For this flashback we wanted to feature one of the dancers who kept Lindy Hop alive through the 60s and 70s, Mama Lu Parks.

Louise Parks Duncanson worked as a hat check girl at the Savoy ballroom in the 1950s and soon became an accomplished lindy hopper. In 1955 she got a grant to teach square dancing to young people over the summer holidays. She got some of the other Savoy dancers to join her and taught jazz dance and lindy hop instead. The classes were a big hit and carried on every summer. Her students went on to compete and win the lindy hop competitions in the Harvest Moon Ball each year. Some say that Mama Lu Parks and her dancers were the reason the lindy hop continued to be a part of these competitions (until 1979 when it was replaced by the hustle).

In 1961 Mama Lu Parks started a professional dance company. Her dancers performed at Radio City Music Hall, and they went on a tour to eight countries in Africa funded by the US State Department. They performed all over Europe and were especially popular in Sweden and the UK. Though we don’t often hear about it, Mama Lu and her dancers probably played quite an important role, especially in Europe, in inspiring resurgence of interest in lindy hop that started in the 1980s. In addition to introducing a new generation of Europeans to the dance she also ran events in Harlem that gave the lindy hop community a place to come together after many of the ballrooms had closed down. When Ryan Francois and the Jiving Lindy Hoppers traveled to New York in the 80s to learn from the famous lindy hoppers from back in the day they first sought out Mama Lu Parks, whose workshops in London had led to the formation of their group. She introduced them to some of the old timers and this was really the start of lindy hop in the UK.

‘The Stew’ routine is associated with Mama Lu Parks because her dance company used it as a performance piece. That’s why it’s often referred to as ‘Mama’s Stew’


Further reading
There isn’t a lot written about Mama Lu Parks Terry Monaghan’s blog piece  is the best source of information I found.