Frankie Centennial Dance Jam

Frankie Manning Centennial Savoy Ball Dance Jam, 2014
38″ x 19″, pigment ink print and acrylic on canvas

This collage is based on imagery I captured during the Frankie Centennial celebrations in New York City which celebrated the 100th birthday of my original Lindy Hop dance teacher, Frankie Manning. To learn more about Frankie I recommend viewing the wonderful video documentary Frankie Manning: Never Stop Swinging, produced and directed by Julie Cohen. The two dancers featured in the center of this artwork are professional dancers, teachers and performers Evita Arce and Paolo Pasta Lanna. The moment captured and portrayed in this artwork was during a dance ‘jam’ at the event titled Frankie’s Centennial Savoy Ball at the beautiful Edison Ballroom. This event was produced by Alan Sugarman, completely independently from, and not to be confused with, the Frankie Manning Centennial & World Lindy Hop Day events, from which some of the other source imagery in my collage comes from.

I started this artwork during my Painter Live! presentation in London and continued working on it for a further few weeks.

If you’re interested to see other related artworks, please visit my portraits of Frankie, Chazz, Dawn and Norma, plus my Happy Feet, Happy Paint performance video.