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Having the opportunity to learn from Frankie Manning was amazing.  Prior to attending the workshop I had read through Frankie’s autobiography and seen a number of his videos on YouTube so I had a bit of an idea of what to expect.  The real deal is much better, however.

Here is a man who is still Lindy hopping and Shim Shamming into his 94th year.  He doesn’t have the mobility of his younger years, but he still has amazing rhythm, clean movement, and a good sense of humour.  His many years of dancing allowed him to cross paths with big names in swing music and jazz:  Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Chick Web, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Benny Goodman, and many others.  He travelled the world, met the Queen of England (he has a rather amusing story about this occasion), and choreographed dance scenes in many popular movies.  For someone involved in swing dancing his years at the Savoy Ballroom are enviable.  There, he would go and dance to live music every night, and not just any live music but Chick Webb and Ella Fitzgerald most nights, with other popular bands set up on the second bandstand.

Looking back on the schedule, I’m not sure Frankie stuck very tightly to the class topics, but excellent things were taught anyway.  From the top (<insert head-tapping motion here>), a cordial atmosphere was strongly encouraged between leads and follows (assumed to be men and women).  First-off, Frankie would introduce himself as being the assistant to Mandi Gould (his assistant for the duration of the workshop). He would ask the leads and follows to make their way to lines on opposite sides of the room.  From there, he’d ask them to pair up in order from the lines.  Once all paired up, there was a dialogue that progressed as follows:

FM: The woman in front of you is your…?

Leads: Queen!

FM: And what do you do for your queen?

Leads: Bow!

FM: And follows this man is bowing to you, what do you do for your lead?

Follows: Twist!

This chat was followed each time by four basic swingouts.  Why four?  To complete a phrase of music.  Frankie wanted leads to think about the music more in terms of phrases than bars so that rather than just going from one move to the next ad nauseum, we were thinking ahead about sequences of moves to match the music.  Much of his lecturing was about musicality.  After some repetition of the swingout phrases, we’d start from scratch doing two swingouts followed by a Lindy circle and a double tuck turn.  This sequence would then be built upon with new moves.

I honestly can’t remember what was taught in each class, or even how all the sequences of moves are pieced together.  We have some video footage of some friends and other students performing the sequences after each class so we can remember what was taught, but I will have to go back and review.

On Saturday night, Frankie held a fireside chat wherein he talked about the old days and related a number of anecdotes from his past (many of which are in his book) and showed video footage of his favourite Lindy scenes (as well as one exceptional Tap-dancing scene).  At the dance, Frankie led the Shim Sham for all those in attendance.  A number of groups put on performances in his honour including Hogtown Swing who wrapped up their number with Frankie’s own choreography from Hellzapoppin’.

Sunday was no less interesting with two more classes with Frankie (4 total over the weekend).  At the end of his last class, students gathered around him showing their appreciation with cheers and stomps.

Next time:  Sylvia Sykes!