Over 200 people jammed The Hop on Saturday night to celebrate swing dancing on World Lindy Hop Day and dance the night away.
The swing dancing spectacle had a “nutty nerd” dress-up theme and featured dancing, cocktails, performances and background info on the annual celebration of swing dance.
The costumes were cute, weird and wacky featuring vintage twists on geeky themes. The dancing was top-shelf and the performances were inspiring to watch — some of the performers had only been learning the classic American partner dance for two months! While some performances showed off pure dance skill, others were all humor featuring inflatable sumo suits and questionable comedy.
According to founder of The Hop, a swing dancing club in Silom, and one of the organizers of the event, Oat Naviroj, “World Lindy Hop Day is the day that swing dancers around the world celebrate Lindy Hop. The date is was chosen because it is the birthday of the most famous ambassador of Lindy Hop in the world, Frankie Manning. He passed away but this would have been his 102nd birthday.”
One of the performances was by three of The Hop’s dance teachers. They call themselves “The OohLaLas” and performed to the song “Copenhagen” by Fletcher Henderson.
“World Lindy Hop Day sets the stage for members of the Bangkok Swing community to put on a show and splash out! Consequently, the audience gets to watch classic performances as well as the most shameless and hilarious acts — because that’s just who we are,” said Oat.
Like what you see in these pictures and video? World Lindy Hop Day only happens once a year, but you can take classes and attend social dancing every Saturday at The Hop.
