and troupes to take up Lindy Hop. Prohibition ended in 1933, and Cab Calloway moved from the Savoy to the Cotton Club in 1934. These and other events sparked a change in generation of musicians and dancers.

Aerials era (1935 to 1941)

Lindy Hop exploded in 1935 with a new generation of musicians and dancers. Swing music became popular nationwide, thanks to the Benny Goodman Orchestra. The Savoy was the hottest dance club in New York City, which meant it was the hottest club in the world. Chick Webb was the leader of the house band at the Savoy. His vocalist was the teenage Ella Fitzgerald. Frankie Manning turned 21, invented aerials in Lindy Hop, and challenged George Snowden as the leading dancer at the Savoy. Whitey's Lindy Hoppers formed before aerials. Whitey was the head bouncer at the Savoy, and he arranged for dancers to perform at parties. George Snowden had been away, performing professionally, so a new generation of dancers became active. A rivalry and a challenge sprang up over whether Shorty George and his crowd or Frankie Manning and his crowd were the better dancers. Shorty George and his partner Big Bea often finished dances with a move where Big Bea picked Shorty George up on her back and carried him off the floor while he kicked his feet. Frankie Manning wanted to outdo Shorty George, so he convinced his partner Freda Washington to do a back-to-back flip. This became the first Lindy Hop aerial and won the contest. When Shorty George asked Frankie Manning where he got the move, he said, "From you." Frankie Manning then had to explain. The most notable dance troupe of the aerials era was Whitey's Lindy Maniacs, also known as Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, the Congeroos, and other names, which was led by Hubert White and starred Frankie Manning and Norma Miller, among others. The troupe performed around the world from 1935 to 1941. They performed at private parties and on Broadway. They danced in many movies, including Hellzapoppin' and the Marx Brothers' A Day at the Races. They also performed for the King and Queen of the United Kingdom. This era ended when World War II began and the country became preoccupied with other things.

World War II era (1941 to 1945)

During the war, many top performers were drafted into military service. Lindy Hop became a wartime recreation. It was imported (in a bastardised form) into Europe by American soldiers. In 1943, Life magazine featured Lindy Hop on its cover and called it America's National Folk Dance.

Post-war era (1945 to 1984)

After the war, music changed. Jazz musicians wanted patrons to pay attention and listen, not to dance. Jazz became more complex and not danceable. Lindy Hop spawned both East Coast Swing and West Coast Swing and influenced many other dances, like Carolina Shag, which thrived. Lindy Hop appeared in movies throughout the 1940s. Frankie Manning eventually could not keep steady work as a dancer after the war, so he joined the post office. Lindy Hop appeared infrequently in movies ever since then. During this era, East Coast Swing was adopted as a part of the ballroom repertoire. It was codified and simplified. It adopted the ballroom concept of frame. Music changed from swing to rock. One particular factor was economics. It was much cheaper for music venues and clubs to employ music groups of only three to six people, as opposed to the larger big band orchestras that Lindy Hop dancers typically enjoyed. Television also gave people more distractions than ever before. Lindy Hop slowly faded away to memory.

Revival era (1984 to present)

Lindy Hop never really died out, as it continued to be occasionally danced by older couples who had learned the dance as teenagers in the 1940s and by a few small groups of new young dancers. But it was no longer a well-known fad. Lindy Hop revived when a group of Swedish dancers (later The Rhythm Hot Shots) travelled to Harlem New York City seeking any original Lindy Hoppers who were still living. They had seen the old movies with Lindy Hop and wanted to know more from the original dancers. They found Al Minns, one of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. Californian dancers Steven Mitchell and Erin Stevens also visited Frankie Manning in 1984 on a similar mission. These two groups, American and Swedish, sought out the historical underpinnings of the Lindy Hop dance through independent means. They originally had no connection to each other, and to this day it is unknown as to why isolated populations sought to revive Lindy Hop dance at approximately the same time. Within a year, these dancers sparked a Lindy Hop revival that continues today. Al Minns, Frankie Manning and Norma Miller came out of retirement and toured the world teaching Lindy Hop. There was a globalization of Lindy Hop as well as swing music and culture. Each major city and Lindy Hop/swing community has the basic 8-count step, although they each display their own local accent or flavor. Modern globalization of Lindy Hop was assisted by the concept of the Lindy Exchange. Other events that sparked the revival include the following:
- The Rhythm Hot Shots from Sweden performed all over the world.
- The 1993 movie Swing Kids, about Lindy Hop dancers in pre-war Germany, was a hit.
- The 1996 movie Swingers has a climactic swing dance scene.
- The 1998 Gap commercial "Khaki Swing" caused a boom that lasted for several years in the U.S. The major styles of Lindy Hop danced today are Savoy-Style Lindy Hop, which keeps the original New York City style, and Hollywood-Style Lindy Hop, which resembles West Coast Swing. Today, Some Lindy Hop dancers continue evolving the dance with influences from Hip Hop (styling and music), West Coast Swing and Salsa while others explore Jazz, Tap and other Traditional Jazz and Afro-American dances as resources to expand and enrich Lindy Hop.

Dance movement, moves and patterns

Lindy Hop is based on jazz dance and tap dance body movement. Modern Lindy Hop sometimes incoperates movement principles from other schools of dance such as hip hop. Lindy Hop, being a jazz dance, does not have a single "basic move" as compared to other partner dance forms. It relies on the artistic expression of the dancers involved, whether dancing in a pair, solo or as a part of a routine. There are, however, a number of popular patterns. Some of them are important because they embed key principles of Lindy Hop motion and offer a skeleton on which a dance can be built. The two key dance patterns of Lindy Hop are the swingout, an 8-count move that usually starts and ends in open position, and the Charleston, an 8-count move that usually starts and ends in closed position. Both moves have many variations. Lindy Hop dancers often use these two dance patterns as a skeleton on which to create their dance choreography - an instant choreography improvised by the dancers on the dance floor at the time of social dancing. Most social Lindy Hop dances are built around variations of the swingout pattern with expansions many improvisational moves. Lindy Hop uses 8-count steps extensively, reflecting the structure of swing music, as well as other counts. The traditional movement is clockwise, which is the opposite of ballroom. See Lindy Hop moves for a list of Lindy Hop dance moves.

Musicality

Musicality is the skill allowing the dancer to create and execute choreography (either prepared in advance or improvised on the spot on the dance floor) to match - and, more significately, represent the music - including the melody and the rhythm. A perfect musicality would mean that the dances create pure dance movements that contains the entire elements of the music, or those elements that the dancers choose to accentrate in order to create their dance or artistic statement. In a perfect world, a viewer shoule be able to "see" the song in the dancers' movements, so even without music, the song would still be recongnizable through the dance itself. In jazz music, there are many elements in a song that could trigger musicality. It can be the melody, or the counter-melody, the phrases and breaks in the melody, the beat, the back beat, the drums, the bass, the keys of the piano or any other musical or rhytmic element of the song. The development of musicality progresses from new dancers who focus on moves independent of the music to advanced dancers focusing on musicality which fits the moves to the music. Musicality requires knowing the moves cold and knowing the structure of the music.

Partnering technique

Partnering technique is the element of Lindy Hop which controls the communication of the dancers engaged in the dance - the dance partners. Partnering technique allows both dancers to lead and follow dance movement, move together, and/or communicate dance ideas to each other either in an open conversation or a call and response structure. See also: Connection

Music

Music to dance to

Lindy Hop, as a Jazz dance, is most suited to the music from which it originated - Jazz with a swinging rhythm - including swing jazz, Dixieland, traditional jazz, Hot Jazz and most rhytmic forms of jazz from the jazz era (1920s to 1940s). After the end of the jazz era, Lindy Hop continued to be danced to the various musical forms that evolved, as long as they had a clear swinging rhythm. Such forms include blues, rhythm and blues, jump blues, jazz, groove, and soul. Nowdays, Lindy Hop is danced to a vareity of music, and most times, the choice of musical style depends on the venue and dance scene. While some clubs prefer dancing to swing jazz music, some clubs play other types of music, or modern music. The topic of which music is Lindy Hop's music is hotly debated in the swing community, and it is the cause of much artistic discussion as to the definition of the dance. In an interview at a Northern California Lindy Society workshop, Frankie Manning has said the following: "Lindy is most interesting when danced to live bands. Traditionally, Lindy Hop is danced to swing jazz, but dancers also enjoy ragtime jazz, bebop, blues, rhythm and blues, rockabilly, and rock and roll, and rap, that has a moderate speed. With live bands, dancers cannot predict the songs so easily, so they must pay closer attention which helps them improvize. Originally, musicians would imitate the dancers." (Reference: Frankie Manning, Northern California Lindy Society workshop interview, 2002)

Musical styling

The artistic Development of the dance is well connected and shaped to the type of music used for the pursuit of dancing. While there is no definite "black and white" division between various schools of Lindy Hop and their music, we can define three main groups of Lindy Hop music and musical styling:
- Schools of Lindy Hop which pursue swing jazz and authentic jazz music generally display a style of dancing borrowing and expanding the original Lindy Hop of the 1930s, complete with high energy, bouncey steps, aerial steps, Charleston steps, tap steps, complex rhythmic patterns, and jazz movement.
- Schools of Lindy Hop which pursue more bluesy or modern jazz music display a style which is slower, smoother, "groovier", borrows movement from hip hop or Blues, fluid and relaxed body movements and isolations, and usage of simpler rhythmic patterns.
- Lindy Hop styles based on other types of music such as rock and roll, rockabilly or jump blues are generally a minority niche and less of an influence on the development of the dance form.

Scenes

Lindy Hop tends to be concentrated in small local scenes, although regional, national, and international dance events bring dancers from many of these scenes together. Many Internet forums have emerged in these dance scenes. These message boards serve to provide information to dancers about Lindy Hop and dance events in the geographic area. Yehoodi has become the largest of these and now caters to a national audience, although many smaller local forums (such as Swingmonkey) also exist. The small village of Herräng in Sweden (north of Stockholm) has unofficially become the international Mecca of Lindy Hop due to the annual Herräng Dance Camp.

See also

Choreographed Lindy Hop / Jazz Routines

These routines are part of the lindy hop jazz dance vocabulary:
- Shim sham (dance)
- Jitterbug Stroll
- Lindy Chorus
- Madison (dance)
- Big Apple (dance)
- Tranky Doo

Related Swing Dances

These dances are either practiced together with Lindy Hop or strongly related or derived from Lindy Hop:
- Swing (dance)
- West Coast Swing
- East Coast Swing
- Jitterbug
- Charleston (dance)
- Tap (dance)
- Jazz dance
- Balboa (dance)
- Shag (dance)
- Collegiate Shag
- Blues (dance move)
- Swing walk
- Swing rueda (dance)
- Jive (dance)
- Modern Jive

Lindy Hop Culture


- Lindy Exchange
- Yehoodi
- Swingmonkey

External links


- [http://www.streetswing.com/homepage.htm Streetswing.com Dance History Archives (Lindy Hop)]
- [http://www.lindycircle.com/history/lindy_hop/ Lindy Hop History]
- [http://dancing.org/lindy-what-is.html What Is Lindy Hop?]
- [http://www.herrang.com/ Herrang Dance Camp in Sweden]
- [http://www.it-must-schwing.de/index_en.php it-must-schwing.de] - German based Lindy Hop page
- [http://dancers.org dancers.org - Find other Lindy Hoppers]
-

United States

:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American. The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America. The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.

Geography and climate

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas. Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization. When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²). The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity. Hawaii The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.

History

American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200. Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there. During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655. This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule. British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]] In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed. From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of southern agriculture and wanted it expanded to the territories. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The dispute reached a crisis in 1861, when seven southern states seceded1 from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, leading to the Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all slaves in states in rebellion, though full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments. Thirteenth Amendment). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]] During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States. As the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America. In the process, the U.S. displaced most American Indian nations. This displacement of American Indians continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S. with many tribes attempting to assert their original claims to various lands. In some areas American Indian populations were reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and US settlers acquired those emptied lands. In other instances American Indians were removed from their traditional lands by force. Though some would say the U.S. was not a colonial power until the Spanish-American War when it acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, the dominion exercised over land in North America the United States claimed is essentially colonial. The Philippines became independent in 1946. During this period, the nation also became an industrial power. This continued into the 20th century, which has been termed "the American Century" because of the nation's overriding influence on the world. The US became a center for innovation and technological development; major technologies that America either developed or was greatly involved in improving include the telephone, television, computer, the Internet, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, aviation, and aeronautics. In addition to the Civil War, another major traumatic experience for the nation was the Great Depression (1929 to 1939). The nation has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including World War I and World War II (in both of which the US later joined the Allies). During the Cold War, the US was a major player in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and, along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world's two "superpowers". With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US emerged as the world's leading economic and military power. Beginning in the 1990s, the United States became very involved in police actions and peacekeeping, including actions in Kosovo, Haiti, Somalia and Liberia, and the first Persian Gulf War driving Iraq out of Kuwait. After attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States and other allied nations found themselves involved in what has come to be called the "War on Terrorism," which has primarily encompassed military actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Government

Iraq of the United States.]]

Republic and suffrage

The United States is an example of a constitutional republic, with a government composed of and operating through a set of limited powers imposed by its design and enumerated in the United States Constitution. Specifically, the nation operates as a presidential democracy. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials of each of these levels are either elected by eligible voters via secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Americans enjoy almost universal suffrage from the age of 18 regardless of race, sex, or wealth. There are some limits, however: felons are disenfranchised and in some states former felons are likewise. Furthermore, the national representation of territories and the federal district of Washington, DC in Congress is limited: residents of the District of Columbia are subject to federal laws and federal taxes but their only Congressional representative is a non-voting delegate.

Federal government

The federal government is the national government, comprising the Legislative Branch (led by Congress), the Executive Branch (led by the President), and the Judicial Branch (led by the Supreme Court). These three branches were designed to apply checks and balances on each other. The Constitution limits the powers of the federal government to defense, foreign affairs, the issuing and management of currency, the management of trade and relations between the states, and the protection of human rights. In addition to these explicitly stated powers, the federal government—with the assistance of the Supreme Court—has gradually extended these powers into such areas as welfare and education, on the basis of the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution.

The Congress

necessary and proper The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population; in contrast, each state has two Senators, regardless of population. There are a total of 100 senators, who serve six-year terms. The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people. The Constitution also includes the necessary-and-proper clause, which grants Congress the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers."

The President

necessary-and-proper clause At the top level of the executive branch is the President of the United States. The President and Vice-President are elected as 'running mates' for four-year terms by the Electoral College, for which each state, as well as the District of Columbia, is allocated a number of seats based on its representation (or ostensible representation, in the case of D. C.) in both houses of Congress (see U.S. Electoral College). The relationship between the President and the Congress reflects that between the English monarchy and parliament at the time of the framing of the United States Constitution. Congress can legislate to constrain the President's executive power, even with respect to his or her command of the armed forces; however, this power is used only very rarely—a notable example was the constraint placed on President Richard Nixon's strategy of bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The President cannot directly propose legislation, and must rely on supporters in Congress to promote his or her legislative agenda. The President's signature is required to turn congressional bills into law; in this respect, the President has the power—only occasionally used—to veto congressional legislation. Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. The ultimate power of Congress over the President is that of impeachment or removal of the elected President through a House vote, a Senate trial, and a Senate vote. The threat of using this power has had major political ramifications in the cases of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. The President makes around 2,000 executive appointments, including members of the Cabinet and ambassadors, which must be approved by the Senate; the President can also issue executive orders and pardons, and has other Constitutional duties, among them the requirement to give a State of the Union address to Congress once a year. Although the President's constitutional role may appear to be constrained, in practice, the office carries enormous prestige that typically eclipses the power of Congress: the Presidency has justifiably been referred to as 'the most powerful office in the world'. The Vice President is first in the line of succession, and is the President of the Senate ex officio, with the ability to cast a tie-breaking vote. The members of the President's Cabinet are responsible for administering the various departments of state, including the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, and the State Department. These departments and department heads have considerable regulatory and political power, and it is they who are responsible for executing federal laws and regulations. George W. Bush is the 43rd President, currently serving his second term.

The Courts

George W. Bush The highest court is the Supreme Court, which consists of nine justices. The court deals with federal and constitutional matters, and can declare legislation made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions. Below the Supreme Court are the courts of appeals, and below them in turn are the district courts, which are the general trial courts for federal law. Separate from, but not entirely independent of, this federal court system are the individual court systems of each state, each dealing with its own laws and having its own judicial rules and procedures. A case may be appealed from a state court to a federal court only if there is a federal question; the supreme court of each state is the final authority on the interpretation of that state's laws and constitution.

State and local governments

supreme court of each state. Note that Alaska and Hawaii are shown at different scales, and that the Aleutian Islands and the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are omitted from this map.]] The state governments have the greatest influence over people's daily lives. Each state has its own written constitution and has different laws. There are sometimes great differences in law and procedure between the different states, concerning issues such as property, crime, health, and education. The highest elected official of each state is the Governor. Each state also has an elected legislature (bicameral in every state except Nebraska), whose members represent the different parts of the state. Of note is the New Hampshire legislature, which is the third-largest legislative body in the English-speaking world, and has one representative for every 3,000 people. Each state maintains its own judiciary, with the lowest level typically being county courts, and culminating in each state supreme court, though sometimes named differently. In some states, supreme and lower court justices are elected by the people; in others, they are appointed, as they are in the federal system. The institutions that are responsible for local government are typically town, city, or county boards, making laws that affect their particular area. These laws concern issues such as traffic, the sale of alcohol, and keeping animals. The highest elected official of a town or city is usually the mayor. In New England, towns operate directly democratically, and in some states, such as Rhode Island and Connecticut, counties have little or no power, existing only as geographic distinctions. In other areas, county governments have more power, such as to collect taxes and maintain law enforcement agencies.

Political divisions

With the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies proclaimed themselves to be nation states modeled after the European states of the time. Although considered as sovereigns initially, under the Articles of Confederation of 1781 they entered into a "Perpetual Union" and created a fully sovereign federal state, delegating certain powers to the national Congress, including the right to engage in diplomatic relations and to levy war, while each retaining their individual sovereignty, freedom and independence. But the national government proved too ineffective, so the administrative structure of the government was vastly reorganized with the United States Constitution of 1789. Under this new union, the continued status of the individual states as sovereign nation states fell into dispute in 1861, as several states attempted to secede from the union; in response, then-President Abraham Lincoln claimed that such secession was illegal, and the result was the American Civil War. Since the Union victory in 1865, the independent status of the individual states has not been broached again by any state, and the status of each state within the union has been deemed by mainstream officials and academics to be settled as being subordinate to the union as a whole. In subsequent years, the number of states grew steadily due to western expansion, the purchase of lands by the national government from other nation states, and the subdivision of existing states, resulting in the current total of 50. The states are generally divided into smaller administrative regions, including counties, cities and townships. The United States–Canadian border is the longest undefended political boundary in the world. The U.S. is divided into three distinct sections:
- the "continental United States," also known as "the Lower 48" and more accurately termed the conterminous, coterminous or contiguous United States
- Alaska, which is physically connected only to Canada
- the archipelago of Hawaii, in the central Pacific Ocean. The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the federal district of the District of Columbia, which is the nation's capital, and several overseas insular areas, the most significant of which are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only incorporated territory; it is unorganized and uninhabited. The United States Navy has held a base at a portion of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 1898. The United States government possesses a lease to this land, which only mutual agreement or United States abandonment of the area can terminate. The present Cuban government of Fidel Castro disputes this arrangement, claiming Cuba was not truly sovereign at the time of the signing. The United States argues this point moot because Cuba apparently ratified the lease post-revolution, and with full sovereignty, when it cashed one rent check in accordance with the disputed treaty.

Foreign relations and military

sovereign] The immense military and economic dominance of the United States has made foreign relations an especially important topic in its politics, with considerable concern about the image of the United States throughout the world. Reactions towards the United States by other nationalities are often strong, ranging from uninhibited admiration and mimicking of all things American to anti-Americanism. US foreign policy has swung about several times over the course of its history between the poles of strict isolationism and imperialism and everywhere in between. Three of the nation's four military branches are administered by the Department of Defense: the Army, the Navy (including the Marine Corps), and the Air Force. The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, but is placed under the Department of the Navy in time of war. The combined United States armed forces consist of 1.4 million active duty personnel, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard. Military conscription ended in 1973. The United States Armed forces are considered to be the most powerful military (of any sort) on Earth and their force projection capabilities are unrivaled by any other nation. The 2005 defense budget amounted to $401.7 billion, which is an increase of 4% over 2004 and of 35% since 2001. Over 50% of that number is spent in research & development. (For comparison, in 2004 the European Union (considered as the second-largest military force) had a combined total of 1.6 million troops, and a defense budget of €160 billion, with less than 10% of that being spent on R&D.)

Largest cities

The United States has dozens of major cities, including 11 of the 55 global cities of all types — with three "alpha" global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The figures expressed below are for populations within city limits. A different ranking is evident when considering U.S. metro area populations, although the top three would be unchanged. Note that some cities not listed (such as Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.) are still considered important on the basis of other factors and issues, including culture, economics, heritage, and politics. The twenty largest cities, based on the United States Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, are as follows:

Economy

The United States has the largest single-country economy in the world, with a per-capita gross domestic product of $40,100. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. gross domestic product The largest industry of the U.S. is now service, which employs roughly three quarters of the U.S. work force. The United States has many natural resources, including oil and gas, metals, and such minerals as gold, soda ash, and zinc. In agriculture, the U.S. is a top producer of, among other crops, corn, soy beans, and wheat; the United States is a net exporter of food. The U.S. manufacturing sector produces goods such as, cars, airplanes, steel, and electronics, among many others. Economic activity varies greatly from one part of the country to another, with many industries being largely dependent on a certain city or region; New York City is the center of the American financial, publishing, broadcasting, and advertising industries; Silicon Valley is the country’s primary location for high-technology companies, while Los Angeles is the most important center for film production. The Midwest is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with Detroit, Michigan, serving as the center of the American automotive industry; the Great Plains are known as the "breadbasket" of America for their tremendous agricultural output; the intermountain region serves as a mining hub and natural gas resource; the Pacific Northwest for fish and timber, while Texas is largely associated with the oil industry; the Southeast is a major hub for both medical research and the textiles industry. Several countries continue to link their currency to the dollar or even use it as a currency (such as Ecuador), although this practice has subsided since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. Many markets are also quoted in dollars, such as those of oil and gold. The dollar is also the predominant reserve currency in the world, and more than half of global reserves are in dollars. The largest trading partner of the United States is Canada (19%), followed by China (12%), Mexico (11%), and Japan (8%). More than 50% of total trade is with these four countries. In 2003, the United States was ranked as the third most visited tourist destination in the world; its 40,400,000 visitors ranked behind France's 75,000,000 and Spain's 52,500,000. Labor unions have existed since the 19th century, and grew large and powerful from the 1930s to the 1950s. See Labor history of the United States. Since 1970 they have shrunk in the private sector and now cover fewer than 8% of the workers. However union membership has grown rapidly in the public sector, especially among teachers, nurses, police, postal workers, and municipal clerks. There have been few strikes in recent years. The United States' imports exceed exports by 80%, leading to an annual trade deficit of $700,000,000,000, or 6% of gross domestic product. It is the largest debtor nation in the world, with total gross foreign debt of over $13,000,000,000,000 (2005 estimate); and it absorbs more than 50% of global savings annually. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has increased the use of neoliberal economic policies that reduce government intervention and reduce the size of the welfare state, backing away from the more interventionist Keynsian economic policies that had been in favor since the Great Depression. As a result, the United States provides fewer government-delivered social welfare services than most industrialized nations, choosing instead to keep its tax burden lower and relying more heavily on the free market and private charities. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the national level ($5.15 per-hour), including the highest, Washington State at $7.35. Twenty-six states are the same as the federal level; two--Ohio and Kansas--are below; and six do not have state laws. America's wealth is relatively highly concentrated. The average C.E.O. earns 500 times the typical amount a worker grosses, this is up from 25 times in the late 1970s. In terms of wealth the top 1% of Americans own 40% of all assets and 50.1% of the country's income goes to the top twenty percent of households. Average wages for the majority of employees have been largely stagnating since the 1970s. America's poverty line defined as a family of four earning less than $19,157 is at 12.7% of the general population. Approximately one out of every five children in the United States grows up below the official poverty line. Among racial groups; African Americans have the lowest median income while Asians had the highest. Regionally, the southern states had the lowest median incomes while the West Coast and New England had the highest. The current Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan remarked that the U.S.’s growing income inequality since the 1970s is, "not the type of thing which a democratic society - a capitalist democratic society - can really accept without addressing."[http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0614/p01s03-usec.html?s=itm] However, Greenspan also noted, "...you can look at the system and say it's got a lot of problems to it, and sure it does. It always has. But you can't get around the fact that this is the most extraordinarily successful economy in history."

Transportation

Alan Greenspan ]] Because the United States is a relatively young nation, most of the development of U.S. cities has taken place since the invention of the automobile. To link its vast territory, the United States built a network of high-capacity, high-speed highways, of which the most important element is the Interstate Highway system, commissioned in the 1950s by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and modeled after the German Autobahn. The United States also has a transcontinental rail system, which is used for moving freight across the lower forty-eight states. Passenger rail service is provided by Amtrak, which serves forty-six of the lower forty-eight states. Many cities in the United States have extensive mass-transit systems. New York City operates one of the world's largest and most heavily used subway systems. The regional rail and bus networks that extend into Long Island, New Jersey, Upstate New York, and Connecticut are among the most heavily used in the world. Air travel is often preferred for destinations over 300 miles (500 kilometers) away. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest airports in 2004 were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; in terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Memphis International Airport. There are several major seaports in the United States; the three busiest are the Port of Los Angeles, California; the Port of Long Beach, California; and the Port of New York and New Jersey. Others include Houston, Texas; Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington; plus, outside the contiguous forty-eight states, Anchorage, Alaska, and Honolulu, Hawaii.

Society

Demographics

Hawaii The mean center of the U.S. population continues to drift farther west and south. The fastest growing region is the western United States followed by the southern portion. According to Census 2000, the states that saw the greatest increases from 1990 were: Nevada (66.3%), Arizona (40%), Colorado (30.6%), Utah (29.6%), Idaho (28.5%), Georgia (26.4%), Florida (23.5%), Texas (22.8%), North Carolina (21.4%), and Washington (21.1%). [http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t2/tab03.pdf]

Ethnicity and race

:Main article: Racial demographics of the United States The United States is a very racially diverse country. According to the 2000 census, it has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, and numerous others represented in smaller amounts. The majority of Americans descend from white European immigrants who arrived at the establishment of the first colonies (most after Reconstruction). This majority--69.1% in 2000--decreases each year, and is expected to become a plurality within a few decades. The most frequently stated European ancestries are German (15.2%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%). Many immigrants also hail from Slavic countries such as Poland and Russia. Other significant immigrant populations came from eastern and southern Europe and French Canada. Russia Hispanics from Mexico and South and Central America are the largest minority group in the country, comprising 12.5% of the population (2000 census). People of Mexican descent made up 7.3% of the population in the 2000 census, and this proportion is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades. About 12.3% (2000 census) of the American people are African Americans (Blacks). African Americans are spread throughout the country, but their presence is largest in the South. Asian Americans--including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders--are a third significant minority (3.7% of the population in 2000). Most Asian Americans are concentrated on the West Coast and Hawaii. The largest groups are immigrants or descendants of emigrants from the Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan. Indigenous peoples in the United States, such as American Indians and Inuit, make up 0.9% of the population (2000 census). About 35% live on Indian reservations.

Religion

Polls estimate that just under 80 percent of Americans are Christians of various denominations. The other 20 percent comprises other religions such as Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism, other various faiths, and those without a specific religion. The United States is noteworthy among developed nations for its relatively high level of religiosity. According to a 2004 Gallup poll, about 44% of Americans attend a religious service at least once a week. However, this rate is not uniform across the country; attendance is more common in the Bible Belt—composed largely of Southern and Midwestern states—than in the Northeast and West Coast. In the Southern states, Baptists are the largest group, followed by Methodists; Roman Catholics are dominant in the Northeast and in large parts of the Midwest due to their being settled by descendants of Catholic immigrants from Europe (such as Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland) or other parts of North America (mainly Quebec and Puerto Rico). The rest of the country for the most part has a complex mixture of various Christian groups.

Education

West Coast's home at Monticello and the University of Virginia (library building shown above, and designed by Jefferson), the only collegiate campus on the list. Both sites are located in Charlottesville, Virginia.]] In the United States, education is a state, not federal, responsibility, and the laws and standards vary considerably. However, the federal government, through the Department of Education, is involved with funding of some programs and exerts some influence through its ability to control funding. In most states, all students must attend mandatory schooling starting with kindergarten, which children normally enter at age 5, and following through 12th grade, which is normally completed at age 18

1930s

----

Events and trends

The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the global depression. In Australia, this decade was known as the Dirty Thirties. In both Central Europe and Eastern Europe, Fascism, Nazism, Stalinism, and dominated as the solution, the first two adopting war-oriented economic policies and the latter emphasizing heavy industrial development, all of them described as totalitarian regimes. In East Asia, the rise of Militarism occurred. In Western Europe, Australia and the United States, more progressive reforms occurred as opposed to the extreme measures sought elsewhere. Roosevelt's New Deal attempted to use government spending to combat large-scale unemployment and severely negative growth. Ultimately, it would be the beginning of World War II in 1939 that would end the depression.

Technology


- Jet engine invented
- Disney adopts a three-color Technicolor process for cartoons
- The photocopier is invented
- Air mail service across the Atlantic

Science


- Nuclear fission discovered by Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann
- Pluto, the ninth planet from the Sun, is discovered by Clyde Tombaugh
- British biologist Arthur Tansley coins term "ecosystem"
- New and safer method for blood transfusions.

War, peace and politics


- Socialists proclaim The death of Capitalism
- Rise to power of Adolf Hitler in Germany
- Under Joseph Stalin, millions die in famines. The Great Purges eliminate all Old Bolsheviks from the Soviet government, except for Molotov and Stalin himself.
- Almost all of Continental Europe moves to Authoritarianism or Totalitarianism
- Starts or continue the Estado Novo in Brazil and Portugal.
- Advent of the modern welfare state in New Zealand and Sweden.
- The Empire of Japan invades China as a precursor to Japanese invasions in Southeast Asia
- The Spanish Civil War
- Start of World War II in Asia and Europe

Economics


- Worldwide Great Depression

Culture, religion


- Radio becomes dominant mass media in industrial nations
- "Golden Age" of radio begins in U.S.
- First intercontinental commercial airline flights
- Height of the Art Deco movement in Europe and the US
- The Wizard of Oz
- "Big band" or "swing" music becomes popular (from 1935 onward)
- Superman debuts in 1938.
- Triumph of the Will

Others


- U.S. presidential candidate Huey Long assassinated
- Board of Temperance Strategy established in U.S. to fight repeal of prohibition.

People

World leaders


- Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King (Canada)
- President Chiang Kai-shek (Republic of China)
- President Lin Sen (Republic of China)
- President Paul von Hindenburg (Germany)
- Adolf Hitler (Germany)
- King Victor Emmanuel III (Italy)
- Prime Minister Benito Mussolini (Italy)
- President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (