Musings on Dance, Food, Geek Stuff
Lots of folks have already shared what their experience was like at ILHC 2022. But I haven’t heard much talk about why this event was a game-changer: it centered the Black roots of lindy hop. After two decades of dancing lindy hop, the 2022 International Lindy Hop Championships was the first major lindy hop event…
Happy World Lindy Hop Day, aka the birthday of Frankie "Musclehead" Manning, the ambassador of lindy hop! Google.com (after YEARS of us asking for this) has decided to honor Frankie with a Google Doodle on the front page of their site all day today! It's kind of the best thing ever. We're celebrating in San…
I'm proud to say that I'm the owner of a limited edition Frankie Manning sculpture created by artist and lindy hopper Ryan Calloway. Frankie Manning was of course the "ambassador of lindy hop," a treasured dancer and an awesome human being who would have been 100 this year. Ryan Calloway is a talented digital and…
Yesterday afternoon, a small gathering of about 50 family, friends and fans assembled at the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx at the gravesite of legendary swing dancer Frankie Manning. The occasion was a dedication of the new headstone for his grave which was completed a little more than a year after Frankie's passing. It was…
Tonight was the final night of the Frankie 95 Birthday Festival, and what a lovely way to end an incredible five days of celebration! Here's Chazz Young, Frankie Manning's son, dancing on behalf of his dad with 95 follows. Continuing the tradition started at Frankie's 80th birthday of having Frankie dance with one follower for…
Me dancing the Shim Sham with Frankie Manning at Yehoodi's 10th Anniversary Party in 2008. Photo by OpeningMinds. In just a couple of days, lindy hoppers from all over will be descending on New York City for the swinging-est birthday party ever. The Frankie Manning 95th Birthday Festival will be notable not only for…
Today I was fortunate enough to participate in the most swingin' funeral I have ever attended. Today, we laid Frankie Manning in his final resting place. As I entered the Mount Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church in Harlem, I was greeted by the powerful sound of the full Harlem Renaissance Orchestra playing on stage. I saw…
View Larger Map When the organizers of the Frankie Manning 95th Birthday Festival cooked up the idea of having lindy hop scenes from all over submit videos of themselves doing the Shim Sham line dance, we had no real expectations for how many would come in, or from where. I remember telling co-organizer Shorty Dave…
I've had the honor and privilege of studying under the legendary swing dancer Frankie Manning, the octogenarian ambassador for Lindy Hop. I'm super-excited to announce that Frankie Manning's long awaited autobiography is finally hitting the shelves in April. Entitled Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop, the book chronicles the life and times of this…