About the Organization
Our Mission & History
What Is
Traffic jam!?
Started in 2016 with an idea over brunch, Traffic Jam! Swing is a Chicago nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the Chicago Swing Dance and Lindy Hop scene. Our mission is to promote the education, history, and culture of swing dance in Chicago by organizing events including regularly occurring dances, leveled classes, and weekend intensive workshops.
We wanted to help grow the scene further and ultimately sought to create a new, vintage jazz-focused weekend workshop in the city, which has been notoriously difficult given the astronomical costs of local venues. Knowing what we wanted to do, we started Traffic Jam! (the dance) to start to raise funds that would be used to put on the larger workshop. We had to run the dance for 2 full years just to pay for the first Second City Swingout, and it was absolutely worth it. We couldn't be prouder to bring a large, regional (and somewhat national) event to the city of Chicago, and we hope to continue running both Traffic Jam! and Second City Swingout well into the future.
Now we’ve grown enough to host a number of classes each month called Traffic Jam! Sessions which are 4-week long progressive classes where students are able to learn new skills, meet new people, and help grow and foster the future of the Chicago Lindy Hop scene.
If you would like to get involved with Traffic Jam!, please don't hesitate to contact us. We have many opportunities to volunteer with us (and get free entry to our dances) and we're always on the lookout for local music talent, swing and soul DJs, and instructors. We also run a training program for dancers who are interested in learning to teach swing lessons! If your business or organization is interested in partnering with us for an event, dance, or discount, we'd also love to hear from you!
We love the dance, we love the Chicago scene, and we hope to see you out dancing soon!
—The Traffic Jam! Team
P.S. If you're wondering why we're called Traffic Jam!, wonder no longer...
OUR MISSION
For Traffic jam!
Traffic Jam!’s mission is to promote the education, history, and culture of swing dance in Chicago by organizing events including but not limited to regularly occurring dances, classes, and weekend workshops.
Traffic Jam! is a non-profit organization and shall be operated exclusively for educational and charitable purposes within the meaning of Section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, or the corresponding section of any future Federal tax code.
Get To Know
The Originals
Frankie Manning
Frankie Manning was a dancer, choreographer, instructor and the most famous Lindy Hopper. Frankie learned Lindy Hop in Harlem and quickly became one of the best, placing at the Harvest Moon Ball, performing at the Cotton Club, and being featured in film. Frankie invented the first air step or aerial and served as the de facto choreographer for Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, a professional troupe composed of dancers from the Savoy Ballroom.
Frankie served in World War II and formed a small troupe after the war, the Congaroos, but the group disbanded in 1955 and Frankie went to work in the United States Postal Service.
In 1986, dancers in New York City and Sweden pulled Frankie out of retirement to teach Lindy Hop. With renewed interested in Lindy Hop, Frankie taught around the world and danced til 94, passing away one month short of his 95th birthday.
Norma Miller
Norma Miller, known today as the Queen of Swing, was a dancer from childhood. She once said, "Black girls didn't have many outlets. You had laundry. You had hairdresser. Or teacher. Now, I didn't qualify for none of those. I could dance, I just could just do it naturally."
When she was young, her family moved to an apartment overlooking the Savoy Ballroom, where from her fire escape she could hear the music of Chick Webb and Ella Fitzgerald and watch the dancers performing the early jazz dances of the time. She eventually made her way into that very ballroom that ultimately landed her a spot as the youngest member Whitey's Lindy Hoppers.
She continued dancing and performing all over the world for decades, and with her old friend Frankie Manning, she played a major role in the swing revival of the 1980s, teaching workshops until 2018 at the age of 98.
Savoy Ballroom
The Savoy Ballroom in NYC was the original home of the Lindy Hop. Located in the Harlem neighborhood, the Savoy Ballroom was frequented by many of the best original Lindy Hoppers, then dubbed the "Savoy Lindy Hoppers". The ballroom was strictly non-discriminatory, and the clientele of the ballroom leaned heavily African-American. Frankie Manning pointed out that visitors to the Savoy were judged not by the color of their skin, but by whether or not they could dance.
During the 1930s, the house band was led by Chick Webb, who there recorded the swing classic "Stompin' at the Savoy" with a later addition of the up-and-coming teenage vocalist Ella Fitzgerald.
OTHER POPULAR LINDY HOPPERS OF THE SAVOY
Traffic Jam!’s mission is to promote the education, history, and culture of swing dance in Chicago by organizing events including but not limited to regularly occurring dances, classes, and weekend workshops.
Traffic Jam! is a non-profit organization and shall be operated exclusively for educational and charitable purposes within the meaning of Section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, or the corresponding section of any future Federal tax code.
