~ ALASKA SWING DANCE ~

WELCOME TO ~ NELLEE’S LINDY HOP SHOP

SWING HISTORY

CHAPTER 17

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(Text is adapted from “The Swing Book”):

“EVEN MORE OFTHE REBIRTH OF SWING”!!!! !!

FRANKIE MANNING MENTORS THE NEO-SWING DANCERS !!

ALTHOUGH SMALL’S PARADISE SHUT ITS DOORS, the swing dance revival had just begun. In 1985, twelve swing dancers banded together and formed the New York Swing Dance Society in Al Minns’ memory, and convinced the now defunct downtown Cat Club to host a swing dance once every two weeks. They got the idea to form the swing dance society from the Swedes – swing dancing is very popular in Sweden and some of the best instructors right now (2005) are Swedish.

Performing at the Cat Club

It was at these swing nights that Frankie Manning took on the role of mentor to the new dancers. The nightclub soon became the nexus for the gathering of swing dancers from around the world. “We pretty much a descended there almost at the same time,” recalled Ryan Francois, who showed u at the Cat Club as part of a British group called the Jiving Lindy Hoppers.

The Jiving Lindy Hoppers Ryan Francois & Jenny

There he met not only the New York dancers and the Savoy originators (veterans such as Charlie Mead, Sonny Allen, and Wilamae Ricker) but also two pairs of soon to be influential dancers from California. The four – partners Jonathan Bixby and Sylvia Sykes from Santa Barbara and Erin Stevens and Steven Mitchell from the Pasadena Ballroom Dance Association – more than anyone else reintroduced swing dancing to the West Coast.

Erin Stevens and Steven Mitchell

“We all had gone looking for Frankie Manning and the original Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers. We went and found him and said, ‘Teach us. Show us stuff,” said Francois. “But what was amazing was that we all pretty much descended on the Cat Club at the same time. For some reason, we had the same idea at the same moment and none of us knew each other. For three straight nights we jammed and got to know each other.” Added Erin Stevens, “We knew we had to go to New York to find the roots of swing. And so did all these people from other parts of the world. It was like Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

Frankie in his prime

Soon Erin and Steven convinced Frankie, who had been working at the post office for the last three decades, to begin teaching professionally. Suddenly Frankie had a new life, traveling to Sweden, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and countless other places around the world. With his infectiously warm spirit, his authority, his simply wonderful dancing, and his longevity (hey he’s over 90 years old! -- a lifetime of swing dancing will keep you as agile, healthy, and good-natured as Frankie)! Once the music began to take off a few years later, the dancers simply joined back in!!

LEARNING TO SWING DANCE FROM FRANKIE

NEXT TIME:

 “EVEN MORE OF THE REBIRTH OF SWING”:

IT ALL COMES TOGETHER!!!

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