JazzMAD’s Sharon Davis has been helping with historical research for the Welcome to the Savoy project, run by a group of Lindy Hop lovers who happen to be creators in the cutting edge world of Virtual Reality. The team are attempting to build Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom in VR, using photographs, floorplans and first-hand accounts to recreate the ballroom as authentically as possible.
Sharon has made all her Savoy Ballroom research public and freely available, you can find it at: welcometothesavoy.com/research
About The Savoy Ballroom, Harlem
The Savoy Ballroom was a legendary dance hall on Lenox Avenue between 140th and 141st Streets in Harlem, New York. It was known as “The World’s Finest Ballroom” and “Home of Happy Feet”. From 1926 to 1958 it’s twin bandstands showcased the world’s finest jazz musicians. The dances born on its mahogany dancefloor would sweep the world and live on to this day. The Savoy was the heart and soul of Harlem.
About the Project
“Welcome to The Savoy is a project where history and cutting-edge technology will meet. We hope to reopen the doors of the now lost Savoy Ballroom, in an immersive experience based in virtual reality. You can ask any Lindy Hopper in the world today, if they could go back in time where would they go? And they will all instantly say, ‘To the Savoy Ballroom!’ Virtual reality is the closest thing we have to time travel, so we are attempting to reconstruct the legendary Savoy Ballroom, where Lindy Hop was born, in VR. We hope to transport people back in time to the Savoy in the late 1930s, Harlem’s most captivating nightspot and one of the first integrated ballrooms in the USA. We’re not sure where this project will lead, but we hope to honour this important historic home of black dance, music and culture which has come alive to us through Sharon’s meticulous historical research.”
Learn more about the project at: www.welcometothesavoy.com
Like the project on Facebook at: facebook.com/welcometothesavoy