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…
Everything Remains Raw: Moncel Durden on the links between lindy hop and hip hop dance
I managed to catch the film preview and talk with filmmaker / dancer / historian Moncel Durden about his work-in-progress "Everything Remains Raw: Hip-Hop's Folkloric Lineage." Here Moncel talks the importance of dancers knowing the roots of the movements that they do. As lindy hoppers, it was great to see how Moncel was able to…
Frankie 95 Festival Day 4: Tribute Show, Campus Five, Boilermakers (video)
Here's a sweet video snippet: about 1,000 people at 4am still swinging hard at the close of Day Four of the Frankie 95 Birthday Festival. The highlight of the day was an all-star dance tribute show for Frankie Manning, demonstrating various parts of his career, from the Savoy Ballroom to the Herrang Dance Camp. Afterwards,…
Frankie 95 Festival Day 3: 3 big bands, Hellzapoppin finals, Silver Shadows (video)
The third day of the Frankie 95 Birthday Festival was jam-packed with classes and panel discussions all-day and dancing and performances all night. The highlight of the evening was a blow-out big band concert not seen in modern times, with three swingin' big band orchestras performing in the Hammerstein Ballroom: the Frank Foster Loud Minority…
Frankie 95 Festival Day 2: Frankie’s Memorial, Second Line procession, Central Park, Cangelosi Cards! (vids)
I finished my second day at the Frankie Manning 95th Birthday Festival at 4am, exhausted but inspired by a full day of awesome dancing and loving tributes to Frankie. I recorded some video snippets of the day, for those who want a flavor of what's going on: Swinging Reverends at the Frankie Manning Memorial Dawn…
Pic of me in the New York Times leading Second Line processional for Frankie Manning
There’s a lovely article in the City section of the New York Times today about the memorial service and festival to honor legendary swing dancer Frankie Manning entitled “Honoring the Man Who Helped Make Lindy Hop.” It’s got lots of great quotes from friends and fans of Frankie from the memorial, and a couple of…
Sirius XM Satellite Radio to Broadcast Saturday Night Gala from Frankie 95 Festival!
Big news from the Frankie 95 Birthday festival! I am excited to announce that SIRIUS XM Satellite Radio will broadcast the Saturday black tie gala live from the Hammerstein Ballroom on it's 40s decade music channel (channel 4 on SIRIUS and XM radios) also known as the 'Savoy Express'. All three Saturday orchestra sets will…
Frankie 95 Festival Day 1: Jazz Vipers, Hellzapoppin, Junior Jitterbugs! (video)
Here's a jam circle at the first dance party of the Frankie 95 Birthday Festival. With all of our guests not even here yet, it's already a blow-out, crazy-fun event. Day 1 highlights: a very moving documentary film about Frankie called "Frankie Manning: Never Stop Swinging." Norma Miller in an intimate Q&A about her life…
Post of the Day: “Dance community really excited to spend five days in New York trying not to cry”
Gotta love this post on the Jam Cellar blog in DC about the Frankie 95 Festival start tomorrow: Dance community really excited to spend five days in New York trying not to cry. This weekend marks the event where dancers from around the world will come together in New York to celebrate the life of…
Machinima tour of MacArthur Island led by Mac President Fanton! (video)
For those of you not in Second Life, here is a lovely video tour of the new MacArthur Island sim led by the avatar of MacArthur Foundation president Jonathan Fanton. I love the production values of this machinima, and how it encapsulates in seven minutes the broad range of projects being supported by the MacArthur…