Seattle Press on Line - Dance Legend Manning Visits Seattle's Swing Scene

Seattle Swings!

Dance Legend Manning Visits Seattle's Swing Scene

By Sean Patrick Donovan

Jana Ford and Jonathan Garrigues (photo by Lisa Karl)

May 07, 1999 -- 85-year-old Frankie Manning, the "King of Swing," was in his element April 3 at the Mercer Arena. Surveying a sea of over 1,700 happy, sweaty dancers at what was billed as "Seattle's Biggest Swing Fling," he could hark back to his own days as a young dancer. A Lindy Hopper renowned for his athletic skill and grace, he'd hold court at the grand Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, surrounded by excited dancers wishing to see (and hopefully steal) his latest moves. But Frankie hasn't much time for reverie. He was in Seattle just long enough to teach a Lindy Hop (a popular form of swing dance) workshop to the next generation of eager dancers. Before that, he taught in San Francisco, Singapore, Tokyo and Australia. Booked far into the future, he's already scheduled for a huge millennium swing dance to be held in Mexico at the turn of the century.

Frankie Manning is a phenomenon, just as he was in the 1930's and 40's. Then, as a member of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, he opened for bands like Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Billie Holiday, performing and creating the Lindy Hop. At a time when he and his troupe were met in cafe doorways in the American South by resolute proprietors intoning "No niggers allowed," Frankie was traveling all over the world, dancing command performances for heads of state.

The orchestrator of the Swing Fling event, and the man primarily responsible for bringing Frankie to town, is Walter Dill. At 44, Walter has been teaching dance in Seattle for over 12 years, since he co-founded Living Traditions--one of Seattle's preeminent partner dance organizations--with his wife, Nancy-Anna. Today, they have over 1,000 students enrolled in classes at any given time. It was through the efforts of 130 Living Traditions volunteers that the Swing Fling raised over $27,000 (which will triple through a grant challenge offered by E. W. Littlefield, Jr.) for Northwest Folklife.

Aside from benefiting Folklife and celebrating Frankie's visit, the Swing Fling was a step toward Walter's dream of founding a large, permanent dance venue for Seattle. While the Mercer Arena event proved that Seattle has enough dancers to fill such a space, Walter dreams of a venue with a proper wooden dance floor, one that would embody his vision to "Create the ultimate space, the ideal environment for people to explore, play with and create movement."

While Walter works on creating the ultimate dancing space, Hallie Kupperman is busy running the best swing dance venue in town, the Century Ballroom. Between DJ's and live swing bands, dancers can cut loose most any night of the week at the Century. Beautifully restored by Hallie and over 50 volunteers almost three years ago, the Century is elegantly sumptuous, and boasts 3,000 square feet of dance space on a thrice-sanded sprung wooden floor.

Hallie, too, looks to the future when she says, "Swing in its current phase is a fad." But, she adds, "There will always be dancers." Though swing is her primary focus, she also routinely books salsa, zydeco, and tango bands. Asked about her mission for the Century, Hallie is characteristically blunt: "To be the best social dance club in the world."

This sort of energy and vision, combined with the devotion of legions of avid dancers, must beg the question: Why swing? And why now? Ask around, and several powerful themes emerge. It's social. It's sensuous. It's...well, fun. "I see people walk in happy, and walk out happier," states Hallie. To hear Frankie tell it, "I've never seen a Lindy Hopper who wasn't smiling. It's a happy dance. It makes you feel good." Perhaps the student quoted in Living Traditions' latest newsletter said it best: "My god, if only more people danced, there would be no need for Prozac."

Swing is a very accessible partner dance form, says Walter Dill. He explains it's "like a swinging door," meaning six-count swing is most often what gets people into classes, after which they graduate to Lindy Hop, a more vigorous form of eight-count swing, or Waltz, Foxtrot, Salsa, or Zydeco, to name just a few of the dance forms regaining popularity. Moving from swing, each of these dances gets progressively closer, more intimate. This non-threatening closeness, in a society unused to and seemingly starved for human touch, is a primary reason many people state for dancing.

Frankie relates a story illustrating our reluctance to trust one another's touch. In a beginner dance class, he noticed people were attempting to dance by barely touching, or not touching at all. He recounts, "I say, look now, you have to put your arms around this young lady!" Frankie laughs. "I had to stop the class and ask 'Ladies, do you mind if this fella touches you for a little while?' And they all say 'No.' And I say, 'See fellas? Go ahead!'"

"What makes this dance so wonderful," Frankie continues, "and what makes the resurgence so wonderful, is that I feel like it's bringing people together."

However, these answers leave out perhaps the most important ingredient of all: the music! Says Hallie, "The essence of the dance is from the music." And many times during the recent weekend workshop, Frankie would encourage the class to "Listen to the music. It will tell you what to do next." He'd then proceed to demonstrate, moving in so gracefully sublime a way that it was sometimes hard to tell where the music left off and he began. "The better the music, the better the dancers," Frankie insists.

What is the future of dance in Seattle? Walter is currently pursuing adapting an abandoned hangar at the north end of Magnuson Park to house a 21,000 square foot community dance space. And if the nearly five generations of accomplished dancers lining the Mercer Arena stage that night at the Swing Fling--aged 9, 22, 44, 66 and 85--are any indication, there will be plenty of people to dance with once you get there.

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chenille	Jan 02, 2003	nj
can i see movies of you swing


Hallie Brotherton	Jan 09, 2003	Thornville, Ohio 43076	Investigator
I was just surfing to see how many "Hallie's" there are out there and I found your website plus I love to dance (west coast swing) and have loved dancing since I was 6years old. Then I was a tap dancer with my brother. Now I have loved Country 2step, west coast swing, east coast swing and line dancing. I am 57 years old and was wishing we had a large dance nightclub close. Just a thought and nice reading about your place, Hallie. take care, Mr. Hallie Brotherton