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Great post. Thank you. I'm on mobile, but if someone wants to look up "spirit moves disc 1" and "spirit moves disc 2" you'll find them on YouTube. I also know a dancer who has a comprehensive list of Whiteys Lindy Hoppers videos. I'd also love to see resources compiling all the California dancers' stuff. Plus I just saw a video of John Bedrosian doing St Louis Jitterbug and St Louis Shag pass through Facebook the other day. If someone wants to grab those and put them in one place that'd be wonderful, otherwise I'll update this comment with links (that can hopefully be added to sidebar?)

Edit:
Spirit Moves Disc 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjguncQiw70

Spirit Moves Disc 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHf4tBmAlpI

Shorty Snowden:

After Seben (1929)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcnpZfsfwDA

Ask Uncle Sol (1937)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Sdk3mqVSRA

Whitey's Lindy Hoppers:

A Day At The Races (1937):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di-a-jf1c6g&t=3

Radio City Revels (1938)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGAOpTcEyJw

Keep Punchin (1939)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfgKMfexdPQ

Hellzapoppin (1941):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahoJReiCaPk

Hot Chocolate (1941):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_262uUGwzgk

Cootie Williams and Orchestra (1943):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnpcPFnHLUQ


Jitterbug History:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8UkX71MbPY&index=7&list=PLmgkit3LB0tdgRzwPSQE_-YdxqbA1tpg5






Misc. Other Notable Clips:
It Goes To Your Toes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKKO_fYv6JE&feature=youtu.be

Bli-Blip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pthpr7sI9C0&feature=youtu.be

Rip It Up (1956):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLDwMWkp1Iw

Caravan (1946):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14QEoEIvUuk&feature=youtu.be

Swing Fever (1943):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1-LqqPnkf0





Okay I have A LOT more where that came from but I have to step out, going dancing :D

I'll update a second time with more!

Edit 2: I CANNOT emphasize enough how amazing Frankie's autobiography is. It makes so many things make so much more sense. It is an easy read and a FASCINATING one. I highly highly recommend it. I'd make it required reading if I was teaching a class (like, in school) on it. It has so much context. He is such an interesting, charming, warm, genuine guy. With a shocking memory. That book changed my whole perspective on dancing.

Buy it here: https://www.amazon.com/Frankie-Manning-Ambassador-Lindy-Hop/dp/1592135641

Edit 3:
Some context - Shorty Snowden was what they call a "first generation" savoy dancer. He and his group were the people that inspired Frankie Manning and Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. Their style was more upright, and less refined.

Whitey's Lindy Hoppers danced a lot more like Snowden and his group in 1937-8, but as you can see, in 1941 they did more of the Lindy hop we know and love. Around this time and later, Dean Collins and a lot of dancers in LA did some pretty iconic dancing. I am not nearly as tuned in on the LA clips as I'd like to be, but Swing Fever and Groovie Movie feature some of these guys.

Anyway, there's a lot of amazing stuff in those clips - note the prevalence of the California routine in the later Whitey's clips. To identify the California routine, spirit moves 1 goes one by one through a lot of the line dances and group choreographies. I also would love to add more clips of Al Minns and Leon James later, who are heavily featured jn spirit moves.

If you ask me though, spirit moves 2 is the real gem. The only clips we have of social dancing at the Savoy. It also features the al and Leon Shim sham, a contest (to prepare for the harvest moon ball), Mambo night (which I need to study a lot more, an amazing blend of dances), and my personal favorite, the Cats Corner, a part of the dance floor marked out specially for the top dancers to really cut. My favorite social dancing clip is here, featuring Leon James, slick slides and spins.

Well I can speak from personal experiance. I am one of those you would call "beat-deaf". If you dig my post history you will see that I posted here before asking for help. So here are my tips on how I did it, and then how to make it better:

How I did it:

1. I put on HOUSE and soft house music. Yes you read that right.
   
2. You cannot miss the beats of house music - it is so prominent that the next step up would be a metronome app.
   
3. Anyways - I practised walking to the said beats for a month.
   
   How to make this better:
   
   
4. Teach them charleston! This is much more fun to dance to, and play something around 120 bpm.
   
5. I recommend electroswing. (or even soft house, who cares?)
   
6. Teach some solo jazz - jump charleston to be precise.
   
7. Once they are getting the hang of it, start with moves like a sendout. Keep the electroswing music.
   
8. Gradually mix songs with really clear beats - and then go on with tuck turns, swingouts, frisbees.
   
   You can have nice and smooth songs playing too, but make sure people get the hang of the beat. Look, my dance teacher started with 5...6..7..8..
   ..but I had no idea what the fuck that 5 was? Why 5? Why not 1? or 2? (Yes I had no clue about music).
   
   
   Take a day to teach them what the 8 count is. Play some popular songs (katy perry would do as well!!!) and show them how this 8 counts of repeating beats are present in many dance songs. Get them to recognize the pattern. A good book to read (which I did) is this one: http://www.amazon.com/Every-Survival-Guide-Ballroom-Dancing/dp/093025144X
   
   (yeah ... that isnt a survival guide - it teaches musicality).
   
   Above all - ask them to forget the technicalities and enjoy it! :-)

Welcome to the friendliest, awesomest cult^ Wgroup of people on earth! :-) What scene do you dance in? We might be able to come up with more locally-relevant links. That said...

Things that pop to mind:

• Yehoodi. Don't miss the welcome wagon, and check out Swing Talk.
  
  
• LindyExchange Start figuring out your travel budget. :-)
  
  
• Bobby White's blog
  
  For instruction: iDance
  
  If you haven't read Frankie Manning's autobiography, I highly recommend it. It's cheap, it's a quick read, and it will help you understand where swing in its current incarnation came from.
  
  Swag:
  
  

• Get yer Aris Allen on from Dancestore.com.
  
  
• Want some sweet repro vintage shoes?
  
  
• Yet more repro vintage clothing!
  
  

>"When the band would see real fine dancers, the musicians would try to become a part of what they were doing. Really, the dancers inspired the musicians and vice versa. If the musicians did something exceptional, it inspired the dancers to do something exceptional, and then the dancers would inspire the musicians to do even more. It was a party, it was the best."

-- Legendary jazz singer Joe Williams. From Swingin at the Savoy, Norma Miller / Evette Jensen (1996), p. 215

> When you have so many young people swing dancing, why not throw in some younger music every now and then?

You're right! Let's!

Here's some standard music played by modern bands with great sound quality:

• Michael Gamble & The Rhythm Gamblers: https://www.amazon.com/Michael-Gamble-Rhythm-Serenaders/dp/B01GQZD5SG
  
  
• Jonathan Stout & His Campus Five: https://www.amazon.com/Rhythm-Jonathan-Campus-featuring-Alexander/dp/B0006A4KNM/ref=ntt_mus_dp_dpt_1
  
  
• Gordon Webster: https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/gordonwebster22
  
  
• The Rhythm Gamblers: https://therhythmgamblers.bandcamp.com/album/the-rhythm-gamblers
  
  You might say: Those are modern bands, but they're still playing all the songs I knew! What I really want is new songs altogether. Okay!
  
  
• Glenn Crytzer's Savoy Seven: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/glenncrytzerssavoyseven3
  
  
• Jonathan Doyle Quintet: https://jonathandoyle.bandcamp.com/album/the-fed-hop
  
  
• Joe Smith & The Spicy Pickles: https://joesmithandthespicypickles.bandcamp.com/album/high-fidelity
  
  
• Jeremy Mohney: https://jeremymohneymusic.bandcamp.com/album/smile-a-while
  
  No you still don't understand /u/AFistfulOfAww, what I really really want to do is dance to music that doesn't swing, but with the same-ish shapes that I learned in Lindy Hop classes!
  
  
• You'll fit right in at /r/westcoastswing! The dance shares our origin, and it is danced to all kinds of different music. Last I heard they even have some Zouk influence these days!

// , This sounds like the most flexible solution, although I do eventually want to buy a dance shoe.


I've found suede stick-ons on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/YAVOUN-Friction-reducing-Self-Adhesive-High-Heeled-Protector/dp/B07G116VL2/

​

I've considered adding these to something like the Merrell Vapor Glove or the vivobarefoot.com shoes mentioned above.

​

Vibram soles are pretty good for adhering, but I'm willing to keep a few spare pads of suede just in case.

I could totally relate. I wrote this in response to Rik's blog post and have written several blog posts about my experiences since moving to a small town south of Austin:

​

I too, took a break from dancing weekly, (kids, move across country, knee surgery). As I get older, it's harder to feel relevant.

To fill the void when I couldn't dance, I wrote about it. I wrote one novel, THE GIRL IN THE JITTERBUG DRESS, and then couldn't stop (writing several more with dance as a central character/theme), along with a blog about vintage and everything 1920s-1950s.

Because I couldn't dance, I tried to capture those feelings of when I first learned, and the thrill of a skirt wrapping around a warm thigh on a crowded dance floor. The excitement when you follow a lead you've never danced with before and get most of it right. I lived vicariously through my words.

Since my knee surgery, I've gained a lot of weight and am afraid to go out to well-known dance venues. I'm afraid of being ignored. Afraid of not being like the characters I write about. 

I'm trying to find my way back to the dance floor. I don't want to just write about it. We've started a small group of dancers in my little town. They only know the fat/old Tam, not the girl in the jitterbug dress I used to be.  

Starting a scene is different than coming back to an old one or even integrating into a new one. I  moved from SoCal to Texas eight years ago and barely ventured out.  I hope starting small will lend me the confidence to go out to the bigger venues again, but for now, I take beginner steps.

Recently bought and read Norma Miller's book "Swingin' at the Savoy" after the Harlem Swing Dance Society paid a visit to Baltimore. https://www.amazon.com/Swingin-at-Savoy-Norma-Miller/dp/1566398495

Really interesting look into the history and the life of one of 'the greats' - and tangentially includes stories about a lot of the rest of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers.

Doesn't include any sort of instruction, but good for history.

I recommend these in the strongest possible terms. The light protection is enough for most live band nights and still lets you have a normal conversation. (I play brass and I can play with the light cores installed.) I have two sets because I lost one.

https://www.amazon.com/Alpine-MusicSafe-Hearing-Protection-Musicians/dp/B000VO8PR0

You could buy the CD here for $19.99. That whole album Goin' to Lindy Land by Peter Davis was very popular in the Lindy world and created specifically for dancers. You could hear an interview with Peter Davis on the Sept 2006 Mister Jesse podcast.

I really liked Michael Gamble & The Rhythm Serenaders

Check out Spirit Moves. You can start here and search from there, though it is copyrighted and therefore gets taken down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcqYQC0_t3I

​

This Book Jazz Dance by Marshall Sterns

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Dance-Story-American-Vernacular/dp/0306805537

​

Ken Burns Jazz is a good start too
https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Film-Ken-Burns/dp/B000BITUEI/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=ken+burns+jazz&qid=1562692802&s=gateway&sr=8-2

​

Remember no history is definitive, there's always other perspectives, revisions, corrections and new information. And also only about 10% of the documentaries, movies, etc out there ever made it onto the internet, and about 5% or less of the researched history has been converted to digital form, so go to the library too if you're serious about getting accurate info.

From Delovely,
Elvis Costello's Quite Awesome : Let's Misbehave

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00157HUBO/ref=sr_1_1_rd?_encoding=UTF8&child=B00157NRX4&qid=1495123054&sr=1-1</a>

Spacey's Beyond the Sea
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00124HRE0/ref=sr_1_1_rd?_encoding=UTF8&child=B0012487EY&qid=1495123129&sr=1-1</a>

Reposting my comment from yesterday:

If you like that, there's a whole series of similar songs compiled into albums like "Those Dirty Blues", "Copulatin' Blues", "Eat to the Beat", "Reefer Blues", etc.

• https://www.amazon.com/Those-Dirty-Blues-Various-Artists/dp/B002ZZHGXW
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Reefer-Blues-Vintage-Songs-Marijuana/dp/B002ZZRNXA/
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Copulatin-Digitally-Remastered-Sidney-Bechet/dp/B002ZZHGXC
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Eat-Beat-Dirtiest-Dirty-Blues/dp/B000GLL1S8

Here is the mobile version of your link

Yes Indeed by Tommy Dorsey (in Stereo)

• Breakfast in Harlem - Buck and Bubbles
  
• You Are My Moonshine - New Orleans Moonshiners
  
• Introduction/Jeep Jockey Jump - Tex Beneke & The Glenn Miller Orchestra

There's this compilation that's almost exactly what you're looking for for Frankie: https://smile.amazon.com/Really-Swingin-Frankie-Mannings-Favorites/dp/B000006FDD?sa-no-redirect=1

the information listed on the youtube video leads me to Amazon or iTunes

The Frankie Manning Biography: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frankie-Manning-Ambassador-Lindy-Hop/dp/1592135641

Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop !

Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop