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Back to Biographies The Jivin' Lindy Hoppers The Jivin' Lindy Hoppers (known in the United Kingdom as the Jiving Lindy Hoppers) is a high-energy dance company based in London, England. The group was founded in 1984 by Terry Monaghan and Warren Heys as the product of a cultural intersection of two trends: the 1983 revival of interest in the Lindy Hop and the 1984 upsurge of interest in dance in the U.K. They organized weekly workshops in London's East End and within eleven months were on stage with the Count Basie Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall. The JLH established itself in the following years by taking on a wide variety of work in the dance, jazz, and commercial worlds. In 1995 alone, the company gave more than 150 workshops and over a hundred performances. Highlights of the company's work includes three performances for over ten thousand New Yorkers at the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival in 1992, which led to an invitation to perform for nine thousand New York school children as part of Lincoln Center's community holiday program in August 1997. The Jivin' Lindy Hoppers have won major awards for both their performances their pioneering work in education. These include a Digital Dance Award, a Barclays New Stages Award, and a Gulbenkian Foundation Dance Award. The JLH have been featured on television in Nickelodeon's "Boogie Box" and in the BBC documentary "Treasures in Trust," celebrating the centenary of the National Trust. The energy, excitement, and enthusiasm generated by this highly talented multi-cultural company of young dancers continues to create a great demand for performances and workshops throughout Europe and the United States. |