And the next part of our interview with Nina Gilkenson. We have an interesting talk juxtaposing her fear of competing with her role as co-director of the biggest Lindy Hop competition in the world. Then we move on to what makes her tick creatively and why Baltimore is the perfect place for such a person.
Here is the long awaited interview with the lovely and lascivious Nina Gilkenson. Or at least the first part. Theoretically, if you follow this blog, you may already know who she is, but if you don't, this is a good way to get to know this self described "forth grade drop out."
On behalf of Laurie and Nina I’d like to thank everyone who came out for the Big Big Benefit this weekend. It was great to so many people out along with so many different groups working together to help one of their own. In particular I’d like to thank the following people: At the top of the list is the Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture for all their support. People who work for the park were some of the first to come to Laurie’s side when she was first admitted into the hospital, and they were super helpful all weekend. Donna Barker especially worked very hard to facilitate everything and even poured in a lot of time to put together the the puppetry performance CD’s.
Following up on my post about Laurie Gilkenson a couple of weeks ago. I visited her in the hospital last weekend and she's doing much better and may be moved out and into rehab soon. On behalf of Nina and her father, I'd like to thank everyone for their kind words and donations. If you haven't seen it already, we'll be having a benefit for Laurie. It's a little overwhelming to see so many people generously donating their time for this.
What else is there to say? This is from Frankie's 88th Birthday Celebration in 2002.
My favorite DC memory of him where he took us to school. In the midst of an improvised Big Apple during a jam, he jumps up out of his chair from the sidelines, stops the presses and shows the kids how its done.
And my favorite "new" video of him with his son Chazz Young. I don't get tired of watching this.
Learn more about him at his official website: www.FrankieManning.com
I hope everyone is having a great holiday. I'm off to Lindy Focus in Asheville, NC tomorrow with a sizable DC contingent. You'll recognize us when we roll in with the giant DC flags tied in between the cars in our convoy ;) I recently realized that this will be the first event that I haven't worked or DJ'd in over 4 years, so I'm really looking forward to it. I'm tentatively planning on updating from the event since I'm just down there for the evening dances. Until I post something, hopefully these videos will tide you over. This first video from the Korean Lindy Revolution 2009 by way of YouTube user hiyama80, was reposted recently on the YouTubes, so I thought I'd post it here too.
I like Nina Gilkenson. I think that should be a shirt.
You may have heard that she’s a good dancer. That rumor, like all others, is absolutely true.
You may have even heard that she belly dances. There is actual video evidence of that. Here is a clip of Nina and Naomi’s (I like her too) belly dancing debut in the Cabaret division at ALHC 2002.
Lindy Hoppers occasionally make some questionable choices to get their names out. Most of them fall under the heading of mildly amusing, but I’m not here to mock people . . . or at least not today.
