Back in Town Dancer

I thank Calvin again. I can see the entire enchilada now and I can get back to see how I can make it an independent blog, without me permanently. A few people seem interested but since they don't really know, they are afraid of the commitment which actually there is but not much to it.

"If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one:. ~Mother Teresa

Another part of an interview with Frankie Manning:

When did the teaching part of your career begin?

That didn’t start until in the ‘80’s! Actually, I didn’t do teaching the way that it’s done now. But I guess I started teaching as soon as I started dancing. I would get out on the floor and I’d do something, and if I thought it was good I would call somebody over and say, "Hey, come over here. Can you do this?" But it wasn’t like you were going to do 1, 2... we didn’t know anything about counting or anything like that, we just listened to the music and we would say, "Hey, look, this step fits the music, let’s do this step."

I would show it to this particular person, they would learn it, somebody else would learn it, they would teach it to somebody else, then they taught it to somebody else, and that’s the way the steps got spread around. So everybody would learn it. One person would show another person, I don’t say teach, they would show them and that was the way we all learned how to dance... by watching what other people did.

"Take The A Train" by Duke Ellington

One you started teaching; did you enjoy the teaching aspect of it more or the performing?

When I first started teaching, I enjoyed that very much. It was kind of... it was educational for me, plus it was comical and humorous because I was used to showing somebody a step and they would get it almost... When I started teaching, people started asking, "What count is that?" And I would think, "What count? I don’t know what count that is!" I’d say, "I don’t know what count it is. I’ll tell you what, I’ll do the step and you count!" So I would do the step and they’d count and they’d say, "Oh it’s on count...." I’d say, "Yeh, okay, that’s what it is!" I’ve been teaching now for a long time and I’m still learning.

Pub's Side Note. People still learn on how the music moves them. The other method that is taught is a different thing, not wrong, just different. And what is this about a Night Club with a built in Dance Studio in Honolulu? Or a Dance Studio with a built in Night Club? And the new Blog, Oahu -West.