1993 Directed by Thomas Carter
The Lindy Hop scenes in Swing Kids were choreographed under Otis Sallid by Ryan Francois, a very talented young Lindy Hopper at the time. Sallid met Francois while both were working on the Savoy Ballroom scene in the film Malcolm X. Both of these films have had an important influence on the resurgence of interest in swing music and dancing among young people in the nineteen-nineties.
This feature film is based on the true story of the role that jazz music and dancing played in Nazi Germany. The German teenager’s unabashed admiration for the likes of Louis Armstrong, a Black, Benny Goodman, a Jew, and Django Rinehart, a Gypsy, was in direct defiance of the Nazis and their drive for “pure” Aryan dominance.