Modern Jive

Modern Jive is a dance style derived from swing, Lindy Hop, rock and roll, salsa and others, the main innovation being to simplify the footwork - by removing syncopation such as chasse. The term French Jive is occasionally used instead, reflecting the origins of the style. The word modern distinguishes it from ballroom Jive.

Modern Jive was developed in the United Kingdom during the 1980s at three London-based clubs, 'Ceroc', 'Le Roc' and 'Cosmopolitan Jive'. The style was based upon a type of Jive that had evolved in France in the aftermath of World War II, when American dances such as the Jitterbug had been popular due to the presence of the American military.

Despite common belief Modern Jive was not created in France. However its origins owe somewhat to the French version of Rock n Roll - Le Bop. The dance commonly known as Modern Jive is distinctively different from Le Bop which is a high tempo dance with completely different timings from Modern Jive.

The beginning is not clear and there are different accounts to how Modern Jive started and different organisations will lay different claims. However 'Michel Ange Lau' played the major role in the change from Le Bop to Modern Jive and it is widely accepted it happened in London (at a club called 'Centre Charles Peguy'). Of cause a number of Brits including James Cronin and Christine Keeble had seen Le Bop in France and had the desire to learn the dance back home in London, and were part of Michel's group / students.

The problem Le Bop had was that the style of music being played at discos was changing, and the high tempo that dances like Roc n Roll and Le Bop used was becoming less popular.

The change in music prompted the birth of Modern Jive; in 1980 Michel Ange Lau and his group of Le Bop dancers changed the timing of Le Bop causing a complete revolution in the dance. This change in timing not only allowed him and his students to dance to a much larger variety of music/tempos (including the popular music now being found in clubs & discos), but also to create much more intricate moves, and evolve away from what today's Modern Jivers would call basic patterns/moves.

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