By Kevin Lee Associate Editor

Summer is typically the slow season locally but not in 2007. So much is afoot, it won’t all fit into the Art Gallery, so we’ll take this opportunity to elaborate on a couple of points.

There will be plenty of feet flying and gliding around downtown Mobile as the National Dance Education Organization’s 10th annual conference begins the third week of June. The conference draws local, regional and national dance communities together with a variety of genres and culminates in “Hope: A Dance Project” on Friday, June 22 at the Saenger Theatre.

The show begins at 7:30 p.m. and includes among its performers Claire Porter, Moving Miracles, Curtis Pierre, the New Orleans Ballet Association, Moonlight Chasse, a troupe from Mount Hebron Baptist Church, dancers from LeFlore High School and Alabama Contemporary Dance.

The event is supported by the Alabama State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Sybil H. Smith Charitable Trust.

The highlight of the week is undoubtedly the presence of American dance legend Frankie Manning. A veteran of the historic Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, Manning is credited with bringing aerial steps to the Lindy-Hop, a particularly athletic and frenetic variation of swing dancing that blazed across the globe and enjoyed a widespread rebirth in the Neo-Swing movement of the last decades. His mid-century leadership of the troupe Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers took him around the world and onto Hollywood sound stages.

The renown hoofer has earned a Tony Award, was a star of Ken Burns’ 2001 documentary Jazz and has been enshrined alongside luminaries such as Fred Astaire. He saw the publication of an autobiography earlier this year.

Manning turned 93 on May 26 and to describe him as “spry” is to call the Taj Mahal merely “nice.” Not every senior citizen celebrates birthdays by dancing with numbers of women corresponding to his age, 80 partners on his 80th and so on.

He teaches an intensive clinic to 35 teachers on the morning of Wed., June 20 and a three-hour workshop for constructing dance lessons based on the Harlem Renaissance that afternoon.

Manning conducts a Swing clinic on Thurs., June 21 at the Riverview Renaissance Hotel. The beginners class runs from 6:30 – 8 p.m., the intermediate class from 8-9:30. Pre-registration is recommended.

On Friday, Manning teaches two Shim Sham Shimmy master classes and then it’s on to the Saenger to perform in the evening showcase with the dance community.

Call Alabama Contemporary Dance at 432-6706 for more information on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn from the best and witness living American history.

On another front, a long range and widespread prospect for the Azalea City presents itself.

For the better part of three decades, Minnesota native Garrison Keillor has entertained public radio listeners with his contemporary slant on classic radio variety shows in “A Prairie Home Companion.” The weekly program features a homespun assortment of comedy sketches and musical interludes.

The flavor of the two-hour show is folksy and appeals to nostalgia for an idyllic America that never existed in the purity many wish it had. Nowhere else is this embodied more than in Keillor’s storytelling interludes featuring the imaginary hamlet of Lake Wobegon, “where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking and all the children are above average.” Most prominently, the segments highlight Keillor’s plentiful gifts as a writer, an observer of American culture and our shared humanity.

The show, typically broadcast from St. Paul, Minn., often goes on the road and this past April they visited a theater in Columbus, Ga. The episode was replete in all manners of Southern culture with none of the condescension many expect from extra-regional media.

While listening, a thought sparked in the Artifice noggin, “If Columbus, why not Mobile?” Nothing against the middle Georgia town, but the Azalea City has a culture many times more rich and the environs to easily overwhelm visitors.

Now that WHIL is finally a “Prairie Home” subscriber and the Saenger Theatre has been restored to magnificence, opportunity awaits.

Imagine the Keillor crew leaving the icy climes of early April Minnesota and arriving in sunny Mobile where block after block of historic houses are awash in azalea and dogwood blooms, where they can depart the opulent trappings of the Battle House and journey to the bay or soak in our Mardi Gras history or tour Church Street Graveyard or fill their stomachs on our renown repast. We certainly have a wealth of the literary and musical talent Keillor loves to feature on his shows.

“Prairie Home Companion” is aired on 500 stations each week and around the world on Armed Forces Radio. Listener estimates number near 4 million. That’s a lot of free advertising for a city reaching a recent zenith.

Artifice sent the idea to Saenger managers Centre for the Living Arts and to WHIL. No response was heard from CLA but WHIL answered, is actively courting Keillor and strongly encourages Mobilians to visit www.prairiehome.org and e-mail their enthusiasm for such a visit. Artifice agrees.

If luck is where opportunity meets preparation, then we can all play a vital role in keeping our recent streak of fortune alive.

Kevin Lee is Lagniappe associate editor. Contact him at klee@lagniappemobile.com.

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