In this compact, vivid hybrid, Govenar transforms his taped and transcribed interviews with dancer Norma Miller into her account of life as a globe-traveling Lindy Hopper in the 1930s and ’40s. Young Norma danced the Charleston at her widowed mother’s 1920s rent parties, peeked into Harlem’s hopping theatres and clubs and entered every possible amateur night. Her determined apprenticeship and eight decade (and counting) career spanned the jazz and swing eras, took her to Europe and Rio and led to comedy, choreography, TV and film. Govenar captures both Miller’s remarkable experiences (including incidents of racism on the road) and her sparkling evocation of American music and dance when swing was king. French’s pictures pull out all the stops: bold, gestural strokes, chiaroscuro, canted perspective and art deco elements rekindle the era’s excitement. Lacking documentation beyond Govenar’s brief introduction, this begs to be paired with recorded music and film footage of the period. (Nonfiction. 9-13)
