History of Swing Dance in Japan
A little snippet about Japanese Jazz and Swing:
The Swing Scene has been here since the 20’s baby! And we are still rockin’ it today in 2010.
Japan has a long history of Jazz music and dancing. Jazz Music and Swing dancing has been part of Japan’s history since the 20’s. At one time (1924) Osaka boasted some 20 dance halls. There was a large revival in music and dance the after war era (American music and dance were banned during the war). in 1946, the Cliffside was opened in Yokohama as a place for Japanese to dance as they were not allowed into the other clubs at the time. The Cliffside boasted room for 250 dancers and sometimes had 200 Taxi dancers ready to dance with patrons! Amazing history!
There was even a swing dance that originated in Yokohama in the 1940’s called the “Hama Jiru”, short for the “Yokohama Jitterbug”. The Japanese dancers watched the GIs dance and copied it, made it their own. There are STILL Japanese alive who know this dance!
Well, we are still rocking the American Jazz dances out here in Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka!!! Come and be a part of it. Check out the next event and have a ball with us! You will not believe that you can have so much fun.
Check out more Japanese Jazz history in E. Taylor Atkin’s “ Blue Nippon “.
