by Robert White

We’d like to welcome Bobby White to the Lindybloggers.com writing staff.  Stay tuned for more contributors in the weeks to come.

Author’s Note: Whitey’s Lindy Hopper Al Minns is not often talked about as much these days as much as his mentor, Frankie Manning, or his peer and performance partner Leon James. This essay was composed for the Jam Cellar Almanac as a way to remember Al Minns, and explore why he deserves to be remembered.

First, a little history; and sadly, that’s all we have about Al Minns—a little.*

He was born Jan. 1 in 1920 and died in 1985. As one of the youngest dancers in the Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, he quickly excelled to the top team, headed by Frankie Manning. He wasn’t, however, one of the first four leads asked to do the famous choreography for the film “Hellzapoppin.” When one of the couples repeatedly blew off practices, Frankie replaced them with Al Minns and Willa Mae Ricker. Let’s watch it: (Al and Willa Mae are the third couple).

At one point, Frankie Manning realized that Al’s unique strength as a dancer was his long legs. According to Frankie’s autobiography, he helped Al develop his jam for “Hellzapoppin,” which, as you can see, is completely geared towards showing off Al Minn’s legs and the powerful lines he makes. His costume, the high-wasted waiter coat, was chosen to elongate his legs even more.

What’s equally impressive is that Al’s technique. He and Frankie are obviously the most sophisticated leaders in the choreography, but whereas Frankie’s movements seem to have a lot of muscle behind them, Al appears to use his body more, giving him a relaxed (for 310+ bpm) look that allows him time to show off his lines.

If you’d like to see the Hellzapoppin routine as it would have been danced to at a slightly slower tempo, check out the clip Hot Chocolates (AKA Cottontail)

(A special note: Check out Al Minns’s head-bob at the beginning. He’s the one with the collar that goes to his abs.)

World War II more or less stopped the professional career of most of the Whitey’s. They still continued social dancing at the Savoy, however, and Al, Leon, Frankie and others were filmed for The Spirit Moves, an independent film that chronicled hours of jazz dance at the Savoy. There’s a lot of great Al Minns dancing in it, including great clips of the Tranky Doo, Al and Leon’s Shim Sham, and some blues jams that are incredible. Here’s a little sample of Al Minn’s Tranky Doo in it:

The next we hear of Al, it’s the 1960s, and he’s teamed up with his good friend and fellow Whitey’s Lindy Hopper Leon James to help historian Marshall Stearns, an extremely white guy with a pretty wicked pencil-mustache who’s researching Jazz dance for a book he’s writing. Being pranksters, they make up a bunch of stories about gangs and fights among the Savoy dancers, which Stearns recorded and published as bible writ, probably thinking that gang warfare could only help sales.

Little did Al and Leon know that Stearns’s book would become the definitive word on jazz dance history, and would be almost impossible to correct. To this day, Frankie Manning and others have written passionate letters to the book’s publisher to have these facts corrected for future printings, to no effect. (It should also be noted that in Stearns’s book, Al and Leon took credit for a lot of the deeds that most sources attribute to Frankie Manning—including the invention of the first air steps. However, in reading the passages, it is my opinion that the claims were made more out of ignorance than malice.)

Anyway, Al and Leon went on tours with Marshall Stearns — did the daytime talk show route, as it were — and we’re lucky enough to have several of their demonstrations on film. The best example I can think of is from a failed television talk show produced by Playboy—which was basically all the articles of Playboy with none of the focus on gynecology (I wonder why it failed).

In a sea of comically 60’s pipe-smoking crusty-whiteness and bunny cocktail waitresses, the two out-of-place men from Harlem perform some of the finest solo jazz dancing on film as they take viewers on a tour of jazz dance history from the Charleston to the Bee-bop era:

(In tracking down the clip on you tube, I found only this over-dubbed project from Peter Loggins, which is meant to demonstrate how little has changed about the spirit of African-American-based dance since the 30s. So that’s why the music is modern.)

What makes this so incredible? The original Lindy Hoppers in their younger years tended to pull off energy really well, and in their older years, subtlety. At this stage in their dancing, Al and Leon are middle-aged and seem to have the best of both worlds; they are clearly energetic and silly, but every motion is full of years of experience and refinement. When you watch them dance, Leon is easy to pin right away. The attention-grabbing hands, the exaggerated facial expression, the lazy movements. Al Minns, however, has nothing that sticks out more than anything else—he’s a full-body dancer who covers all the bases. Just as a really-solid, good swing-out is a work of dance art, so is almost every step that Al Minns does in this presentation.

Almost every Lindy Hopper today knows that Frankie Manning was “rediscovered” in the 80s after years of retirement and started teaching Lindy again. What most dancers don’t know is that Al Minns was rediscovered around the same time as Frankie Manning, and in 1984 was teaching the Swedish Lindy Hop scene everything he remembered about performance and social Lindy Hop. Until that point, the Swedes only had a few clips to break down. He’s part of the reason the Swedish dancers became so good at Whitey’s-styled performances. (For a look at a modern dancer inspired by Al Minns style, check out Swedish dancer David Dalmo in the Rhythym Hot Shots “Can’t Top The Lindy Hop” performance. He’s in the black pants, puffy shirt and baggy hat.)

To conclude this essay, there’s nothing better than listening to the man himself. Here’s an interview Al did for Swedish television around that time:

And another…

And, yet another interview, including footage from the Spirit Moves:

There are many clips of Al Minns dancing, most of which are from the Marshall Stearns television show tours or The Spirit Moves (He’s on the left side in the plaid shirt on the Tranky Doo Spirit Moves clip). Also, there are clips of him dancing and teaching the Swedes in the 1980s, in one of which he wears a shirt that says “Americans like beer.” These are probably easily gotten from five or six swing clip collectors in the country, assuming they are dead and it can be pried from their rigamortised hands.

Al Minns. Enjoy some today.

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