Sillydance moves, are especially common in Lindy hop. Early lindy was very silly (consider the dance sequence from Hellzapoppin). The point is to do fun and unusual things, while keeping the rhythm of the music. Silly moves are performed socially and in competition, all the time. Dance moves or Dance steps, are the building blocks of many dances. ... Lindy Hop is a street jazz dance that evolved in Harlem, Manhattan, New York in the late 1920s through the early 1940s, that emerged with swing jazz. ... Hellzapoppin was a musical revue which was a Broadway hit, running from 22 September 1938 to 17 December 1941, and was at the time the longest-running Broadway musical with 1,404 performances—one of only three plays to run more than 500 performances in the 1930s. ...
To paraphrase Leo Tolstoy (Anna Karenina) "All dancers do swing outs alike, but every dancer is silly in his or her own way." Silly moves add personality to Lindy.
Examples
Silly moves include:
Shimmy: Shaking the shoulders.
Running in Place:
Guy running around the girl: Often the follow spins in the opposite direction.
Swimming with arms: Back stroke while moving away from follow or crawl while moving toward follow.
Walking: Walking with funny steps. Think Monty Python's silly walk.
Jumping: Jump up and down to the music.
Mime: Mime ideas, like being trapped in a box.
Cradle Follow: Cradling the follow, by picking her up can seem quite silly.
Running and Jumping: Run several steps and jump in the air. Clicking the heels together (bells in Tap) is nice style.
Running and Sliding: Run several steps, then slide to a stop, then hold a pose.
Insect Dance: Place hands on head like antenna and wiggle fingers to the music.
Fishing:
Volleyball:
Bowling: The guy stands still and straight, until the follow bowls. Then he falls down with style.
Baseball: The guy pitches a baseball to the follow, who hits it. Then they both watch the homer fly away.
Sailor kicks: Lead and follow are side by side facing opposite directions, doing charleston kicks to their left while turning clockwise. Lead's left hand is holding the follow's right arm across the leads shoulders. Lead's right arm is wrapped around the follow's back holding the follow's left hand at the waist.
Titanic: A freeze made popular by the movie Titanic. The Freeze stops in a tandem position with the follow in front leaning forward while the lead braces from behind. It is started from facing with a cross handed lead, and is done as an explosive underarm turn in 1 count.
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