Frank Manning

Frank Manning, born May 26, 1914, in Jacksonville, Florida, was an American dancer, choreographer, and instructor widely regarded as one of the founders of Lindy Hop, the energetic jazz-derived swing dance form. He died on April 27, 2009, in Manhattan at the age of 94, and is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.

Manning's parents separated when he was three years old, after which he relocated to Harlem with his mother, herself a dancer. During summers, he stayed with his father, aunt, and grandmother on a farm in Aiken, South Carolina, where farmhands and neighbors gathered on Saturdays to play music on the front porch using harmonicas and a washtub bass. His grandmother encouraged him to join in the dancing. Back in New York, he began practicing at home to records played on a Victrola, using a broom or chair as a partner. In October 1927, he attended the Renaissance Ballroom and Casino, where he observed his mother performing formal ballroom styles including the foxtrot and waltz. He later became a regular at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom, the only integrated ballroom in New York, eventually earning a place in the elite "Cat's Corner," a section of the dance floor reserved for impromptu exhibitions and competitions. During a 1935 contest against George Snowden, the inventor of the term Lindy Hop, Manning and his partner Frieda Washington performed what is recognized as the first aerial in a swing dance competition, a move called a "back-to-back roll," executed while Chick Webb's band played "Down South Camp Meeting" at Manning's request.

That same year, Herbert White organized the top Lindy Hop dancers at the Savoy into a professional troupe that came to be known as Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. Manning created the group's first ensemble routines and served as its de facto choreographer, though he received no official credit for the role. The troupe toured widely and appeared in several films. Among his fellow performers was Norma Miller, who became known as the Queen of Swing. Whitey's Lindy Hoppers disbanded around the time of World War II, when many of its male dancers entered military service. Manning himself served in the U.S. Army. Following the war, in 1947, he formed a four-person dance group called the Congaroos, which performed across England and South America and appeared in the 1948 film Killer Diller. After the Congaroos disbanded in 1955, Manning took a position with the United States Postal Service.

Manning's Broadway career included an appearance in the 1939 musical Swingin' the Dream. That same year he made his first visit to Melbourne, Australia, performing at the Princess Theatre. Decades later, at age 75, he co-choreographed the Broadway musical Black and Blue, earning a 1989 Tony Award for his work on the production.

A revival of interest in swing dance and Lindy Hop beginning in the late 1980s drew Manning back into active teaching and performing. In 1986, dancers Erin Stevens and Steven Mitchell contacted him and asked him to teach them the Lindy Hop; the two subsequently helped spread the form to the West Coast and other parts of the United States. That same year, Lennart Westerlund invited Manning to Sweden to work with The Rhythm Hot Shots. Manning traveled there in 1987 and returned annually from 1989 onward to teach at the Herräng Dance Camp. He also taught Ryan Francois, who helped bring Lindy Hop to British audiences. In 2000, Manning received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the United States' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. His autobiography, Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop, co-written with Cynthia R. Millman, was published by Temple University Press in May 2007.

Manning's annual birthday celebrations became international events, drawing dancers and instructors from around the world. His 85th birthday culminated in a sold-out party at New York's Roseland Ballroom, where a pair of his dance shoes were displayed alongside those of dancers including Fred Astaire. He maintained a custom of dancing with one woman for every year of his life at his birthday celebrations, continuing the tradition through his 94th birthday. Manning was inducted into the U.S. Swing Dance Council Hall of Fame in 1992 and into the National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame in 2009. On July 4, 2012, a road in the village of Herräng, Sweden, was named in his honor by the municipality of Norrtälje to mark the 30th anniversary of Herräng Dance Camp. On May 26, 2016, Google marked what would have been his 102nd birthday with a Google Doodle.