Frankie Manning

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Frankie Manning (May 26, 1914-1990) was an American dancer, instructor, and choreographer.

Manning is considered one of the pioneers of Lindy Hop, a modern spin on the jazz dance style known as swing.

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Career

Herbert White converted the top Lindy Hop dancers at the Savoy Ballroom into a professional performance group that was eventually named Lindy Hoppers of Whitey. Manning penned the troupe's first ensemble routines and functioned as the group's de facto choreographer, although he wasn't officially accredited with the role. The troupe toured extensively and made several films. Manning performed with Norma Miller, the Queen of Swing, when she was in Whitey's. When many of the male dancers joined the armed forces in Whitey, the Lindy Hoppers disbanded around World War II. Manning himself served in the US Army. Manning formed the Confederoos, a small performance group established after the war in 1947. Manning settled down to a career with the United States Postal Service when the Confederoos disbanded in 1955.

Al Minns, a former member of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, first started teaching Lindy Hop at the Sandra Cameron Dance Center in 1982. Manning, another surviving member of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, lived in New York City before he died in 1985.

Erin Stevens and Steven Mitchell, a dancer from 1986, called Manning and begged him to teach them the Lindy Hop. Mitchell and Stevens returned to California and led Lindy Hop to the West Coast and other parts of the United States that same year. Lennart Westerlund contacted Manning and invited him to Sweden to work with The Rhythm Hot Shots. Manning returned to Sweden in 1987 and taught at the Herräng Dance Camp every year from 1989 to 2015. Manning will also instruct Ryan Francois, who will help introduce Lindy Hop to a British audience later this year.

Manning taught Lindy Hop around the world in the late 1980s and 1990s, occasionally appearing with Norma Miller. Dance workshops have taken him to places he had not been in decades. Manning appeared at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne, Australia, for example. In 2002, the swing revival and Melbourne's Swing Patrol welcomed him back; it was his first visit to Melbourne in 63 years.

Manning co-choreographed the Broadway musical Black and Blue, for which he was given a 1989 Tony Award. In 2000, he was a recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Performing Arts, the highest award in the United States in the folk and traditional arts.

Frankie Manning's autobiography, written with co-author Cynthia R. Millman, was published by Temple University Press in May 2007.

Dancers and instructors from all around the world attended Manning's annual birthday celebrations. His 80th birthday, as well as those of dancers like Fred Astaire, were commemorated in a weekend-long celebration in New York City; his 85th birthday and his 85th birthday culminated in a sold-out dinner at Roseland Ballroom in New York, where a pair of his dance shoes were on display along with those of dancers such as Fred Astaire. Manning's 89th and 90th birthdays were arranged; for his birthday dances, he maintained his tradition of dancing with one woman for every year of his life. He continued this tradition into his 94th birthday.

Manning, a native of Corona, Queens, died in Manhattan on April 27, 2009. He was 94 years old.

In Bronx, New York, he is laid to rest in the Hillcrest Plot.

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