Frankie Manning, 1914-2009: Choreographer pioneered Lindy Hop style

'Musclehead' brought flair, aerial acrobatics to swing dancing

April 29, 2009|By Adam Bernstein, THE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — Frankie Manning, 94, a Harlem dancer and Tony Award-winning choreographer widely celebrated as one of the pioneers of the Lindy Hop, a breathlessly acrobatic swing dance style of the 1930s and 1940s, died Monday at New York City's Lenox Hill Hospital of complications from pneumonia.

The effortlessly nimble Mr. Manning was a star attraction of Harlem's Savoy Ballroom as a young man and brought to swing dance a flair for the theatrical that helped catapult the Lindy Hop from ballrooms to stage and screen, said Cynthia Millman, who co-wrote Mr. Manning's self-titled 2007 memoir.

The dance reportedly owed its name to aviator Charles Lindbergh, when one Savoy dancer told a reporter, "We flyin' like Lindy!"

Mr. Manning's chief innovation was popularizing the thrilling "air step" move in which a female partner is tossed in the air and lands in time with the music. After introducing this choreographic accent, sometimes called an "aerial," he helped develop dozens of others in which partners fling each other on pathways around, over and through various parts of the body.

Mr. Manning and several notable big bands helped make the Savoy an epicenter of swing. It was an elegant, racially integrated dance hall boasting a marble stairway, crystal chandeliers and two large stages where the big bands of Count Basie, Chick Webb and Cab Calloway could duel rhythmically.

Some of the Savoy's finest dancers, including Mr. Manning, were recruited to join Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, a dance performance team that appeared in Hollywood movies such as "Hellzapoppin'" (1941). Dressed in overalls in the film, he gives a rousing demonstration of his talent, flipping his partner and being flipped himself -- with a dash of humor as his partner boots him in the rear.

When he returned from Army service during World War II, he started his own troupe, but the music scene had changed radically. First came the rise of bebop jazz and then the advent of rock 'n' roll.

With a family to support, Mr. Manning spent 30 years as a postal clerk, until a popular swing reawakening in the 1980s.

In 1989 he teamed with dance legends Fayard Nicholas, Charles "Cholly" Atkins and Henry LeTang to choreograph the musical revue "Black and Blue," which ran two years on Broadway. All the choreographers shared the Tony that year. Mr. Manning went on to compose dance steps for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, among other dance companies. He also taught the Lindy Hop to actor Denzel Washington in the Spike Lee film "Malcolm X."