Frankie Manning-The original Lindy Hopper

First off...sorry for taking so long to get back to writing. Life kind of took over there. Anyways back at it I am :)

Today I want to briefly mention an amazing man and contributer to the Swing dancing/Lindy Hopping scene. His name is Frankie Manning and in celebration of his 95th birthday coming up I wanted to mention him in this blog to people who have may never of heard of him.

In the past year I have been able to meet Frankie twice. Last year in Toronto and just this past weekend in Houston at LindyFest. For a swing dancer it is like meeting...Bono or Madonna or the Pope! He means that much to us.

Who is Frankie? (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Early years

Manning was born in Jacksonville, Florida. He frequented Harlem's Savoy Ballroom in the 1930s, eventually becoming a dancer in the elite and prestigious "Cat's Corner", a corner of the dance floor in which impromptu exhibitions and competitions took place. During a dance contest in 1935, Manning and his partner Frieda Washington performed the first air step (often referred to as an aerial) in a swing dance competition against George "Shorty" Snowden and his partner Big Bea, at the Savoy Ballroom. The air step he performed was a "back to back roll" and was danced while Chick Webb played "Down South Camp Meeting", which was Manning's request after having heard the song earlier in the evening. The airstep went flawlessly to the music and astonished over 2,000 audience members watching.

Career

In 1935, Herbert White organized the top Savoy Ballroom Dancers into a professional performance group which was eventually named Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. Manning created the troupe's first ensemble Lindy Hop routines and functioned as the group's de facto choreographer, although without that title. The troupe toured extensively and made several films. Whitey's Lindy Hoppers became disbanded around the time of WWII since many of the male members were drafted. After the war in 1947, Manning created a small performance group called the Congaroos. When the Congaroos disbanded in 1955, Manning settled into a career with the United States Postal Service.

The Lindy Hop

The Lindy Hop is popularly thought to get its name from famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, nicknamed "Lucky Lindy" in 1926.[1] After Lindberg's solo non-stop flight from New York to Paris in which he "hopped" the Atlantic in 1927, Shorty George Snowden was dancing in a marathon contest at the Manhattan Casino in Harlem when a reporter asked him what dance he was doing. The headlines in the newspapers had stated "Lindy hops the Atlantic", so he told the reporter, "I'm doing the Lindy Hop" in 1928, giving Lindy Hop its official name.[2]
In 1982, Al Minns, a former member of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, started to teach Lindy Hop at the Sandra Cameron Dance Center where he introduced a new generation of dancers to the Lindy Hop. Before he died in 1985, he told his students that Manning, another surviving member of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, also lived in New York City. In 1986, Erin Stevens and Steven Mitchell contacted Manning to ask him to teach them the Lindy Hop. He first said no before agreeing to meet with them. The two returned to California and helped spread the dance to the west coast as well as other areas in the U.S. That same year, Lennart Westerlund contacted Manning and invited him to Sweden to work with The Rhythm Hot Shots. Manning traveled to Sweden in 1987 and has returned to Sweden every year since 1989 to teach at the Herräng Dance Camp.

Recent years

In recent years, Manning's annual birthday celebrations have drawn together dancers and instructors from all over the world. His 80th birthday (1994) was commemorated by a weekend-long celebration in New York City; his 85th culminated in a sold out party at New York's Roseland Ballroom, where a pair of his dance shoes were placed in a showcase along with those of dancers such as Fred Astaire. For his 86th birthday, a huge gala was feted in Tokyo in his honor, which included workshops taught by the maestro himself. The climax of the festivities featured a live orchestra. Manning drew a huge crowd of Japanese and foreign expatriate swing enthusiasts for this memorable occasion. Dedicated cruises were organized for his 89th and 90th birthdays. For his birthday dances, he followed his custom of dancing with one woman for every year of his life, partnering 89 and 90 women in succession, respectively.
Manning received the Tony Award for co-choreography of the Broadway musical Black and Blue. In 2000, he was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship.[3]
Manning 's autobiography, Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop, published in May 2007 contains a collection of stories about the early days of swing dancing and his experiences dancing with Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. The book continues to recount his experiences up through the revival of swing dancing in the 1980s.[2]

You also need to see video of him in one of his most famous movies "Hellzapoppin". It is amazing that people can move that fast or do the stunts they do. Amazing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTg5V2oA_hY

I think this man is amazing and I am very glad that he is still around to inspire present and future dancers.