Swing Dancing/Skip up

Skip ups are traditional Lindy Hop dance moves that cannot quite be categorized as either basic, side pass, swing out, or aerial dance moves.

The names of these moves are somewhat arbitrary, and different people call the same move by different names.

Skip Ups (Walk the Dame, Jig Walks)

The basic skip up is a six count move, as follows:

On counts 1 and 2, the lead rock steps. On counts 3 and 4, he kicks left and steps left. On counts 5 and 6, he kicks right and steps right. (The kick step left and kick step right may be repeated any number of times.)

Skip Ups in Closed: Partners need to be standing offset, to not kick each other. One kick goes inbetween the partners legs (but the kick should be kept very low anyway). End with tuck turn or big kick at end. Both directions.

Skip Ups in Open:

Change Direction: Instead of repeating kicks, the next kick left should push on hip, and on step, they turn and rock step. This switches the feet orientation.

Free Spin: Instead of changing direction, they can do a free spin and come back together in the same position.

Tempo: Fast or slow.

Feet: Step, kick step, kick ball changes.

Arms: The arms usually hold onto the partner, so there are few variations (tied up).

Variations

8-count variation: counts 1-5 remain as before, 5-8 are kick right, kick left (and step on right), kick right (and step on left), kick left (and step on right). These kicks are faster, just one count each, so the rhythm is rock - step - kick - step - kick - kick - kick - kick.

Direction: Forward and backward.

Speed:

Footwork: They can step, step; kick step, kick step; or other.