Al Minns (1 January 1920 – 24 April 1985), was a prominent American

Lindy Hop The Lindy Hop is an American dance which was born in the Black communities of Harlem, New York City, in 1928 and has evolved since then. It was very popular during the swing era of the late 1930s and early 1940s. Lindy is a fusion of many danc ...

and

jazz dance Jazz dance is a performance dance and style that arose in the United States in the mid 20th century. Jazz dance may allude to vernacular jazz about to Broadway or dramatic jazz. The two types expand on African American vernacular styles of dance ...

r. Most famous for his film and stage performances in the 1930s and 1940s with the

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

-based

Whitey's Lindy Hoppers Whitey's Lindy Hoppers was a professional performing group of exceptional swing dancers that was first organized in the late 1920s by Herbert "Whitey" White in the Savoy Ballroom and disbanded in 1942 after its male members were drafted into World ...

, Minns worked throughout his life to promote the dances that he and his cohorts helped to pioneer at New York's

Savoy Ballroom The Savoy Ballroom was a large ballroom for music and public dancing located at 596 Lenox Avenue, between 140th and 141st Streets in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Lenox Avenue was the main thoroughfare through upper Harle ...

. Minns also played a part in the revival of Lindy Hop in the 1980s, when he was invited to

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

in 1984 by

The Rhythm Hot Shots The Hot Shots is a collective name for two closely related Swedish dance companies based in Stockholm, Sweden: The Rhythm Hot Shots and the Harlem Hot Shots. The Hot Shots specialize in faithful reproductions of African-American dance scenes in A ...

dance company to teach the dance the way he knew it. The group had until then mainly used old film clips as a source for their interpretation of Lindy Hop. In 1938, Al Minns and Sandra Gibson (see Mildred Pollard) won the Harvest Moon Ball.

Filmography

* '' Hellzapoppin''' (

1941 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January–August – 10,072 men, women and children with mental and physical disabilities are asphyxiated with carbon monoxide in a gas chamber, at Hadamar Eu ...

) * ''

Hot Chocolates ''Hot Chocolates'' is a musical revue with music by Fats Waller and Harry Brooks and book by Andy Razaf. It was originally titled ''Tan Town Topics'' in hopes it would be picked up by Broadway. Performed at the Hudson Theater in New York City, i ...

'' (

) * '' The Spirit Moves'' (

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 cr ...

) *
Jazz Dance
' (

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

)

External links

Streetswing.com
American male dancers Lindy Hop 1920 births 1985 deaths 20th-century American dancers {{US-entertainer-stub

Filmography

See also

External links