Jumpin’, Jivin’ and Then Wailin’ at the Mall

Time seemed to warp when a breathless group of flying Lindy Hoppers, wingtips afire, stopped ‘90s shoppers cold during a recent dance contest hyping the new movie “Blast From the Past.”

Cell phones silent, some 500 spenders leaned over the railings at Santa Monica Place mall and rubber-necked from escalators to watch 20 couples perform their best leapfrog aerials in the name of boffo box office.

In the film, opening Feb. 12, Brendan Fraser drives Alicia Silverstone wild with the swinging moves his mother taught him while his wacky ‘60s family, thanks to a case of paranoia and the Cuban missile crisis, lived in a backyard bomb shelter for 35 years.

Contest winners Rick Pendleton, 35, and Tyra Youland, 26, found love on the dance floor too, said Youland, the picture of cross-era dressing with her nose ring and barrel-roll curls.

“We spent so much time together practicing, it was inevitable,” said the Silver Lake costumer.

In addition to $500, the cozy couple won a Valentine’s Day dinner at West Hollywood’s House of Blues. They didn’t, however, win the nationwide competition’s grand prize, a trip to New York to see the film’s premiere and meet its stars.

No biggie, said Youland, who’s hopped planes with Pendleton to dance in such swing-happy cities as Vancouver, Canada, Berlin and Paris, where smoky, cavelike clubs exist three flights below ground, said Pendleton, a cameraman who lives in Glendale.

“They’re like bomb shelters,” he said.

Whether “Blast From the Past” bombs or soars remains to be seen. Swing dance, however, appears to be here to stay, at least until the next dance craze hits the clubs--and malls.