Frankie Manning

Frankie Manning's Birthday is this Saturday, May 26th.  He lived from 1914 to 2009 and is the most significant reason why we are all enjoying this dance today.

This video says more than I can ever say about this amazing man.  I hope you enjoy.

Jack & Jill - Midwest Lindyfest

I love Jack & Jill competitions.  I love the idea of being paired with someone who you might not have ever danced with before and yet you could still potentially burn the place down simply because your social dancing skills, connection, and communication are amazingly solid.

This isn't always the case of course, but the mere potential is what enchants me.

Early this month Midwest Lindyfest 2012 featured some really fun dancing from a group of dancers who aren't the highest level, most well-known teachers and instructors, and they still throw it down.

Sit back, take some mental notes, and enjoy.

Any guesses who won, by the way?  Take a guess and then peek at the youtube comments.

Performance! - 9:20 Special

With the launch of our new weekly dance, The Lindy Connection, my mind is overflowing with visions of the future Tampa Lindy Hop Scene.


This future version of us will be awesome.

We'll break down old stereotypes; we'll shed our egos and make ourselves vulnerable in order to learn more from each other and grow in our dancing; we'll learn; we'll push ourselves; we'll travel; we'll connect; we'll enjoy; we'll dance.

Hopes and dreams are funny things.  They're hard to predict and hard to pin down - and oftentimes the vision is always a destination just over the next hill, and maybe that's how it should always be.  We have a direction though, and an enthusiastic group who are committed and ready for the next step down that path, and that's great.

My post today is a very recent video by the staff of the 9:20 Special in San Francisco.  (I've posted about them before. Their class recaps are great.)

This post is a group performance and stands as an inspiration to me.  I don't believe our scene has the quality of dancers yet to pull off something like this.  I know this is above my level, personally.

But here's the thing.  One day we will be able to do something like this.  We'll all work together and we'll get there.

I'm excited about the plans we are unveiling in the coming weeks and I hope you're all ready to jump in and join us.

Swing Dancing Memes - Yehoodi!

This is a first.  A non-video post.  Sorry to disappoint you, but hopefully the humor found here in the Yehoodi forums will help make up for it.

Memes.  Swing dance memes at that.  

Also, if you aren't familiar with Yehoodi.com you're missing out.  This is one of the longest running Lindy Hop websites around.  I recommend the podcasts and forum conversations.  It's not the most active site in the world, but the content is usually interesting.