NEWS
Happy New Year!
Among our board members, the new year means something very special. New year; new Frankie Manning Ambassadors! Appropriately enough, the deadline for applications for the 2015 Herrang Ambassador scholarship program was New Year’s Eve. We’re so excited by this year’s submissions! We have received an influx of applications from incredible candidates from all over the world and are busy evaluating the applications to determine scholarships to our wonderful partner camps.
This year we’re planning to partner with the following events:
The Herrang Dance Camp
LindyFest
Camp Jitterbug
Beantown
The International Lindy Hop Championships
These are all wonderful events and we thank them for their partnership in helping to make these scholarships happen. We look forward to making announcements about this year’s Ambassadors in the next edition of Solid Sender!
As always, we hope that you’ll also join us on Facebook, Twitter, and now also on our new Google+ and Pinterest pages.
FRANKIE MANNING: THE PASSION
What is it like for a new dancer to learn lindy hop in today’s landscape? Adam Milligan from Northern Ireland shares his experience and passion in this blog post.
“…it’s safe to say I’m hooked on lindy hop but I’m also keen to learn more about its background and those who shaped it and there are obviously none greater in the lindy hop pantheon than Frankie Manning…”
Read Adam’s guest blog post here.
SWING FOR KIDS: INSPIRE AND EMPOWER
In this blog post, guest writer Kim Kays tells us about the new Non-Profit swing dance group in Chicago called Swing for Kids.
“I started integrating Swing Dance into my elementary and middle school music classes, and was blown away by the results. Not only did my students love the music and history of Swing, while learning this fun new skill, they developed discipline, teamwork, and creativity. I saw students who rarely spoke, helping each other get that pesky rock step. …”
Read the full Swing for Kids blog post here.
THE HARLEM SWING DANCE SOCIETY – WZUP IN HARLEM
Get the latest update about what’s going on in Harlem in
this guest blog post by Barbara A. Jones.
“Mr. Charles Dorkins is an accomplished film maker, historian, photographer, writer, Tuskegee Airman and more. He has traveled the world, and at 93 years old he is full of wit, wisdom and humor… and still “runs around” with no cane, glasses or hearing aid (but he does have his trusty red classic Ford Pinto). …”
Read the latest update from The Harlem Swing Dance Society here.
Trivia
Q. What female vocalist kicked off her when she began performing with Chick Webb at the Savoy Ballroom in 1934?
Tweet your answers to @FrankieFMF100!
Featured Video
It’s very rare for us to have social dancing footage of the original dancers in the original swing era. In this video, we are lucky to have a few brief seconds of Frankie Manning dancing with a partner in a crowded Savoy ballroom from what is probably the late 1930s. Whether or not its social dancing is hard to say, as he very well might have realized there was a camera filming him, and changed his dancing because of it. Still, though, it’s great to see a young Frankie Manning in a suit, in his element. It’s only a few tiny seconds, but at least we have that much.
Featured Song
Stompin’ at the Savoy – Though this terrific song which should be somewhat of an anthem to lindy hoppers is credited to a few different musicians, and Benny Goodman’s recording was a bigger hit, the song was written by Edgar Sampson, the alto saxophonist for Chick Webb’s band. Lindy hoppers loved (and continue to love) Chick Webb and prefer this version.
This song became a a jazz standard and has been recorded hundreds of times, including by Judy Garland (1936), Charlie Christian (1941),[2] Art Tatum (1941), Clifford Brown and Max Roach (1954), Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong (1956), and many others.
Petition
Halt the Destruction of Harlem’s Historic Renaissance Casino
Sign the petition!
Information: The golden era of the Harlem Renaissance was said to have been from 1918 to 1930. The vibrant expression of all art forms reached a crescendo during this period, with bold statements being made by Blacks in music, literature, visual arts, dance and sports. Where Blacks were excluded from participation in the mainstream manifestations of the arts, they created their own relentlessly raucously expressive modalities.
The Harry Creighton Ingalls designed Renaissance Casino located at the intersection of 138th street and Seventh ave(A Clayton Powell B’vd) was commissioned in 1920 and completed in 1922 by three eastern Caribbean immigrants, It’s birth was co-temporous with the rise of Renaissance Arts movement. Over its 60 year “lifespan” it played host to every mid century manifestation of African American culture,most notably as displayed by the Rens Big Five, a litany of Big bands,performers and intellectuals of every stripe from Zora to Dubois who all had their voices heard in this revered structure.
It has lain fallow for 35 years, and now stands poised for the wrecking ball. Despite it’s incontrovertible historical value, it was denied landmark status in 1991 and again in 2007 due to intense political pressure exerted upon the process by well connected Harlem real estate interests.
“”THE RENNY” IS A LANDMARK WITHOUT LANDMARK STATUS, and to destroy it would be an egregious cultural assault against the Harlem community. There are no “do-overs”, that was the painful lesson that issued from the destruction of Penn Station. Sign the petition now!
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