Below are the 64 individual nomination ballots for the Best Lindy Hop of The 21st Century. I started out in July of this year by emailing all the organizers, instructors and nerds I knew who might be interested in participating in something like this, and also asked them to encourage other strongly opinionated people they knew to submit something. Then in August, I opened up the process on social media to anyone who wanted to put in the effort.

I personally would have liked to have seen broader and more diverse input especially from more countries outside of the US, but I also had pretty limited resources to devote to this project. Ultimately, I was not sure who and how many people would submit nominations, but 63 seems better than just me doing this list by myself. Quite a few people let me know that creating a list of just five videos took a lot of time and effort, which led to many not participating. Some people solved for that by just making their picks based on an unscientific combination of sentimentality and vibes. Since I did not give people many guidelines to make their choices, I thought every approach was fair game.

I wanted to share these ballots to provide some transparency, but to also show how thoughtful people were in contributing to this process. Some people gave a video by video commentary which you can see in the different annotation posts or in the honorable mentions list. Others wrote a brief overview. A few did both. Overall, there’s a lot of interesting insights here from across the scene. It was nice to hear from pioneers of the modern scene like Sing Yuen Lim, as well as some newer folks who just started just a few years ago.

Here is the top 10 videos just based on the nominators list before voting was opened to the public

You can see the complete list as a spreadsheet here.

For those of you curious, I used a simple system to assign points to the way each nominator ranked their submissions. 5 points for their first choice, 4 points for their second choice, etc. The bonus points comes from a wild card 6th video that everyone had the option of submitting with their top five. It was mostly an opportunity for people to submit videos from dances adjacent to Lindy Hop (e.g. Balboa, Blues Dance, Collegiate Shag, Solo Jazz, etc.), but a few submitted a bonus 6th lindy hop video. Those videos are not included in any of these lists at the moment, but I may make use of them later on.

It should also be noted that not everyone submitted five videos. Also, as noted before, some videos were eliminated for various reasons such as falling outside of the guidelines. Later, a few were eliminated because they included an abuser. In all cases, I reached back out to the nominators to see if they wanted to replace those videos. Some did, but not everyone (or they just did not get back to me). That is why some slots are unfilled in addition to other reasons for disqualification listed above.

Btw, the public vote to determine the best overall Lindy Hop performance of the 21st century is still live:

Click here to vote for the OVERALL Best Lindy Hop performance of the 21st Century

Over on the FaceBook page for this blog, I’m posting the individual cases for each of the five finalists every day this week.

Finally, the individual nomination ballots for The Best Lindy Hop of the 21st Century are below, listed in alphabetical order by last name. If you are one of these nominators and see something amiss, please let me know.

I have to admit to a bit of cheating. I was not going to nominate any videos since I am managing this project. Besides, all the videos that I thought should be nominated were nominated. It was not until after I made the decision to only advance the performances that received more than 1 nomination that I saw that a number of deserving videos were going to be left behind, so I used my nomination ballot to elevate the first four on the list below. I talk about most of these selections in the various annotations blogs
With my last nomination I decided to include Rayshon Moore & Cheykira Holland’s performance. Rayshon was a young man from Baltimore who tragically passed away in July of this year. I do think they made a positive contribution to the community with this performance where they introduce the crowd to some Baltimore Club dancing, demonstrating how vernacular black dances are linked. He should still be here to show us some more.
Bio/website: https://www.jsalmonteproductions.com/about

Bio/website: https://www.instagram.com/irinabobina/
Bio/website: I'm a swing dancer and bandleader based in Scotland.
Some of these were the videos that I watched a billion times when Youtube came out and Lindy started getting uploaded there. Silver Shadows also were a huge inspiration to me in my early years and many others in dance style and team choreography.
Bio/website: https://saltcityswing.org/
Bio/website:Lindy hop dancer and DJ from Trois-Rivieres, Quebec
I was looking for things that I love in Lindy Hop, musicality, self expression and energy. I was actively looking for a variety in terms of social improv, choreography and competitions. I was heavily weighted towards videos I have watched multiple times and live rent free in my brain.
Bio/website: https://www.instagram.com/katie_cobalt/
I am a newer dancer, and I know I lack a lot of historical perspective and knowledge of all the many incredible videos from earlier in the century, but since I started dancing, I've been pretty obsessive about watching as much as I can (though, again, I admit that my viewing tends more towards ""watch literally everything from c. 2017 on""). I tried to balance selections that are, if not necessarily always my absolute favorites, videos that have informed my ideal of what Lindy Hop is/the kind of dancer I want to be [#1,2, and 4], with videos that I think have transcended ""for hard-core Lindy video watcher"" status and seem have achieved real status among a lot of dancers, even newer dancers [#3, 5]. I also tried to avoid repeating couples, because otherwise, my temptation would have been to pick 5 videos of my favorite couple. I think my list says more about me, what I like, and what sort of dancer I aspire to be, than about where the community has been in the past 25 years, but all I have is my perspective.
Bio/website:https://www.facebook.com/share/14MzG66rDGi/
Bio/website:Megan now resides in San José, Costa Rica, where she teaches and serves on the board of directors at Costa Rica Lindy—a school dedicated to Lindy Hop, Authentic Jazz, and related dance forms.
1. Lone Star Championships & Lindyfest 2013 Invitational Jack & Jill - Michael Seguin & Frida Segerdahl
Bio/website:Brandi Ferrebee has been a lot of things, and a few of them were helpful to the swing dance community a few times. She wrote a very sassy guide to managing event volunteers, has been known to be extremely bossy about the floors at hotel dance events, and introduced your favorite dance musicians to their favorite country music podcast. She also penned the nickname “accidental archivist of modern Lindy hop” for Jerry Almonte.
Sweating bullets trying to find any video for my list that doesn't include at least one silver shadow
Bio/website:Helen Garfinkle is a Lindy Hop teacher and transgender ne'er-do-well living in San Francisco. She doesn't understand what people mean when they say "connection". You can find her half-formed opinions at @exogenousrhythm.
Videos I remember inspiring me and starting a lot of enjoyment and conversations about dance.
This was an impossible ask. Not sure if these are really the top 5 best, but they are definitely 5 that I still enjoy watching and enjoy showing to people unfamiliar with Lindy Hop.
Bio/website:As a child Abigail learned floor craft by navigating through a sea of adults in vintage clothes swinging out and throwing air in her living room and Penn's Landing in Philadelphia, her mom was one of those Lindy Hoppers who was fortunate enough to take some classes from Frankie Manning. Abigail first saw Hellzapoppin in the second grade after school at a Girl Scout meeting. She always knew she would be a Lindy Hopper when she grew up (she just assumed it's what all adults did). Upon arrival at Rutgers University in 2014, she joined the Swing dance team and club and quickly became embedded in the greater Lindy community. She competes, organizes, volunteers, and most of all, loves to DJ late night sets. She, of course, can never swing out enough and plans to for the rest of her life- because that's what adults do isn't it? https://www.abigailharesign.com/
Bio/website:Gina Helfrich started dancing the Lindy Hop in 1999 in Boston, Massachusetts. She danced her heart out as an active participant in the scene for nearly 2 decades. She now lives in Edinburgh, Scotland with her husband, son, and two cats.

*Brandon Barker & Jo Hoffberg at ILHC 2024.*

Bio/website:Got into swing dance in college and learned a lot from YouTube because I was in a small town without experienced dance instructors.
Bio/website:Jo Hoffberg, a long-time fixture of the Lindy Hop community, has been teaching, competing, and performing on the global stage since 2007. She has won a bunch of titles, taught in 35+ countries, and loves teaching folks how to wiggle to great music. https://www.instagram.com/whatchaknow_jo/
I tried to think of videos that I remember inspiring me and others, as a baby dancer and now as someone who is 10 years in. My bonus video is one that I've watched often through the years. I don't necessarily think it's a top video but it's full of familiar faces and it's fun to study.
Bio/website: https://www.instagram.com/holdenmybreath/
Some of my selections do have persons whose behavior has since resulted in their removal from the Lindy Hop scene. I condemn their actions, but I did opt to include two videos despite including those individuals.
Bio/website:John Holmstrom was introduced to Lindy Hop in 2005 in Chicago where he still lives and runs Traffic Jam Swing.
Bio/website:I am the creator of dancecamps.org, created in 2006, and has been used by many events for registration.
Bio/website: I'm not really noteworthy. I used to take a lot of photos.
Bio/website: Started dancing Lindy Hop in 1999 and had the privilege of taking lessons from Frankie Manning in Herräng in the early 2000s. Have always loved dancing Lindy Hop but haven’t been that active the last ten years but still try to keep up with what is happening in the world of Lindy Hop.
I've always been partial to lindy hop team routines and I miss the days of when these contests were a highlight of dance weekends, which is why I included my 3 favorite team routines in spots 3-5.
Bio/website: Andrew Jose is a Lindy Hop dancer from Southern California. Dancing since 2007, he is most widely recognized as a regular competitor in the swing dance scene. He has won multiple championships and awards from the International Lindy Hop Championships, National Jitterbug Championships, and many other events. He is also a teacher and DJ at his local venues, ATOMIC Ballroom and Lindygroove. https://www.instagram.com/andrewjozay/
I’ve selected what I consider the best Lindy Hop videos based on my own personal criteria. While I haven’t seen all of them live, these are the performances that inspired me the most through video—ones that made me want to try the moves myself and think, “I want to dance like that someday.” I also included performances I’ve seen in person that left a lasting impression on me as truly outstanding.
Bio/website: https://lindyexplorer.wordpress.com/hiring-us/
Bio/website: https://www.lilykind.org/
Bio/website: Been dancing long time and amazed at the continued creativity and passion of dancers. I love how countries all over the world, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia are just eating lindy up and hungry to learn more about it. Thanks to the internet, everything's at our fingertips and we are more connected to each other to grow this community. https://www.instagram.com/sing_lim/
It’s tough to rank these. With the exception of my #1 choice the others are all on equal footing for me. They all live rent free in my head and after 20-ish years in this dance community, they are STILL the videos I go back to for inspiration, and they still get my adrenaline going. There are lots of talented dancers since, and lots of great performances but there ones that inspired me as a “young” dancer are still impactful to me.
Bio/website: https://jlucero.wordpress.com/‍ ‍

Listen, I've never been a big video watcher. I'm using this prompt as an opportunity to share videos of some of my favorite dancers, moments I saw live that will probably always stick with me, and performances that—for whatever reason—I come back to again and again. Zero science, zero rigor, just vibes.
Bio/website: https://hannah-mm.com/
Bio/website: https://www.instagram.com/hello.lapin/
Bio/website: https://www.instagram.com/mike._.mcd/
This was really hard! I found myself questioning what I thought was ""important"" about the dance when I was choosing both the videos and the ranking order.
Bio/website:Lindy Hopper since 2009. I learned to dance in a college dance troupe and have been going ever since. My home scenes have been Philly (2009-2013) and Boston (2013-present). I've been teaching since 2012, and helped found a dance studio in Boston in 2014 that's still going today! https://bostonlindyhop.com/
These video picks are mostly personal favorites that stood out and gave me that ""wow that moves my soul"" feeling when I watch them.
Bio/website: https://www.instagram.com/lindyhop.ph/‍ ‍
Bio/website: https://ilhc.com/
Bio/website: https://www.instagram.com/balboabro/‍ ‍
Bio/website: http://swingindenver.com/
I truly value improvisation, connection, trust and humor in lindy hop. These videos do show all of those. Plus, they show that our ""retro"" dance is very much alive and thriving and people find true purpose in it, and even life partners! They also show that the dance inspires dancers of all shapes, races and genders and goes beyond traditional woman-follow and man-lead dance.
Oooh boy! Yes, I am that nerd! I realize that my responses are largely going to be from my heaviest lindy hopping years, so they're probably skewed to the decade between 2005-2015. There's a bunch that's underrepresented in my list but starts getting kind of niche -- like I don't really have any social dancing videos in here so much, but so many of the J&J comp videos are kind of navel-gazy in that they're full of neat things that a random onlooker is not going to find interesting. There are also a LOT of routines that I still think of as pretty iconic or as good representation of what lindy hop was going through artistically at the time, but which to a random onlooker will again be kind of lackluster. There's also a bunch of dancers not really represented here that were really impactful to me but aren't really represented in these snapshots -- shoutout to Casey Schneider, Falty, Nathan Bugh, Evita Arce, Giselle Anguizola, Marie N'Diaye, and probably a million more.
Bio/website: http://www.breannaperry.com/
Competitor quality has dramatically improved over the past 10 years, but for me nothing hits quite as hard as videos from the 2005-2015 heyday on the national circuit. Rounding out a top five is tough, there are too many classic moments to count.

In retrospect this list is clearly slanted towards when I was first learning Lindy Hop. The amount of individuality and sheer dancing still moves me to this day. I remember how I felt watching these for the first time (either live or in person), and the joy & inspiration I feel whenever I rewatch them. Picking only five was really hard, and there's still so many other amazing dancers that I wish I could've included!
Bio/website: https://www.prumotion.com/
Highly sentimental picks. I do not promise impartiality, completeness, adherence to canon, or even taste!
Bio/website: Maxwell is a transgender lindy hopper based in the Bay Area. He is a local instructor and organizer, opinion haver, primary follower and Northern California lifer. Follow him and his partner if you want @exogenousrhythm
The “best” dance videos to me are those that show me I belong. There were two Black American followers I could find when I started lindy hopping socially, and when I was on the verge of giving up this swing dancing thing altogether I would go back and watch them to remind myself that they had made a place for me. Thirteen years later there are still times when I need to be reminded that We Out Here. Thankfully the list of Black lindy hoppers worldwide has grown large enough that I can find inspiration with a quick search. These dancers display a connection to the music and culture that is nigh impossible to find elsewhere, and I hope that in their contributions remain spotlit even during the global shift towards conservatism and eurocentrism. Now that I can be found in a YouTube video or two, myself, I hope that I show up when Black dancers are looking for reassurance that they belong in this community, and that this dance belongs to them. (Also, for the record, if I could find video of the Montreal Swing Riot Vintage vs Modern battles, they would top the list every time. Especially the 2025 battle.)”
Bio/website: https://www.instagram.com/laurelcandance/
This is a collection of videos that I share when people ask me “What is Lindy hop?”
Bio/website: https://www.pauldances.tv/‍ ‍
Some of the older team competitions were creative, and bold, and entertaining. They deserve to be recognized and remembered.
Bio/website:Robin has been a lindy hopper since the days of The Derby and Satin Ballroom. She's still dancing.
I'm an old monster, and the stuff that moves me the most unsurprisingly coincides with the era when I was most active in the national scene.
Bio/website:Michael is the co-owner of the Mobtown Ballroom. Most, but not all, of his dancing has taken place in the 21st Century. https://www.mobtownballroom.com/
Bio/website:Lainey Silver is a dancer, instructor, performer, choreographer, DJ, and vintage fashionista. She specializes in Jazz Era dancing including Lindy Hop, Balboa, Charleston, Shag, and Solo Jazz. She currently lives in Spain after spending 13 years in New York City. https://www.lindylainey.com/
I have never been a huge consumer of dance videos, so my inclusions are a mix of things that I was introduced to as I was learning the modern history of the dance that I missed before I connected to the larger scene, dances I saw in person, and videos that have stuck with me through the years.
Bio/website:I started swing dancing in high school in the late 90s but didn't connect to the larger lindy hop scene until I moved to DC in 2008. I was lucky enough to get involved with volunteering at and later helping run The Jam Cellar and then New Columbia Swing until 2023. Now I'm enjoying my organizer retirement. I'm spkr4thedead51 on BlueSky and Instagram.
I’m heavily biased towards team routines since I’ve spent so much time curating lists for running bingo. I love team routines partly for the possibility of creating spectacles which are genuinely something unique and exciting.
Bio/website: Dancing Lindy Hop since 2009, first in London, now in Gothenburg where. I created Swing Out London ( https://www.swingoutlondon.co.uk - a local event listings website) and Team Lindy Bingo (https://teamlindybingo.com/ - a social shouting game).
Bio/website: https://vintagerhythmroom.com/‍ ‍
Bio/website: https://lindyfocus.com/‍ ‍
It was difficult to narrow down my list to only 6, but here we are. I chose all of the videos because of context, except for Kanini's 2019 performance at Snowball. With the exception of Sakarias and Frida in Vilnius, I was present at all of the other events and saw each of those moments live and I think so much of why these moments were important is the context. I admittedly wasn't keeping up as much on lindy hop videos after 2013 and the past few years we have been inundated with lindy hop content on social media so it is hard to remember any particular moment and its importance in the modern scene, at least for me. I also was not going by quality of videography, visuals, or image, and after deciding on these videos I realized that I had stuck with choreographies, although I’m fairly certain that Jen and Justin at ALHC in 2000 was mostly improvised. I would have loved to have had space for more choices that included social dancing, jams, or even some un-choreographed strictly or mix and match competitions, but I will leave that to the other dancers who are choosing videos!
Bio/website: Karen (she/her) was ﬁrst seen on stage at age 9 performing a tap dance to "Lollipop" in a striped leotard and has been dancing ever since. She discovered Lindy Hop during the Swing craze in 1998 and has never looked back. She has since traveled all over the country and throughout Europe to perform, compete, and teach at international events. She has earned titles competing at events such as Lindy Focus, the Lone Star Championships, the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown, the Boston Tea Party, the U.S. Open, and Camp Jitterbug. She feels most honored to have received the first ever "Spirit of Lindy Hop" awards at both Camp Jitterbug in Seattle, WA (2005), and the International Lindy Hop Championships in Washington, D.C. (2010). Karen currently teaches lindy hop regularly in Boston, MA and Providence, RI. By day she is a French professor, and she also loves to travel, paint, listen to Prince music, and pretend to be a mermaid.

1. ILHC 2020 - Invitational Classic Lindy Hop - Frida Segerdahl & Sakarias Larsson (Sweden)
Bio/website: https://www.peterandnaomi.com/‍ ‍
Bio/website: https://www.instagram.com/jenna_jenka/‍ ‍
For me, the Lindy Hop videos that stand out are ones where I hear the song and I immediately think of the performance I associate with that song. I think because of this, team performances & classic routines stood out in my head. There are so many amazing mix & match or strictly comps — but the when there's so much artistry and work in a performance, it can make a song become iconic.
Bio/website:Cari Westbrook (they/them) joined the Lindy Hop community in Atlanta circa 2006. They've traveled, danced, and competed to varying degrees, but their primary contributions have been behind the scenes. Cari has staffed both small and large events, including leading Hot Jam in Atlanta, organizing The Switch in San Francisco, and the competition rooms at events such as ILHC, LindyFest, and Camp Hollywood. Cari’s passion in the Lindy Hop community is creating community, both locally and nationally. Cari is currently based in New York, where they dance as both a lead and a follow.
Bio/website: https://laurawindley.com/
I let nostalgia lead the way. There are many more recent clips that are amazing but they haven’t had the time to really get into my heart as the older clips.
Bio/website: https://www.instagram.com/alainwong/‍ ‍‍ ‍
Bio/website: https://www.instagram.com/tom_yi_/‍ ‍
A lot of these are really impactful videos - times or moments that forever altered my viewpoint of lindy hop.
Bio/website: https://www.instagram.com/kellzapoppin/‍

Click here to vote for the OVERALL Best Lindy Hop performance of the 21st Century

Jerry S. Almonte

Irina Amzashvili

Saira Brubaker

Adam Brouwers-Harries

Anthony Chen

Jonathan Caron

Katie Cobalt

Ben Costello

Megan Damon

Brandi Ferrebee

Helen Garfinkle

Caroline Gleeson

Steve Grimes

Abby Haresign

Gina Helfrich

Valerie Hertzler

Jo Hoffberg

Kate Holden

John Holmstrom

Ben Holness

Steve Hwan

Johanna Johansson

Andrew Jose

Nalla Kim

Lily Kind

Sing Yuen Lim

Joanna Lucero

Emily M.

Hannah MacKenzie-Margulies

Isabelle Maricar

Helena Martins

Kevin Mascitelli

Michael McDermott

Cari Meisel

Joycee Mejia

Tena Morales

Omar Myers

Kenny Nelson

Olga Parshina

Breanna Perry

Aris Pikeas

Brooks Prumo

Maxwell Ramirez

Laurel Ryan

Paul Riding

Robin S.

Michael Seguin

Lainey Silver

Greg Stasiewicz

Gretta Thorn Stone

Duncan Stuart

Kemper Talley

Jon TIgert

Karen Turman

Naomi Uyama

Michael Ware

Jenna Whiting

Cari Westbrook

Laura Windley

Alain Wong

Jing Yi

Liu Yi

Tom Yi

Kelly Young