History in the Pages, pt. 1

Looking for reliable sources on the history of vernacular jazz dance can sometimes be a tough process. Thankfully the ability to easily order books online has made it quite a bit easier to find these less-than-common books.

The first book I recommend for anyone looking to learn more about the history of the dance is Frankie Mannings autobiography, Ambassador of Lindy Hop, released earlier this year. While it may not be a comprehensive look at the development of jazz dance as a whole, it is the most inviting to the casual reader. Frankie Manning is an innovator and pioneer in the lindy hop community and has helped return the dance from a lost art to the strong and growing community it is now. It has a colloquial ease; full of anecdotes and memories of ballrooms and bands from the jazz era that make it hard to put down. It was co-authored by Cynthia Millman and there are small sidebars throughout the book with historical snippets on locations and various dances.

For a more historical perspective on the development of vernacular jazz dance Marshall Stearns Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance is a good choice. It lays out the history of the dance in a slightly haphazard manner from buck dancing and minstrel shows to the dance crazes of the twenties including charleston, black bottom, turkey trot and moves into the development of lindy hop and tap. It is more academic in nature than Frankie Manning’s book including Laban movement notation on how to perform various steps. There is also a companion book on the history of Jazz music by Marshall Stearns which follows a similar method in examining the development of jazz as a musical tradition.

The City

I arrived in New York City on Thursday last week and had a wonderful opportunity to go out dancing, see some of the history and hear amazing musicians.

My stay kicked off with Frim Fram, one of the more commonly attended weekly dances in NYC. Ryan Swift and Heather Flock DJ’d a request evening which had been set up through this Yehoodi thread; he is also featured on this weeks Yehoodi Talk Show. Despite some odd requests both sets were excellently sewn together without feeling jerked around by a random music selection; it really goes to show how skilled Ryan is as a DJ. He is featured in . Other cats were in town including Laura Keat, Jerone Gagliano, David Rehm; added on top of the strong local community who mostly all happened to be out that night it made for a great dance.

American Lindy Hop Championships 2007

This years ALHC was held in the Westin hotel in Stamford, CT this past weekend. Unlike ULHS, ALHC prohibits the use of outside cameras to record footage of competitions and performances so there will unfortunately not be any video footage available until the DVD comes out. Alain has posted up a few bits which showcase some of the performances from ALHC though, including a video of myself with Joanna Lucero in the Strictly Lindy.

It was the 10th year of ALHC and so it was billed as a special event with Frankie Manning attending, a special performance by Minnie’s Moochers in honor of their groundbreaking routine to “Love Me or Leave Me”, and a bit of hype. Unfortunately it didn’t seem to live up to its full potential. There were no ceremonies honoring Frankie Manning, Norma Miller or Dawn Hampton (who were all in attendance) or a talk which I would have found fascinating (unless I missed it somehow). Additionally I heard a slew of complaints regarding the hotel service, which was unfortunate since the hotel seemed quite nice.

Interview with Frankie Manning

Thanks to Alain’s blog for posting up this little tidbit about an interview with Frankie Manning from the AARP.

Frankie Manning is an exemplar of lindy hop and has been for many years. If you haven’t read his autobiography buy it on Amazon or find a friend who has it. He is both an inspiration to watch in old clips and to hear and meet in person today.

The classic clip that every lindy hopper (and really everyone) should see from Hellzapoppin’ in 1941.

A recent clip from Lindyfest 2007 where Frankie Manning is dancing with another amazing dancer, Dawn Hampton.

I’ll be back to wrap up my review of ULHS soon.

Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown 2007 – The Middle pt. 2

To continue with Saturday, I will begin with a short review of two show performances that took place in the evening.

The first was a tap show in honor of the Nicholas Brothers put on by Sakarias Larsson and Mattias Lundmark, two of the spectacular Harlem Hot Shots from Sweden. It was quite the spectacle where they first traded spotlights and then had an ensemble section. Now that I’ve been working on tap for a short while it amazes me even more to know how hard it actually is.

The second show as a tribute to the Four Congaroos performed by Mike Faltesek with Casey Schnieder and Stefan Durham with Bethany Powell. It was in two parts, the first an ensemble piece and the second included spotlights. The music was so incredibly fast (like the original) that it was almost difficult to have time to appreciate each movement on its own. Exceptional work to the four of them, especially Bethany as I heard she had been relatively sick. Here are the two clips. The second one being my favorite. I believe the original dancers were Frankie Manning, Ann Johnson, Russel Williams and Willimae Ricker.