This month on SwingNation , I'm back in front of the camera, with my friend Ellen Huffman this time! This show's featured stories: Frankie Manning gets a Google Doodle! Lindy Hoppers appear on ABC's "The Bachelorette". Juan Villafane and the Buenos Aires Lindy Hop scene. Watch it all below!
On Waacking and the Gap between Taste and Ability
I've been practicing waacking for about six weeks now, and I've gotten to the painful, long stage of the art-making process that I'll call "The Gap" for lack of a better term. The Gap refers to when you know enough about some art form to be able to distinguish good, bad and amazing. But your ability to practice…
Happy Kouign Amman Day! Touring SF’s Best Kouign Amman
Today, June 20th, is "National Kouign Amman Day." (Just go with it.) Since it falls on a Monday, I gathered some friends to run around San Francisco yesterday to sample the various versions of this unique, very French pastry. For those that don't know, kouign amann is a round crusty cake, made with a yeast-raised dough containing layers of butter…
A Ball of Cat
Love this guy!
SF Lindy Hoppers Recreate Classic Frankie Manning Videos Live!
On May 26, 2016, the 9:20 Special dance in San Francisco held a special celebration for the late Frankie Manning, legendary lindy hopper and overall mensch of a human being. The highlight of the evening's program were several performances re-creating classic clips of Frankie performed alongside the original clips that projected behind the dancers. I did…
Second Lining at Frankie95 Celebration in NYC
Embed from Getty Images I found this fun pic of me dancing in the second line celebration of Frankie Manning during the Frankie95 celebration in New York City in 2009. From Getty Images.
Salman Rushdie: To Stop Terrorism, Dance, Make Love, Eat Bacon Sandwiches
The words of Salman Rushdie need to be remembered particularly today, the day after a dreadful massacre in Florida, but really, everyday: “The fundamentalist seeks to bring down a great deal more than buildings. Such people are against, to offer just a brief list, freedom of speech, a multi-party political system, universal adult suffrage, accountable…
Celebrating Shabba Doo, the “Bob Fosse of the Streets” and Early Hip-hop Pioneer
I've been bingeing on videos featuring Adolfo "Shabba-Doo" Quiñones. Most well known as "Ozone" from the films "Breakin" (1984) and "Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo" (1984), Shabba-Doo already had an impressive dance career since the early 1970s as an original member of the Soul Train Gang and the Lockers, a foundational hip-hop dance crew before that…
Google Celebrates Frankie Manning with a Doodle on His 102nd Birthday!
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…
52 year old ballerina dancing with her 19-year old self
Cool advert for skin cream features Alessandra Ferri, a 52 year old ballerina dancing with a hologram of herself as a teenager! My Takeaway: What matters in dance is not just the flexibility, strength or technical skill, but also the passion, the intention and the emotion. These are the things that come with age and experience….