Swing music is written in a signature know as 4/4. This means that the music is divided into groupings of four beats, and that quarter notes are counted as a single beat. This is known as Common Time.
When Jazz was being invented, the influences of European trained musicians and African-born musicians mixed together with different meters and approaches to rhythm that made Swing-Jazz polyrhythmic. Meaning that there can be, and often are, several rhythmic ideas going on that a dancer can dance into.
This polyrhythm is why you can walk in time with the beats, half time the beats, triple step or double-time what’s going on and still be doing something reflective of the music. Think of the song and the dance as being filled with bits of random length. An approach to the dance that’s filled completely with pieces made of eight counts simply wouldn’t do justice to the musical form.
Bend Lindy Exchange workshops will all be held at The Space. The studio is located inside the Twin Knolls Retail Center and can be found across from Timbers East next to the Express Eco Laundromat.