Today I woke up from a text telling me that Frankie Manning had passed away. His 95th birthday celebration was next month and was going to be celebrated by dancers from around the world coming and dancing with him.

I can’t tell you how great of an impact this is on the swing world. My feeds are littered with personal and professional stories about Frankie, he has touched thousands and thousands of Lindy Hoppers around the world and will continue to do so for as long as Swing is alive.

I did not personally know him that well, though I did meet him and did take lessons from him. A great, great man. I really wish I had more time with him…

I’ve posted a few links that will help show a sliver of who he was.

Lindy Hop great Frankie Manning dies at 94

This is just a few, I really suggest reading up on him. He was the first man to ever do a swing aerial (which swing is now renowned for), went into retirement for 30 years, then came back to teach.  I truly hope some flags fly half mast for him.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 2:10 pm and is filed under Lindy Exchange, Swing Dancing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.