Frankie Manning: The Ambassador of Lindy Hop

Day at the Races (Frankie does not dance in this clip)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5T8XauYhlU
/>

When Manning returned from his service in WW2, he formed the Congaroo Dancers. They performed in shows with entertainers like Dizzy Gillespie and Nat "King" Cole.

After bebop jazz and rock ‘n roll redirected the music scene away from the sophisticated syncopated sounds of swing, family-man Manning spent 30 years as a postal clerk.


Photo Credit: Wiki Commons

But the reawakening of swing in the 1980’s uncovered Manning, and he revived his career as a headliner dance instructor.  In 1989, along with dance legends Fayard Nicholas, Cholly Atkins and Henry LeTang, he choreographed the Broadway musical revue, "Black and Blue,” and together they were awarded the Tony.


Frankie leading the Shim Sham. Photo used with permission from HSDS.

Manning also choreographed for several dance companies, including the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. He choreographed and danced in the Spike Lee film "Malcolm X" and instructed Denzel Washington in his dance scenes.

In 2000, Manning was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship.  In 2003, at 89, he lead the Shim Sham Shimmy at a Louis and Company swing dance workshop in Overland Park, Kansas:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hubzPVG3f28

On May 21 the most-watched public television channel in the nation, NY Public Television, THIRTEEN, will air a tribute to Manning.  The special documentary, Frankie Manning: Never Stop Swinging will premier at 10:30pm and will explore Manning’s life from a teenager in Harlem to becoming a worldwide icon of swing dance.

For his annual birthday dances, Manning followed his custom of dancing with one woman for every year of his life, partnering 94 women in succession, at his last birthday event in 2008.


While Manning continues dancing in the celestial realms, more than 2000 swing dancers left behind will kick up their heels in honor of his life, May 21-25, in NYC. FrankieFest 95, originally planned to mark his 95th birthday on May 26, is now a memorial celebration. www.frankie95.com

 1  |  2  |  3  |  4