Norma Miller was a dancer and choreographer. She grew up right next to the Savoy Ballroom and competed in her first dance competition there when she was only 12 years old. As the story goes, Lindy Hopper, ‘Twist Mouth’ George saw her imitating moves outside the club asked her to be his partner in a competition that night. Two years later she won the Savoy Lindy Hop Contest at the Apollo with a different partner and she was invited to join Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers. She became the youngest member of the group at only 15 and went on to tour the world and dance in several Hollywood films (she’s the one in the chef’s hat in Hellzapoppin)

One of the things Ms Miller is most known for is keeping Lindy Hop and Vernacular Jazz dance alive through the 60s and 70s. In 1952 she started her own group The Norma Miller Dancers and later formed Norma Miller and her Jazzmen. With these groups she toured all over the US and Australia with Count Basie, the Cotton Club Show, and Cab Calloway. In the 1970s she started another group called the Savoy Swingers. In addition to being a dancer and choreographer she also made a name for herself as a singer and a comedian in the 70s and 80s. A lifelong friend of Frankie Manning, Norma Miller eventually became a regular honoured guest at Herrang Dance Camp and other Lindy Hop events. She passed away in 2019 at 99.

Resources for further research:

Norma’s website: Queen of Swing 

Swingin’ at the Savoy: The Memoir of a Jazz Dancer by Norma Miller and Evette Jensen

Visionary Project interviews with Norma Miller