[Dixielandjazz] The Death of Dixieland

[David Richoux]

Not quite dead yet, if it can be tied in with Lindy Hop dancers - or  
other creative marketing...

Dave Richoux
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<http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl? 
document_id=2003840661&slug=lindy17&date=20070817>

Young and old cutting a rug at City Hall

By Misha Berson
Seattle Times arts critic

Ninety-three-year-old Frankie Manning had some official business at  
City Hall on Thursday. It was showing people young enough to be his  
great-grandkids how to do the Shim Sham.

Known as "The Ambassador of the Lindy Hop," Manning was not the only  
one laying down moves at City Hall's outdoor plaza in a noontime  
concert.

An estimated 300 people turned out for the 90-minute event. They came  
to learn swing-dance basics, get up and boogie to the brassy jazz of  
the Solomon Douglas Swingtet, or just bop along from the sidelines  
while eating their lunch.

The dance was part of the Masters of Lindy Hop & Tap festival,  
sponsored by Capitol Hill's Century Ballroom. The festival runs  
through Sunday and features 10 surviving star dancers from the Big  
Band era, some of whom appeared alongside such vintage superstars as  
Judy Garland, Lena Horne and Cab Calloway. Though now in their 70s,  
80s and 90s, these elder hoofers are still cuttin' a rug.

While here, Manning and contemporaries Jeni LeGon, Norma Miller,  
Sugar Sullivan and others will reflect on their escapades as star  
African-American hoofers, at nightspots like Harlem's Savoy Ballroom,  
from the 1920s into the '40s. They also will teach their fancy  
footwork for such crazes as the Lindy Hop (the jazzy partner dance  
that led to the Jitterbug), in classes and dance-'til-you-drop  
shindigs open to the public.

The festival debuted here in 2006, to great success. This year its  
producer Hallie Kuperman (owner of the Century Ballroom and  
Restaurant) added a free outdoor dance to the schedule.

Co-sponsored by the city's Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, it was  
part of the ongoing Seattle Presents program of noontime concerts at  
City Hall.

"The chance to host a show where people can really participate and  
learn some moves is great," said Lori Patrick, spokeswoman for  
Seattle Presents. "And it's great also that we're honoring these  
masters of swing dance."

Dozens of tourists and passers-by dropped in on the event, drawn by  
the up-tempo music spilling down to Fourth Avenue. But a large  
contingent of local swingsters had looked forward to it for weeks.

"I've seen only film and video footage of Frankie Manning and the  
others," said amateur Seattle dancer Yuriko Miyamoto. "It's so great  
to see them live."

Christine and Bruce Pinto, of Shoreline, made a special trip into  
town for the event. Their 3-year-old daughter Kathryn was one of many  
small children grooving to the infectious music.

"Kathryn loves to dance, and she's already really good at it," said  
her proud mom.

On the other end of the age spectrum, the sage "masters" mostly held  
court from chairs set up near the packed 24-by-24-foot portable  
wooden dance floor.

"Anyone can do this dance," declared LeGon, 81, a Vancouver, B.C.,  
resident who decades ago appeared in the Count Basie Orchestra Chorus  
Line and hoofed her way through such films as "Easter Parade" and  
"Stormy Weather."

"You just need to have rhythm. If you can keep a beat, you can swing  
dance."

Norma "Queen of Swing" Miller, 87, ex-member of the famed Whitey's  
Lindy Hoppers, nodded in assent. "People all over the world are doing  
it now. I was just talking to a man who swing dances in Shanghai,  
China."

The Lindy Hop, jazz tap and other related dance styles nearly died  
out after the 1950s, when Big Band music gave way to rock 'n' roll.

But since the swing revival emerged in the early 1990s, those  
survivors who helped create and popularize the form have become  
heroes to new generations of dancers.

Who wouldn't be impressed, seeing Manning and his septuagenarian son  
Chazz Young spryly step, jump and shimmy, as they led the Shim Sham —  
a swingin' line dance?

"I love being in Seattle," Manning said during a break.

"You have so many enthusiastic dancers here."

Misha Berson: mberson at seattletimes.com