Birthday time

Spoiler Alert! The answers to the test from my last post are at the bottom, in case you still want to do that test.

February tends to be my least favorite month, tying in place with August. It's short and always seems dark to me, being in the midst of winter. But it does have two things going for it, Valentines Day (I consider all months Black History Months, so that doesn't count for me) and it has a lot of tap dancers with birthdays. Here is a list of those I know about. If I missed any other February tappers, let me know. You can click on any of these names to see a link of them in action (some with other dancers!).

Feb. 2  - Jane Goldberg
Feb. 4  - Michael "Toes" Tiranoff
Feb. 7  - Leon Collins (1922-1985)
Feb. 11 - Charles "Cookie" Cook (1914-1991)                    

Feb. 12 - Megan Haungs

               Leslie "Bubba" Gaines (1917-1997)
Feb. 14 - Gregory Hines (1946 - 2003)
Feb. 19 - John Bubbles (1902-1986)
Feb. 23 - Baby Laurence (1921-1974)
Feb. 24 - Sarah Petronio
Feb. 26 - Bunny Briggs (1922-2014)

As you can see from above, today is the birthday of Leon Collins, but it is also
the birthday of a non tap dancer, Eubie Blake (1887-1983). I want to mention this great composer because there is a connection between him and tap. Two years ago a play all too briefly ran on Broadway about a famous musical that he and others put together. It was called, Shuffle Along, Or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, and was created/directed by George C. Wolfe. Savion Glover did the choreography and created some great tap numbers for a chorus of dancers and the other actors in the show. One of Savion's mentors was Gregory Hines, whose birthday is one week away.  Gregory's sort of reentry into performing, after a hiatus when the act with his brother ended, was in the Broadway show, Eubie, from the late 1970s. That show celebrated the music of Mr. Blake and was where Gregory and his Brother Maurice danced together again. Also, there is a short film from 1932 featuring Nina Mae McKinney called, Pie, Pie Blackbird, that has Eubie Blake and his orchestra playing while the Nicholas Brothers dance. So, there're the connections! Below is a 1979 clip from Saturday Night Live with Eubie, at 92, and Gregory. You can also click on that film title above to watch McKinney, a young Eubie and really young Nicholas Brothers. Enjoy!

Answers for the last post test: #1 Lon Chaney, #2 Ayodele Casel, #3 Chuck Green, #4 Brenda Bufalino, #5 Jimmy Slyde, #6 Dianne Walker, #7 Steve Condos