More specifically it is the type of jazz music made famous by Dizzie Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Thelonius Monk. This style became popular in the mid-forties.

Unlike swing music that preceded it, bebop was not noted for being dance music. Frankie Manning, a swing dance pioneer, said in the documentary, "Jazz", that that bebop was undancable. My view of it is that while technically I could dance to bebop music, I probably wouldn't because it doesn't inspire me to dance.

However, when I did search regarding dancing to bebop this video came up.
http://stores.yahoo.com/judyp/jazhoofbabla.html

Blair

Bebop music is basically a style/type of jazz. Much more than that I couldn't say off hand. While I'm aware that there are various styles of jazz music, I don't really know what distinguishes one type from another. I might have something back at home printed from the net that explains it, but I'd have to look. I don't think I've ever heard of bebop the dance though.

--
James Marshall
marshall@astro.umd.edu
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall