KEEP ONSHAKIN‘

ROCK’N’ROLL

BOOGIE WOOGIE

LINDY HOP

BUGG

BOOGIE WOOGIE

The World Rock‘n‘Roll Confederation (WRRC) is the international

umbrella organization of the national Rock‘n‘Roll dance sport

federations. The WRRC supports and promotes the Rock‘n‘Roll,

Boogie Woogie, Lindy Hop and Bugg dance styles.

In 1974, the first modern Rock‘n‘Roll dance competitions in Europe were organized by a group of four countries - France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. After a number of large championship events, and many years of negotiations and collaborations, the World Rock‘n‘Roll Confederation finally came into being in 1984. The agreement on the formation of the new umbrella organization was signed on 3 November 1983 in Zurich.

The Rock‘n‘Roll dance sport has grown enormously since the WRRC was founded. More than 32 nations now belong to the organization.

Since 1994, the WRRC has been an associate member of the International Dance Sport Federation (IDSF), which, in turn, became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1997.

Every year, the WRRC awards and supervises European and World Championships, World Masters and World Cup tourna-ments to be organized in line with the WRRC‘s guidelines.

The highest awards that can be won in the various disci-plines are World Champion, European Champion and World Masters Champion.

A standard assessment system is used under which the cou-ples receive points for choreography, dance performance, foot technique and acrobatics. To make the competition more excit-ing for both participants and audiences, couples at the World Masters dance against each other in a knock-out system.

Around 30 competitions are organized each year under the aegis of the WRRC. Over 4,000 dancers annually apply for a tournament license, and they are assessed in the individual disciplines by around 100 judges.

The World Rock’n’Roll Confederation

Member of the International Dance Sport Federation

federationDanceSportinternational

ROCK‘N‘ROLL

BOOGIE WOOGIEROCK ’N’ ROLL

Rock’n’Roll Boogie Woogie

The development of Rock‘n‘Roll music in the 1950s and early 1960s saw the parallel development

of compatible dance styles. Swing, which emerged around 1920, evolved early on to produce

Lindy Hop, the first partner dance to include acrobatic elements. Around 1940, Lindy Hop developed

into Boogie Woogie, based on much faster music. With the emergence of Rock‘n‘Roll music

around 1955, the rebellious youth of the era turned Boogie Woogie into Rock‘n‘Roll dance.

Rock‘n‘Roll is pure movement, a cheerful, fast-moving dance that provides a real show for spectators. Rock‘n‘Roll is charac-terized by the jumped basic step and acrobatic figures. It is marked by high-precision movements carried out at great speed, and by the fluid combination of dance and spectacular acrobatics. Rock‘n‘Roll has developed into a sport that, apart from the name, has little left in common with the wild dance and flair of the 1950s.

The WRRC recognizes the following dance categories:

Youth For children of 14 years or younger.Juniors For teenagers up to 17 years old.Cat. B For adults. Most acrobatic figures involve the couples remaining in contact. One round of foot technique and one of acrobatics.Main Class For the best and most active dancers. Thehighest category in Rock‘n‘Roll. One round of foot technique and one of acrobatics.Girl Formation Junior For formations of children and teenagers (synchronized dance).Girl Formation Main Class For female formations (synchronized dance).Junior Formation For up to 6 couples of children and teenagers.Main Class Acrobatic Formation For formations of up to 6 couples.

The Boogie Woogie is characterized by fast footwork and lack of choreography. It is a “led” dance requiring harmony between the couples, and is danced to the hot rhythms of the 1940s and 1950s. To a certain extent, Boogie Woogie can be seen as the European equivalent of the American dance style of the early 1950s.

As a competition dance, Boogie Woogie mainly differs from Rock‘n‘Roll in that it has no practiced choreography. A further difference lies in the foot technique and the accent on the offbeat. A characteristic of Boogie Woogie music, this accent on the offbeat is transferred to the dance step. In Rock‘n‘Roll, on the other hand, the accent is on the first and third beats in four-four time.

The WRRC recognizes the following dance categories:

Boogie Woogie Juniors For young people of 17 years or younger. Boogie Woogie Main Class For the best dancers. In the final, the couples have to dance both a slow and a fast round.Boogie Woogie Seniors (Oldies) For couples where one partner is 35 years old or more and other is 40 years old or more.Boogie Woogie Formations For formations of up to 6 couples dancing to Boogie music as a team (choreographed).

BOOGIE WOOGIE

Lindy Hop Bugg

Lindy Hop emerged at the end of the 1920s in the large New York ballrooms where people were dancing to the Swing music of the big bands. The Savoy Ballroom in Harlem played a major role in the development of the dance. The Savoy, open to all regardless of class or color, was a real melting pot, and Lindy Hop became one of its special attractions.

Dancing mainly takes place in couples, and the main features of Lindy Hop are the delight in harmony, the exchange of move-ment ideas during the dance, and interpretation of the music.Today, the dance is becoming increasingly popular across the entire world, with the dancers continuously swapping ideas to develop it still further in various different directions.

The WRRC recognizes the following categories:

JuniorsSeniorsMain Class

Bugg emerged in Sweden in the 1960s. It has its roots in Lindy Hop, which took Sweden by storm in the 1940s. What clearly differentiates Bugg from Lindy Hop, Boogie Woogie or Rock’n‘Roll is that it is a four-step dance (instead of six or eight), and is performed to popular, live dance music.

Just like the Lindy Hop and Boogie Woogie, Bugg is a dance for couples and has many turning and spinning elements. Interpreta-tion of the music plays an important role. Unlike the other WRRC dances, no acrobatic moves or jumping is allowed. Improvisation is called for instead of a practiced choreography. Bugg has become an extremely popular dance in Sweden, with competitions taking place as social events practically every week.

The WRRC recognizes the following categories:

JuniorsMain Class (Slow Round/Solo Round)OldiesBugg Formations

Double BuggDouble Bugg is a formation or team dance for three people. Such a trio is normally made up of one man and two women. The man leads both ladies simultaneously in an exciting im-provised or choreographed show program. The basic step is danced according to Bugg, Boogie Woogie, Lindy, Hop Jitter-bug, Jive and Rock’n’Roll styles.

Categories:

JuniorsMain Class

BUGGLINDY HOP

INFO@WRRC.ORG WWW.WRRC.ORG