Norma Miller - Queen of Swing
- Swing City
- Dec 7, 2025
- 1 min read
"Thus began the introduction of the Lindy Hop to England."
7th December 2025
It was Norma Miller's birthday on 2nd December. She was born in 1919 in Harlem, New York City, and died in 2019 just shy of 100.
Growing up in Harlem, she moved opposite the back of the Savoy Ballroom as a young girl, with her mother and older sister, Dot. The two girls would dance on the sidewalk outside the entrance to the Savoy, and they’d spend their summer evenings sitting on the fire escape of their building, listening to the music drifting out from the ballroom.
In 1932, Norma was just 12 years old when Twist Mouth George Ganaway, who she described as “the greatest dancer at the Savoy”, called her over from the sidewalk and asked her to dance with him inside the ballroom.
Norma was part of the team who won the Lindy Hop contest in the first Harvest Moon Ball in 1935. Soon after, a group of them were packed off to London to introduce the dance on this side of the Atlantic. The dancers were then booked to tour the country and give lessons in provincial ballrooms. It must have been a culture shock. In her memoir, she writes: “It was very odd to see ladies in gowns swing-out, but they enjoyed it. Thus began the introduction of the Lindy Hop to England.”
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