PBS channel 13 in New York has put online a sweet 30 minute documentary about legendary lindy hopper Frankie Manning called "Never Stop Swinging." From the website: The documentary features the last major interview of Frankie Manning before his death, as well as precious archival footage of his dancing from the 1930’s to 2009 in…
Tag: frankie manning
Lindy hopper gives shoutout to Frankie Manning & dances with Adam Shankman on SYTYCD! (video)
I have to give mad props to California lindy hopper Calico Sequeira for her appearance on Episode 3 of Season Five of "So You Think You Can Dance." Not only does she mention that Frankie Manning is her inspiration in her intro, she also gets choreographer / judge Adam Shankman to lindy hop with her! …
Twitter as an Event Organizer’s Tool: Our Experience with the Frankie 95 Birthday Festival
About a month ago my friend David sent me an email asking about how we could use the micro-blogging service Twitter to help spread the word and coordinate a swing dance festival that we were helping organize. We started brainstorming and decided to try it out. As it turns out, Twitter is a pretty effective…
Fantastic photos from Frankie 95 Festival on Getty Images
In all of the hubbub, I forgot to announce that the prestigious Getty Images stock photography service has put up several beautiful photos from the Frankie 95 Birthday Festival, mostly from the memorial service and the dance in Central Park on Friday, May 22. Check out the entire set here. One of them has already…
Frankie 95 Festival Day 5: Chazz dances for his dad, Battle of the bones, Big Apple Lindy Hoppers! We love you, Frankie!
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…