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The third core rhythm of Lindy Hop is its Charleston rhythm, used in a variety of moves that normally involve a kicking action. This rhythm was adopted into Lindy Hop from the earlier Charleston dance, along with many of the moves that use it.

The Charleston rhythm has a rhythm structure that can be summarized as "even-odd-even-odd", and the dancers may have their feet either mirrored or in unison. For the latter, it is almost always the follower who has changed feet to synchronize with the leader. In more detail, the "unison even-odd-even-odd" structure would be:

• The leader and follower use the same rhythm of steps, on the same feet—if the leader steps on his left foot, the follower will also be stepping on her left foot (and vice versa).
• Both dancers start with their weight on their right feet.
• Both dancers perform an even number of steps on the first two beats of an eight-beat phrase.
• Both dancers perform an odd number of steps on the second two beats of an eight-beat phrase.
• Both dancers perform an even number of steps on the third two beats of an eight-beat phrase.
• Both dancers perform an odd number of steps on the last two beats of an eight-beat phrase.

Graphical representation of Charleston rhythm

Although the mirrored version of the Charleston rhythm uses the same rhythm pattern as the eight-beat rhythm, the typical steps used are different. Most moves using this rhythm involve a majority of kicking steps, rather than (say) triple steps. A normal eight-beat sequence is then:

The kicking style of the Charleston rhythm makes it ideally suited to faster tempo music, because less travelling is involved. However, this also has the consequence that Charleston steps can look peculiar when performed with slow music; this can be mitigated by altering the styling. It is also possible to adopt styling that is more along the lines of the original Charleston (by swivelling the knees and feet), without affecting the shapes of the moves.

For moves using a unison Charleston rhythm, the dancers are on the same feet at the same time, which is different from the other normal rhythms of Lindy Hop. In order to get into this situation, moves that use the Charleston rhythm often have a short transition sequence that allows one of the dancers to change feet (such as the Back Charleston Entry). An example transition from an eight-beat move to a unison Charleston move might involve a step sequence like the following:

Similar adjustments apply to the exit of these moves, when the dancers are transitioning from a unison rhythm back to a mirror rhythm.