Cakewalk is a traditional African American form of music and dance which originated among slaves in the Southern United States. The form was originally known as the chalk line walk; it takes its name from competitions slaveholders sometimes held, in which they offered slices of hoecake as prizes for the best dancers. It has since evolved from a parody of ballroom dancing to a "fun fair" like dance where participants dance in a circle in the hopes of winning a free cake.

Black Bottom refers to a dance which became popular in the 1920s, during the period known as the Flapper era.

The dance originated in New Orleans in the 1900s. The theatrical show Dinah brought the Black Bottom dance to New York in 1924, and the George White's Scandals featured it at the Apollo Theater in Harlem 1926 through 1927. Jelly Roll Morton, jazz player and composer, wrote the tune "Black Bottom Stomp" with its name referring to Detroit's Black Bottom area. The dance became a sensation and ended up overtaking the popularity of the Charleston, eventually becoming the number one social dance.

"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" is a song by Ma Rainey which makes obvious allusions rather than being dance music. The title Ma Rainey's Black Bottom was used for a 1982 play by August Wilson, showing the exploits and experiences of African-Americans.

The comedy musician Spike Jones who became popular in the 1940s performed a jaunty cover of the "Black Bottom". His version released on 78 RPM records repeated a single measure of a piano solo in the middle of the song several times, each time continuing with a loud "crack!" as a joke to make the record sound broken.

The Charleston is a dance named for the city of Charleston, South Carolina. The rhythm was popularized in mainstream dance music in the United States of America by a 1923 tune called The Charleston by composer/pianist James P. Johnson which originated in the Broadway show Runnin' Wild and became one of the most popular hits of the decade.

While it developed in African-American communities in the USA, the Charleston became a popular dance craze in the wider international community in the 1920s. Despite its black history, Charleston is most frequently associated with white flappers and the speakeasy. Here, these young women would dance alone or together as a way of mocking the "drys," or citizens who supported the Prohibition amendment, as Charleston was then considered quite immoral and provocative.

Charleston was one of the dances from which Lindy Hop developed in the 1930s, though the Breakaway (dance) is popularly considered an intermediary dance form. A slightly different form of Charleston became popular in the 1930s and 40s, and is associated with Lindy Hop. In this later Charleston form, the hot jazz timing of the 1920s Charleston was adapted to suit the swing jazz music of the 30s and 40s. This style of Charleston has many common names, though the most common are 'Lindy Charleston', 'Savoy Charleston', '30s or 40s Charleston' and 'Swing(ing) Charleston'. In both '20s Charleston' and 'Swinging Charleston' the basic step takes 8 counts and was danced either alone or with a partner.

Jitterbug can be used as a noun to refer to a swing dancer or various types of swing dances, e.g., Lindy Hop, Jive and East Coast Swing. This has led to confusion within the dance community since jitterbug can refer to different swing dances. It can also be used as a verb to mean someone dancing to swing music. For example, "People were top-notch jitterbugging, jumping around, cutting loose and going crazy".

The term "jitterbug" comes from an early 20th century slang used to describe alcoholics who suffered from the "jitters" (delirium tremens). During the early 1900s, the term became associated with swing dancers who danced without any control or knowledge of the dance. This term was famously associated with swing era dancers by band leader Cab Calloway because, as he put it, "They look like a bunch of jitterbugs out there on the floor" due to their fast often bouncy movements on the dance floor. In popular culture it became generalized to mean a swing dancer (e.g., you were a jitterbug), a type of swing dance (e.g., you danced the jitterbug), or the act of swing dancing (e.g., you were jitterbugging).

World War II facilitated the spread of jitterbug to Europe. For instance, by May 1944 in preparation for D-Day, there were nearly 2 million American troops stationed throughout Britain. Time magazine reported that American troops stationed in France in 1945 jitterbugged, and by 1946 jitterbug had become a craze in England.

Jitterbug was also done to early rock n roll. Rockabilly musician Janis Martin equates jitterbug with rock n roll dancing in her April 1956 song "Drugstore Rock 'n' Roll". "The girls fill the jukebox and then demand the jitterbug hand-in-hand... Drugstore's rockin', rock-rock". In 1957 the Philadelphia, PA based American Bandstand was picked up by the American Broadcasting Company and shown across the United States. Bandstand featured then currently popular songs, live appearances by musicians, and dancing in the studio. At this time the most popular fast dance was Jitterbug, which is described as "a frantic leftover of the swing era ballroom days that was only slightly less acrobatic than Lindy".

The name boogie-woogie is used mostly in Europe; the closest thing in the US is probably East Coast Swing. What today is called boogie-woogie would during the 1950s have been called rock'n'roll. The term boogie woogie is confusing; the dance can be danced to the music style called boogie-woogie but is most often danced to rock music of various kinds. The name was taken since the name rock'n'roll used in competition dance was already taken by a highly acrobatic dance form. Boogie woogie as a competition dance is a led dance, not choreographed, and contains no acrobatic elements.

The usual step variation is a six beat dance pattern, usually cued as "step, step, tri-ple step, tri-ple step", with words "step" taking a whole beat and pieces "tri" and "ple" together taking one beat. Triple forms a syncopated step, where "ple" is typically somewhat delayed from being in the half way between the beats, which matches the syncopated music used in boogie-woogie. has also counts like "one" "two" "one" "two" "three".

In parts of Europe, boogie-woogie is mostly danced as a social dance. In others, it is mostly a competition form.

The competitions are regulated by the World Rock'n'Roll Confederation. In addition to adults the competition forms of boogie woogie include formation, senior and junior classes.

The term "swing dance" is commonly used to refer to a group of dances that developed concurrently with the style of jazz music in the 1920s, 30s and 40s. The most well known of which is Lindy Hop, a popular partner dance that originated in Harlem and is still danced today. While the majority of swing dances began in African American communities as vernacular African American dances, there were a number of forms which developed within Anglo-American or other ethnic group communities. Balboa is one of the most commonly cited examples.

Though they technically preceded the rise of swing music, and are commonly associated with Dixieland jazz which developed in New Orleans in the south of the United States, dances such as the Black Bottom, charleston and tap dance are still considered members of the swing dance family. These sorts of dances travelled north with jazz to cities like New York, Kansas City, and Chicago in the Great Migration (African American) of the 1920s, where rural blacks travelled north to escape persecution, Jim Crow laws, lynching and unemployment in the South during the Great Depression.

Swinging jazz music features the syncopated timing associated with African American and West African music and dance - a combination of crotchets and quavers which many swing dancers interpret as 'triple steps' and 'steps'" yet also introduces changes in the way these rhythms were played - a distinct delay or 'relaxed' approach to timing.

Lindy hop is an African American dance that evolved in New York City in 1927. It was an organic fusion of many dances that preceded it or were popular during its development but was predominantly based on jazz, tap, breakaway and charleston. Lindy hop co-evolved with jazz music and is a member of the swing dance family. It is frequently described as a jazz or street dance.

In its development, lindy hop combined elements of both solo and partner dancing by using the movements and improvisation of African dances along with the formal eight-count structure of European partner dances. This is most clearly illustrated in lindy's basic step, the swingout. In this step's open position each dancer improvises alone; in its closed position men and women dance together - a practice usually forbidden in African dances.

Revived in the 1980s by American, Swedish, and British dancers, lindy hop dancers and organizations can now be found in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.