George “Shorty” Snowden

George “Shorty” Snowden (1904-1982) stood only five feet tall but he was the most talented dancer to come out of the famed Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. It was at this racially integrated dance club--where in the 1930s none other than jazz great Ella Fitzgerald sang for the house band--that Snowden was said to have invented the Lindy Hop. Combining elements of tap and jazz, the fast-paced dance (named in honor of aviator Charles Lindbergh) was graceful, lively—and purely American. Click here to see amazing video footage of Shorty dancing the Lindy Hop with one of his regular partners, Big Bea, who, true to her name, towered above him.

After learning that Shorty spent some time in reform school as a young man, I felt he would be generous about sharing his skills with the dance-challenged inmates of Bloomingdale.