Jive for mathematicians!
Many (who often enjoy Lindy hop) have commented that Modern Jive is not a precise dance. This article expresses all the important facets in a form that mathematicians should be proud of (along with a commentary in layman terms and all symbol defined). Hopefully all misunderstanding should be cleared up. Enjoy!
An overview
| Leroc Modern Jive Modern Jive Swing Swing dance Dance performing art |
Leroc is an organisation that teaches Modern Jive, which is one form of 'swing' dance, which is one way of 'performing art' |
| ie Leroc Modern Jive Swing dance performing art | |
Read as "is a subset of" ie "is one specialised form of"...
Different forms of jive
| Ballroom Jive
Modern Jive Modern Jive Jive Ballroom Jive Jive Modern Jive Swing Ballroom Jive Swing Modern Jive French jive |
Modern Jive and Ballroom Jive are different, however they are both Jive. Ballroom Jive is not considered a form of Swing, even though Modern Jive is. French Jive is just another name for Modern Jive, although the French do not it! |
Read
as "is not subset of..." ie
"is not a specialised form of..."
Read
as "is equivalent to..." ie
"is identical to..."
Read
as "is not equal to..."
Separate the dance form from the company
x | x {Ceroc, LeRoc, LeJive, Mojive, LeStep} {Organisations}
x | x {Ceroc, LeRoc, LeJive, Mojive, LeStep}
{dance}
Read | as "such that..."
Read ∈ as "is an element of
..."
Read {x,y,x} as "the set of elements x, y and z, ie "any of x,
y or z"
| Ceroc, LeRoc, LeJive, Mojive and LeStep are organisations, not forms of dance |
Jive in context with Swing
x | x {Modern Jive, West Coast Swing, East Coast Swing, Lindy Hop, Jitterbug} Swing
| Salsa
Swing East Coast Swing West Coast Swing Lindyhop Jitterbug |
Modern Jive, West Coast Swing, East Coast Swing, Lindy Hop and Jitterbug are all forms of Swing. Salsa is not. East Coast Swing and West Coast Swing are different, but Lindyhop is just another name for the Jitterbug. |
| Swing C&W
0 Swing C&W 0 Swing C&W 0 |
There are dances that are both Swing and Country & Western (eg West Coast Swing). There are swing dances that are not C&W (Lindy Hop). There are C&W dances that are not Swing (C&W waltz). |
Read
as "intersected with..."
ie "those elements in common with both..."
Read X as
"not X"
Read 0 as "empty set", ie nothing
Modern
Jive = Swing � footwork
Modern Jive + footwork
Swing
Swing First Move triple steps +
modifications
Read as "approximately equal to..."
| Take away the footwork from Swing dances and you get the basic form of Modern Jive, however you cannot just add footwork to Modern Jive to get Swing! Indeed, Swing is rather like various kinds of First Move triple-steps. |
Description of jive
A Modern Jive move contains 2<n<
jive counts
Modern Jive count = 2 music beats
Typically 120 < beats per minute < 180
Number of clockwise turns/spins
number of
anticlockwise turns/spins
Palm grip leading a spin
Raised arm leading a turn
Read as "implies..."
| Modern Jive moves contain a minimum of 2 jive counts and can be very long indeed. Each jive count occurs after every 2 music beats. Typically, beat rates between 120 and 180 per minute are good for Modern Jive. Ladies like being unwound after being wound up. A palm grip is used before a spin and a raised arm before a turn. |
Types of move
|
Airsteps Aerials Read
as "in union with..." ie
"or..."
|
Air steps are just another name for aerials. Drops are similar to dips. If you do either and have a bad back, you will experience pain! When teachers teach moves involving footwork, the result is a groan in the audience. |
Order of things
Line Dancers 
to Jivers, who
to Lindy-hoppers!
Read
as "looks
up to..."