Frankie's 95th Birthday Festival
There was to be a big Lindy festival in New York from the 21st to the 25th May for Frankie's 95th birthday.
It's now even bigger to honour Frankie and all he gave.
Workshops, lessons, competitions, showcases and some of the best live bands.
So, is anyone going?
Just a tad too far for me....
Hmmmm, I had never considered going. Too far, too much of a beginner etc. However, thanks to the misfortune of someone who's now going to need surgery on their knee, I got a ticket!
I'm not normally this impulsive, but it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. Now I feel a strange combination of excitement and terror.
Well I've finally recovered enough to tell the story...
I won't mention the flights (I'm drafting my complaint letters at the mo ).
Arrived at JFK and booked into the hotel. The Marcel at Gramercy, nice little hotel, very clean and tidy and the staff couldn't be more attentive.
Booked into the event, collected my programme and T-shirt and went for a walk to see some of the sights.
I turned up to the Thursday evening dance and was thoroughly overwhelmed! The Grand Ballroom was enormous, with 4 tiers of balconies. I only had a few dances. Put it down to shyness or intimidation, but I hung around and enjoyed the bands and performances anyway.
Friday was the memorial service. I had a lie in and missed the service, I decided to let people that actually knew him have a better chance of getting a seat.
I got to the church just in time for a New Orleans style 'second-line' parade/dance to Central Park. Wierd and a little bit daft, but fun.
The band led us to the bandshell in central park and carried on playing. I had some lovely dances and hung around for the world's biggest Shim-Sham. That went well and I was grabbed for the partnered bit of the Shim-Sham by a woman who turned out to be from London!
The Saturday night dance was better, mostly because I started asking more people to dance.
The workshops over the weekend were very high standard (apart from one, which seemed a little pointless, but 9 out of 10 is pretty good).
My favourites were Chazz Young's Lindy Hop and Tap workshops.
My favourite band of the festival was Jonathan Stout and his Campus 5. As well as being the best, Jonathan and Hilary Alexander jumped off the stage and joined in an impromtu Lindy jam!
My feet are still a mess or sores and blisters, but my legs have about recovered.
A fantastic experience and well worth doing. I only hope they do it every year as a memorial. Next time, maybe I can plan it in advance and take a certain special someone with me.
Glad you had a good time. Still insanely jealous Out of curiousity what was the 'pointless' workshop about, and who was teaching it?
Campus 5 are awesome - and I'm sure that one of the reason's they're so great to dance to is that Jonathan Stout is such a great dancer (as is Hilary Alexander). That has to make a difference...
I'm with you in hoping they continue it as an annual event. And I'm sure Frankie would have been the first to agree.
Wasn't me filming.
I'd say that there were probably 40% African-origin people and 60% the rest (which includes a large proportion of Asian and South American-origin people), but that's just based on how people looked. Is there any reason for that observation?
That would be people who'd entered the world's biggest Jack n Jill competition.
That would be the "ninja-style" Lindy. Taught by a couple from the "Ninjammers" (sorry, can't remember their names - French I think?). It just seemed to me that they didn't have a plan for the workshop, they just taught how they do it until they ran out of time and didn't really conclude the workshop in any way. Just my opinion, of course.
They did mention that if it wasn't for Frankie, they probably wouldn't even have a band now, because it was him that influenced them to become dancers before they even considered getting a band together.
It probably won't ever be as big again, but I'm sure it'll be worth it every time.
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