Our beloved teacher, mentor, friend, choreographer, community leader, elder, and all around super-mensch Frank Shawl passed on last month.

Frank was an important person for so many of us. He played a number of very important roles in the founding and sustaining of Dandelion Dancetheater. We are forever grateful.

FROM CO-DIRECTOR ERIC KUPERS: “Personally, Frank has been one of the clearest role models I have for how to live a joy-and-love-filled life as a dancer, a teacher, a friend, an elder, a leader, and a man. He embodied so much of what I aspire to, and I feel extremely blessed to have had him in my life.

The day after he passed, I had the thought that it would be nice to write a song for Frank. Within seconds, a song came through, pretty much fully formed. In our Bandelion rehearsal that week, I introduced the song, Keith Penney made some refinements, and we created a score for performing it.

This score is meant to be used by anyone to honour Frank, and/or other great beings who inspire us deeply. You can sing the song and do the dance by yourself, with a friend, in a community, as part of a memorial, in a flash mob, or however feels appropriate.

Frank’s Love – The Score:

1. Think about/Feel about/Remember Frank Shawl and how he impacted you.

2. On one side of the space, sing the song (ideally facing another person*)

3. Then during the instrumental break**, dance through the center lane to the other side of the room.

4. If there are others with you, they do this same set of steps, and then rejoin the line.

5. Repeat and cycle through the score as many times as you like.

* We intend this score to be done with other people, and to have a chance to face a fellow Frank Shawl appreciator as you sing, speak, whisper, and/or shout the lyrics. And then to get to dance together. You can decide if you want to both sing/speak together, or to take turns and do it as questions to each other.

** We hope you could do this with some live musicians. Ask your friends to come over and celebrate with you! In lieu of that, it’s fine to do this acapella, to hum along, to whistle, or to use a recorded backing track (which we’re working on creating.)

Chords and Lyrics to “Frank’s Love” are below. If you have any questions or need help creating a customized celebration of Frank using this song and dance, contact Eric at eric.kupers@csueastbay.edu

Thanks to my Bandelion collaborators on this effort: Dawn Holtan, Frances Sedayao, Keith Penney, Amy Marie, Reese Johnson, Deborah Trudell, Nils Jorgensen, and of course, Frank. Aren’t we lucky?! Frank’s Love – by Eric Kupers and Bandelion

G

How ya doin’? I’m doin’

G

How ya doin’? I’m doin’

G G7

How ya doin’? I’m doin’ great.

C G

Isn’t it a joy? Aren’t we lucky?

Am D7 C

Isn’t it a joy? Aren’t we lucky?