Happy Birthday, Frankie Manning!

[lindyhop]

Frankie Manning is 94 years old today. He's considered to be the ambassador of Lindyhop. He was one of the original dancers back at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem who got this whole swing thing going. In the 80's Erin Stevens of PBDA went to New York searching for the roots of swing and got Frankie out of retirement. Ever since then he's been travelling the world appearing and teaching at dance camps. I've had the pleasure to see him in Pasadena a couple of times a year and one year I got to join the Stevens family and have breakfast with Frankie. He's a real sweetheart.

He was due to be back in Pasadena in early June but last week he fell and hurt his hip so he's facing hip replacement surgery (again) and no one knows if he'll be able to dance again. The dance camp will go on but will be dedicated to Frankie with a big card for everyone to sign and a lot of it will be filmed to be sent to Frankie. It will bittersweet since he can't be there.

Here's the famous dance scene from Hellzapoppin' but with the original music that it was choreographed to. The movie producer had alternate music composed to avoid paying royalties. Frankie is the one wearing overalls.

And I just ran across this video today. The sound quality is pretty bad but Frankie's personality comes through and there's some great dancing.

Happy Birthday, Frankie, and take care.