Jitterbug defined:
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!
