The American Diaspora of Street Dance
Conversations with the late, great Fankie Manning (The King of Swing)
Hello fellow dancers, you have arrived at my blog called “Art vs. Oppression,” or A.V.O. for short. I chose to use the name of one of my previous articles, due to its significance to what I feel birthed this union of art forms we call “Hip Hop” and it represents the ideals I personally stand for. Welcome to the first installment of my blog!
I would like to begin my writings with a topic that’s dear to me, of a gentleman named Frankie Manning that unfortunately passed a few years ago in 2009. He is known as the King of Swing because he is one of the greatest inventors and innovators of Lindy Hop. At the time of our meeting, the year was 2007 (a couple years before his death) and Frankie was 92 years old. I had been hired to take part of a performance and panel discussion, in which I was asked to speak on modern Street Dance. Frankie was doing a presentation with this son that was twenty years younger, which made him 72 at the time. We were attending a panel at the University of Central Florida to make a comparison of the phenomena that occurred in the 30’s-40’s with the origins of original Jazz dancing (Lindy Hop aka Swing & Hoofing aka Tap) with what occurred in the 70’s-80’s with Breaking, Popping and Locking (aka Break Dancing.)
The cipher goes back
After the panel, we had some time to chat and I had the blessed opportunity of being able to pick his brain. When Frankie spoke, he took me into the past, to a relentless time in US history, Depression era Harlem. Frankie grew up in the harsh streets of New York City. He talked to me about the glorious, magnificent clubs like “The Palladium”, or the famous “Cotton Club” and the smaller dancehalls in Harlem. Frankie spoke on many topics, the politics, the racism, and how hard it was being a poor kid coming up in such a rough time in history. Then he opened up a dialogue with me and talked about how many similarities there are in our cultures. After hearing me speak, he told me “we had circles too.” They happened naturally when one couple was on fire. The crowd would open up space so they could have room to show off, the phenomena had always happened. When Tap dancers invaded the floor, circles would naturally occur, especially if two dancers began competing against one another, or as we like to call: “battling.” So the circle or cipher is nothing new, the cipher goes back!
Big bands were mixing songs
I had talked briefly on how disc jockeys at the beginning of our movement would “mix” records and that reminded Frankie of the big bands in his time. See, as the energy of the club would swell to a fever pitch, the band that had been playing for hours would need a break, or retire for the night. In order to not stop the music and the action, to keep the dancers going, the band that had been setting up to replace the band that was retiring for the night would begin playing the same song the retiring band was playing. Then the one band would fade out and leave the fresh musicians playing, and they were free to pack up and leave, similar to the way two records could be mixed. Sometimes bands would play different songs that had complimenting notes, at the exact same tempo, and the two bands mixed in and out of each other live, never missing a beat. I found this similarity fascinating. Before disc jockeys were mixing records, big bands were mixing songs.
Eternally linked by cool
As a Popper, it was part of my culture to dress dapper. I remember I had worn a pin stripe suit for my Popping and Locking presentation, and when we met Frankie said: “Man, you look like you’re from my era!” I explained that the suit-wearing was a throwback. Many early Popping groups favored the zoot suits due to our dance’s link to gang culture, and the “OG” fashion of dressing up like mobsters. He said everything I was wearing was from his time. From the wingtip shoes, to the pinstripe suit and fedora, our modern Popping fashions were linked to the original fashions belonging to Frankie’s eras of dance. So we are eternally linked by cool!
There were haters back then too
Another comparison is how competitive our cultures were. He said “battling” was big in the Lindy Hop and Hoofing eras of New York. They used to seek each other out, looking to topple each other in fantastic displays of athleticism, speed a grace. It wasn’t always pretty as the time was ripe with hate and violence. Which meant that if you beat the wrong dancer, or couple…if you embarrassed the wrong person and you were in “their” turf, they would catch up with you on your way home and there would be hell to pay. I replied, “Yes sir, same in our time…haha!” There were haters back then too!
In short, Frankie told me that Lindy and Hoofing were not created in a studio, they were created on the streets, alleyways, in the nightclubs and dancehalls, very much like Breaking, Popping and Locking. So when we speak of the American diaspora of Street Dance, we should not just start and end with modern phenomena. We should include the true beginnings of Street Dance (not Hip Hop culture) and speak of the dances of Frankie’s era. And even though the art forms are decades and worlds apart, there will always be stark similarities to our cultures. But most importantly, he spoke about how “Hollywood” stole his art form, the same way they stole ours, renamed it and repackaged it for America to be able to swallow it. They exploited Lindy and Hoofing, renamed it Swing and Tap, then they made countless pictures, made lots of money that the originators never saw, until the next great wave of popular dance culture came and washed it away. When it fell out of the popular culture and out of the limelight, Hoofing and Lindy was then left only for the true enthusiast to survive. Pretty much what has happened, and will happen again, to our cultures.
So if we want to observe the future of our cultures, all we have to do is observe theirs, and realize that we are all the same. These were American art forms that came from the poor, doing the best with whatever talents they had. Very much the way Hip Hop was birthed. Art versus Oppression.
God Bless y’all. I hoped you enjoy this read. Feel free to share this page and come back next month to see what else I got brewing. One love!
Written by: Otto (Aquaboogy) Vazquez
Check out the clip below, a famous 1941 scene from "Hellzapoppin" - Lindy Hop at it's finest! R.I.P. Frankie Manning.
Frankie Manning swinging his partner around the back.