Jitterbug
is often associated with one form of swing
dance, but is not in fact
a general term for all swing dances and is
more appropriately used to describe a swing
dancer rather than a specific swing dance
(i.e. a jitterbug can dance Lindy Hop, Shag,
or another swing dance). The term was famously
associated with swing era dancers by band
leader Cab Calloway because, as he may have
put it, "They look like a bunch of jitterbugs
out there on the floor" due to their
fast, often bouncy movements.
There were distinct forms of the Jitterbug: It is a slang or umbrella term for all the original authentic swing dances pre 1940: Lindy Hop, Balboa, Collegiate Shag... The term Jitterbug initially enveloped all styles of swing dancers but some do still use it to describe all styles of swing. (What's swing?):
Jazz
Lingo (Daddy-O, Icky, Reefer, Hep-Cat, etc.)
played an important part in coining the term
'Jitterbug' and was big during the Jazz era.
Here are some of its stories:
1) One description is that it meant a
person suffering from alcoholic or drug nerves.
2) Another story has the word associated
to the english word "Bugger or Bugging" (Sodomy;
sound QUEER to you?) and was used to characterize
someone with syphilis.
3) Another (resembling the preceding)
was also derogatory toward interracial couples
with an African American partner; it assumed
they had the 'jitters' from drugs, alcohol or
syphilis and were buggering them; a 'jitterbugger'!
4) Some of the stories were comical,
such as 'the dancers looked like jitterbugs
because they bounced'.
5) Oddly enough some fishing lures are
also called jitterbugs.
So, whatever the original intent of the word
may have been, it is now, known as the term
for dancers who do dance any kind of swing!
Whitey's Lindy Hoppers troupe
