Connections and Influences

I went to high school, DeWitt Clinton, with a fellow Bronxite whom you may not know by name but, if you listen to a lot of music, have probably heard often. His name is Jerry Jemmott and he is a bass player who, after being discovered by King Curtis, has worked with everyone from Aretha Franklin to the Allman Brothers and has been known as "The Groovemaster". What I didn't know, until recently, is that he started out, at the age of five, as a tap dancer with Mary Bruce's Star Buds in Harlem! It's always interesting to me to find out about a creative artist's background to see what influenced their work, either as something they did as a child or what shifts they make in their careers. I always encourage young tap dancers to study stuff other than tap to enrich what's in their bodies, minds and souls, that will in turn enhance what they do on stage. There are many tap dancer who do have a rich background. One tapper I know did flamenco before getting into tap and another I know went from tap to flamenco! Others came to tap from other dance forms, some are also musicians and some are actors. Two online events last week had me reflecting on my own jambalaya of artistic/creative experiences that inform what it is that I do.

On Friday, I watched Bill Irwin do an online version of On Beckett, his exploration of the work of Samuel Beckett, recorded at the Irish Repertory Theater, where he did it live in 2018. Okay, my connections to this. My base as a performer is mime, which I studied in the 1970s at HB Studios in the West Village. A group of us there at HB formed a mime company, Garden Variery Mime Theater, and performed around NYC in various and sundry situations. With the confidence I gained from that experience, I started trying other movement disciplines like, fencing, contact improvisation, modern dance, a tentative return to tap dance (which I had done as a youngster) and...clowning. After seeing Irwin's The Regard of Flight in 1983, I was inspired to do my own semi-solo clown show, Moving About, a year later at Eleo Pomare's (hold on to that name for later) Vital Arts Center in Chelsea. Someone (Jonah Salz) who saw it offered me a scholarship to participate in a summer program he was heading in Kyoto, Japan, which I attended and studied the comic Japanese theater form, Kyogen. One of the things I performed there was a Kyogen style

Act Without Words I - Kyoto, 1984

version of Beckett's mime piece, Act Without Words I. At this point in time, I was getting involved in the "downtown" NY dance scene, and wound up in Wexford, Ireland, a few years after my show. A choreographer friend of mine (Martha Bowers, who now heads Hook Arts Media) set up and ran a residency there for a few weeks, where she, I and another dancer performed and taught. I even created a James Brown dance number for Irish housewives! The day before seeing Irwin's online piece, I hung out with some friends in my neighborhood who often play fiddle music, much of which is Irish, on their porch and talked a bit with them about my Wexford adventure. So, seeing Irwin the next night just brought back a lot of stuff. Good stuff!

Now, when I came home last Thursday, after hanging with those friends on the porch, I watched the latest episode of a weekly YouTube series entitled, Black Dance Stories, that has been running since this past June. Each week the host, Charmaine Warren, introduces two Black dancers as her guests. Each dancer talks about their work/history, then the two talk with each other and then Charmaine jumps in for a three way conversation. It's great because I get to know about some dancers I'm unfamiliar with and also see dancers I know and some I've worked with, and there are dancers from all genres. Last week the guests were Maurice Chestnut and Dyane Harvey-Salaam. Maurice and I know each other from the world of tap. I'm not sure when I first saw him, but it must have been when he was with the NJ Tap Ensemble as a youngster. Even though he's in his 30s now, I think of him as "youngster". But Dyane I know of from way back! I first saw her in the 1970s when she danced with Eleo Pomare's (told you he'd pop up again) dance company. One of the works Eleo mounted on her was a solo entitled, Roots, which I remember knocked me out. The 70s was a time of dance explosion in New York City and I went to see a lot, and there were many Black dance companies making their mark. I had a Sony portapak, a portable video deck with camera, and shot some dance video then and even shot (if memory serves correct) some footage of Dyane in a loft rehearsal space belonging to choreographer, Ron Pratt, who was running the Alpha-Omega 1-7 Theatrical Dance Company. Dyane's husband, Abdel R. Salaam danced with that company and I think I shot some video of the company rehearsing with him in it. The couple founded and run Forces of Nature Dance Theatre Company and he now heads DanceAfrica at BAM. So, seeing two generations represented by Maurice and Dyane, that also represented two of my worlds of interest spoke to me. To add to this, a few moments ago I googled Maurice's name to check on when he was with NY Tap Ensemle and found out that at the age of five he was taught dance by Alfred Gallman who, in the 1970s, danced with Pepsi Bethel's dance company. I remember him because I studied with Pepsi and took photos and video of his company!  It's all too much sometimes...the connections.

I often perform solo, but I am never alone because all of the above, and more, is always right with me. 

Check out the links below for related material, and subscribe to my mailing list, if you haven't already.

Peace, 

 Hank

Jerry Jemmott kicking off King Curtis' Memphis Soul Stew

Black Dance Stories

Bill Irwin on Samuel Beckett

 

"Jumpin' Jive" and Affirmation

I had some delayed reactions to the election of Joe Biden. When it became clear on November 7th that he won I, like many others, felt a major sigh of relief and some joy about the ousting of the guy in office now. I immediately called some friends and went to my back yard and shouted. But I also felt a bit numb and not as totally overjoyed with emotions as I was when Obama won. Cleary they were two different situations, but in 2008, I knew exactly how I felt, and thought, but this time I wasn't sure. Most of the day, I watched other parts of the country and world do their thing in celebration and enjoyed seeing it. I also felt jealous because nothing like that was happening where I live. Later in the day, and into the next day, I did get hit with a delayed reaction where something, I forgot what, in my mind suddenly made me realize the importance of Kamala Harris winning.

That fact that a Black woman with Indian and Jamaican heritage would be in the White House and be seen by many in that role is something else. I thought of Ella Baker, Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan and Fannie Lou Hamer, who fought for this country. I thought of all the young people, particularly young girls, and more particularly, young girls of color who will be affected by this. And between President Elect Biden and Vice President Elect Harris, the White House will have Catholic, Irish, English, French, Indian and Jamaican energy floating around. Not to mention that our first Second Gentleman, will be Jewish! That all just kicks into my ongoing thing about culture and its power, whether you navigate to part of what you identify as your culture or get a major connection to something that is supposedly outside your "culture".

This idea of connecting to cultural things really becomes evident to me when watching a genre of YouTube videos that I've recently discovered. A few nights ago I wanted to hear a particular song because of how I was feeling about the election. I forgot which one, but probably something from the 60s, it might have been a Stevie Wonder tune. I usually go to YouTube for this, knowing that it is a dangerous move. I alway fool myself by saying, "I'm just gonna look at this one clip." Of course, that's like trying to eat just one potato chip, so I went down the YouTube rabbit hole. The journey led me to a bunch of videos where young folks, mainly Black, watch or listen to music that has been suggested to them to check out. In all instances they don't know the tune or the artist they are about to experience. I was introduced to this last year when a saw a clip of a set of twins reacting to a Phil Collins tune.

It seems that there is a genre of "First Time" or "Reaction" videos on YouTube. What they see is always something older, which leads to some amusing assumptions they make on the era they are watching, with some thinking a 1940s clip is from the 1960s. But the interesting thing is, just about all these viewers get into what they're watching and have insightful analysis of what they've experienced. The most consistent reaction is that these folks feel the videos show how good someone can be without all the extra technical stuff added to so much of the contemporary music they watch or hear. A few watched a clip from the film, The Last Waltz of the Band and the Staple Singers singing The Weight, and more than one person was knocked out that the drummer (the late Levon Helm) was singing! I watched a couple enjoy, and then try to duplicate, one of my favorite comedy routines, Abbott and Costello's Who's On First But this is a tap blog, right? So, I had to see what the reactions would be to the clip most of us tap dancers, and others, believe is the greatest music/dance number ever put on film.

For years when I taught my course on the history of African American Performance, I would end the semester by showing Stormy Weather. The only problem I had with showing it, was that I could barely wait get to the end so I could see the students' reactions to Cab Calloway and the Nicholas Brothers Jumpin' Jive number. During over more than 40 years of teaching, the reaction was consistent, they dug it. Turns out, the same is true for the folks on YouTube who watched and loved it. One young man, even tried to do one of the splits, and found out how hard it is to do. But what stood out for me was one woman's reaction. As the clip began, and she saw Cab Calloway, it looked as if she was totally taken aback, almost in shock, and when the Nicholas Brothers showed up it was too much and she had to stop the clip. She got herself together and watched the rest, going through emotions and tears, her body as completed affected by the clip. It was even emotional for me to watch. At the end it became clear why she was so taken. Before seeing this clip, she had seen and enjoyed wonderful clips of Hollywood stars like Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, but seeing Black artists stylishly doing their thing in a Hollywood movie spoke to her in deep terms. It meant so much to her as a Black woman. Plus, she seemed to WANT Cab!

So, this brings me back to Kamala. When you see/experience something you haven't seen before, that you immediately relate to, there is strength to be gained. Whatever it is, and whoever you are, something can happen inside that can move you to action. Like she said in her speech, "...while I may be the first woman in this office, I won't be the last."

Check out the three links below (also click on highlighted areas above for some links) to see three responses to the Jumpin' Jive clip. Watch it in the numbered order 1- 3. No. 3 is of the woman I was describing...save that one for last. 

If you want to subscribe to my mailing list, you can do so in the column on the right.

Peace,

  Hank

1. Twins' Jumpin' Jive response.

2. Another Jumpin' Jive response.

3. Woman's Jumpin' Jive response.

Pandemic Times, Tap Dance Matters

In my last blog post, over a year ago, I talked about my tap family. These past eight months of unusual living circumstances has made me even more aware of this "family" and also the folks outside of tap, whom I love as my extended family. It has been a major source of stability and grounding for me, as I figure out how to navigate this time we're experiencing.

Online tap jams, who knew there could be such a thing? Don't know if it was the first, but early on in the pandemic I checked out one of the first. It was hosted by Dormeshia, Jason Samuels Smith and Derick Grant. What I enjoyed most was getting to see the cross section of people out there into tap. The London Tap Jam has been online and I popped in briefly when Michela Marino Lerman hosted. My other streaming excursions have included; My friends Toes Tiranoff and Megan Haungs doing tap meditations for the Church in the Village, Ayodele Casel's ongoing project, Diary of a Tap Dancer, produced by City Center, Dormeshia's And Still You Must Swing, via The Joyce Theater, Tap Family Reunion, L.A. Tap Festival, Marshall L. Davis Jr's Revelations in Rhythm, directed by Savion Glover, Nico Rubio's, Tap Footage Nights, Heather Cornell's conversations with tap dancers, Tap City's Copasetic Boat Ride, and most recently, Laraine Goodman's annual tap contribution to the Theater of New City's Halloween Night. I also have gotten involved, created some fun videos that I've posted.

This time has me also thinking about time in general and age and legacy. I find myself listening/meditating more. I'm choosing to engage in conversations with younger artists often, to pass on whatever I have to offer, but also to learn from them. There have also been conversations about race and the arts, which continue to enlighten me in my continuing exploration into my role on the planet. One thing that I learned from listening to folks, who are more into certain segments of popular culture than I am, is the fact the tap dance is still seen negatively by many folks, and particularly by some Black folks. Travis Knight addressed this recently and I have seen some things that piss me off, like a stupid Fanduel commercial (I didn't even know what Fanduel was while watching) that used tap dance as a comic "payoff". I even had to post a comment on a YouTube clip, where this young Black man used the term "tap dancing around the issue". I explained, gently, that I didn't disagree with the content of his clip but that using that phrase diminishes the art, in the opinion of some of us dancers. He actually replied, thanking me for illuminating him on the issue.

I continue to feel much has to be done. Tap is a foundation for me in my Blackness. It also in my sense of being American, because it's a creation of African Americans in this country that many, from all backgrounds love. So, I will continue to tell stories, create space for stories to be told and channel those that went before me. I began doing some Stories Hank live events on Facebook and will do more events, now under the auspice of Zenobia-Jay Productions, so please subscribe here to my new mailing list (it's in the right hand column) to stay informed on my goings on....well, not ALL of my goings on!

Peace,

  Hank

The Family of Tap

At the recent Tap Awards ceremony, that was part of the annual summer Tap City festival, held in New York City, more than one person made reference to the event being sort of a family affair. Most of us there have known each other for a number of years; having performed, hung out, and/or shared life events together along the way. There are others, not present there, with whom I have strong personal/professional connections, and others whom I do not know personally, or know well, but because of my knowledge of their work and personality I feel a kinship towards. In the past month, or so, I’ve been acutely of my “Family of Tap.”

One morning in June I was indulging in my favorite vice and past time, cable channel surfing. I happened upon a local PBS station and saw the word “tapestry” and thought it was a show about weaving, which seemed like a typical public TV fare for the daytime. Just as I was about to surf on, I saw it was a show about the Tapestry Dance Company of Austin, TX and Acia Gray, who co-founded it in 1989. Something about tap to start my day!  It was a fascinating show that was part of the series, “Arts in Context”. The episode was called Passing It Forward, which referred to Acia’s desire to pass on the tradition of tap she received to a new generation. I know Acia from the tap world but was lacking in details about her and her company, so seeing this show took care of that, quite well! I even saw a friend, Yuka Kameda, who was in the company at the time this was show was produced. At one point, Acia acknowledges issues and tensions some folks have concerning the history of tap, but winds up saying, “the family of tap dance is all of us, in all its history…when you really get into the meat of the professional community of tap dance, it’s all one big family.” 

Someone who was in Ms Gray’s company is Travis Knights. Originally from Montreal, he is a performer now based in Brampton, Ontario and has a podcast called, The Tap Love Tour. It is one of my “go to” podcasts which I listen to when commuting between Jersey and NYC. I first became aware of it when it was a series of interviews with tap dancers on YouTube, but now I think it is only a podcast. He has interviewed just about everybody in the tap world and has an energetic, inquisitive approach to the conversations he conducts. What I like about the podcast is how he uses it as a platform to evolve and explore how he feels about tap and performing and history and life. He devoted two episodes to the issue of race and tap, including the voices of Roxanne Butterfly, Derick Grant, Max Pollak, and Heather Cornell among others. Those were interesting and informative to me, particularly hearing what some white tap dancers experienced during the “Noise, Funk” era. His podcast also introduced me to 83 year old Ethel Bruneau, who is a mentor to Mr. Knights. She grew up in Harlem but wound up in Canada performing and teaching tap for many years. The most recent episode I listened to was with Sebastian Weber, a tap dancer from Germany. I had it on while on a bus headed to the city for the Tap City Tap Awards.

My copy of "The Black Book"

I got into the city hours before the awards event, so to kill time I went to see the documentary, “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am”. Turned out it was what I needed to see. I have been thinking a lot about being a black male of a certain generation in this country, and contemplating the stories that I need to tell. I was in town for this award ceremony because I was to receive the 2019 Tap Preservation Award for what I like to think has been my efforts to present and celebrate stories of tap. But I know I have more to pass on and seeing Ms Morrison talk about her writing and focus as a black woman artist was affirming and inspiring. She talked of the type of activism she chose to do via her writing, which made me look at what I try to do in my work to bring about awareness. There is so much more about that documentary, but what really made it “what I needed to see” was the moment an image went up on the screen of a publication called, “The Black Book”.  This iconic publication came out in 1974 and was sort of a scrapbook with information about African American culture. It was one of the books I used (I still have my copy!) that became the foundation of my own research into the culture. What I didn’t know was that Toni Morrison, as an editor at Random House, was the main force behind getting this book done! I left the screening, heading to the evening event, full of stimulated memories and some strong feelings that I couldn’t even identify.

Well, like I said at the beginning of this blog entry, the Tap Awards was a family affair. Michela Marino Lerman, whom I’ve known since she was 11, and who calls me Uncle Hank, received the Hoofers Award. Also getting the same award was Chloe Arnold, who came to my first “Story of Tap” series at Dixon Place in 1998, when she was a college student. Dianne Walker, who was my last guest during that 1998 “Story of Tap” series, was inducted into the International Tap Dance Hall of Fame, as were The Radio City Rockettes. I have fond memories of seeing the Rockettes as a youngster with my mom, but was smiling and touched when two of the current Rockettes, one black and one white, came on stage to accept the award, along with their Creative Director, Karen Keeler. A welcome change from the all-white (I understand then they weren’t even allowed to get suntans) group I saw as a kid! Ruby Keeler, whose old movies on TV were an early influence, was also inducted into the Hall and there was a tribute to the recently passed Mable Lee, who affected so many of us.

Emotions ran high that night. As the moment came for my award, a video of Jason Samuels Smith played in which he said some very kind words about me. We call each other “cuz” (after all, there are so few Smiths, we must be related!) and what he said had me a little verklempt. Then, my good friend Laraine Goodman introduced me and I was remembering the many tap events she created over the years that I participated in. One of the things I mentioned in my short speech was remembering the days when it was a big deal to see someone black on TV, and how one day, as we were watching the Jackie Gleason show, my dad called my mom in the living room saying, “I think there’s a colored girl with the June Taylor Dancers!” He was right and I acknowledged that in the audience was that very “colored girl”, Mercedes Ellington, grand daughter of Duke Ellington. There were more moments. Ayodele Casel, who received the Hoofer Award in 2017, gave a heartfelt, emotional tribute to Michela as she presented her with the same award for this year, after Michela had done a killer performance. Tony Waag, in introducing Chloe Arnold for her Hoofer Award, surprised himself as he got choked up while explaining why he thought she is important and then there was a great dance tribute that included Chloe's sister, Maud. It was touching to see a group of young dancers do a Mable Lee routine as a remembrance for her. At the end was Dianne Walker. It was a long night and those of us who are familiar with Dianne know, once she gets going…a night can get even longer. But there is so much she has done and knows, that it’s worth hanging with it. She was particularly moving in how she talked about the importance of her husband Rodney, whom she insists on calling Ronnie. You could feel the room all going “Awww..” inside of themselves as she spoke of him and their years of marriage, which I think has hit 50! 

Dianne has two nicknames, Lady Di and Aunt Dianne. The latter is how many dancers under the age range of mid-40s often refer to her. She mentioned that evening that she believes Savion Glover was the first to use it. Just a few days before the award night I saw Savion’s latest show at the Joyce Theater. I’ve known of him since he was very young when the veteran performer, and member of The Copasetics, Charles “Cookie” Cook told me of this kid who could do anything a dancer showed him the minute he saw it. A few years later, I got to know him when he was a teenager on “Sesame Street”, where I was a stage manager. I even appeared on camera twice playing his teacher (both were actually flashback segments with someone playing Savion as a young child)! In this show I felt he was growing and stretching out even more to try new things and ideas. Hard to believe he’s 45 and his son, Chaney, named after tap dancer Lon Chaney, is now 14! The time goes by and members of the family grow.

The day after that awards night I posted a photo of my award on Facebook and got a lot of comments, one of which was from Sebastian Weber, who congratulated me. I replied to his comment that I had been listening to him on the Love Tap Tour podcast before and after the event, saying it had completed my “Tap Day”. He replied back, saying it made him feel like he was also receiving an award. I guess that’s what it’s all about, how some of us can feel a part of whatever happens to some others of us in the world of tap, we are family.

That’s it for now.

Peace,

   Hank

Here are links relevant to this posting

“Passing It Forward” about Acia Gray and Tapestry: https://www.pbs.org/video/arts-context-tapestry

The Love Tap Tour podcast: https://soundcloud.com/the-tap-love-tour

Toni Morrison Documentary: https://www.tonimorrisonfilm.com

The Black Book 35th Anniversary: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121289328

New York Times Savion article: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/02/arts/dance/savion-glover-joyce-theater.html

Tap City Awards night photos, by Amanda Gentile: https://www.flickr.com/photos/21727100@N05/albums/72157709668468497

Comedy

The great James "Buster" Brown once told me that what he really enjoyed seeing when going to, or performing in, vaudeville/variety shows were the comedy acts. Of course, Buster was a great tap dancer but he also had a flair for comedy. Whether through telling jokes or moving in a physically playful way, many tap dancers know how to get a laugh and engage the audience. Having done clowning and mime, I know what it's like to make the audience have a good time. In fact, when I was on The New York Committee to Celebrate National Tap Dance Day we put on a show at Town Hall in 2000 called, The Elegance of Tap & The Comedy of Tap". Buster was one of the performers and it was hosted by Bill Irwin, not a bad tapper himself! So, here are just a few examples of tap and comedy.

Buster loved telling jokes. One of his favorites was telling the audience he was going to do the "Elevator Dance", then he would just stand there and then say, "No steps". But those of us who knew him always waited for the joke he was best known for. Here he is with The Copasetics in a performance I recorded in 1988, telling his "Light Bulb" joke.

Another member of The Copasetics was Leslie "Bubba" Gaines. Here he is from the same performance as above doing his "Fishing" joke.

One of my best friends is someone I know from the world of clowning and physical comedy, John Towsen. He is a clown, author, educator, and all round good guy with a blog called, "All Fall Down: The Craft & Art of Physical Comedy".  A few years ago, he posted about a performer named, Georges Holmes and even shared it with me, in case I knew more about him, since Holmes was a tap dancer, in addition to his other variety skills. At the time I didn't know of him, and assumed, as did John, that he was French because he briefly speaks it in the clip and it appears to be in France. I recently decided to do some internet investigation and did find something on a "Rubberneck" Holmes. Looking at the few clips of "Rubberneck" from the 1930s and comparing it with John's clip from the 1950s I saw enough similarity to believe they were the same guy. He was not French, and may have been from Boston, but probably moved to Europe like a lot of African American artists of a certain era. Click here to see the 1959 clip of Holmes posted on John's blog and look below to see a younger Holmes in action. The clip is from the 1938 "Duke Is Tops" also known as "Bronze Venus", and Holmes shows up @4:17. By the way, Lena Horne is featured in this film.

Here is a multitalented showman, whom I happened across in my YouTube surfing, named Marcel Peneux.  He was born in South America but studied in the US and has evidently toured extensively in Europe.  I also just discovered that a clown colleague and artist, Karen Gersch, knows of his work and even painted a large portrait of him!

One of my tap friends is Rod Ferrone, who is definitely cut from the vaudeville "cloth". He dances, sings and is known for his relationships with hats...

When I googled "Tap, Comedy", one of the names that came up was George Wallace. Now, I'm of a generation where that name conjures up an image far removed from tap dancing or comedy, to say the least (if you don't know what I'm talking about, talk to an elder). But it turns out this George Wallace had a long career as one of Australia's top comedian's. This is him in 1931. Unfortunately, the film it's from was not indicated on YouTube.

Speaking of comedians, when he was at his peak as a comedian, Steve Martin did a TV special in 1981, with Gregory Hines as one of his guests. The two do their tap version of "Fit As A Fiddle", a tune famous for its use as a dance number with Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor in the film "Singin' In The Rain."

In 1978, I was one of the stage managers on Sesame Street and the show, Eubie, was also on Broadway. One of the Sesame cast members, Alaina Reed, was in Eubie and managed to get Gregory and his brother Maurice, who were also in Eubie, to do some bits on Sesame Street. I happened to be working that day and remember well the shooting of this and some other bits that they did.

This last clip is also from Sesame Street when Shuffleupagus learns to tap dance. I actually helped in some of the staging of this. It was challenging to work with Snuffy on some simple tap, but he got it! You'll see. Also, check out Ruth Buzzi who was a regular on the show at one point. This is from 1996.

OK, have fun and laugh when you can!

Music: Part 3

I remember hearing Brenda Bufalino once say that tap dancers should know a lot of tunes and also know the lyrics to those tunes, the knowledge of which would inform their dance. Tap dancers are inspired musically in many different ways, depending on their culture, influences, individual tastes, and any number of other reasons. There are some standard tunes that traditionally have been used by tap dancers and there are some tunes that have been closely associated with some dancers. Following are just a few examples of music and tap. In the comments section below, or on social media, let me know what tunes you like to use!

"Liza" is a tune that was written by George Gershwin. I've heard it used mostly with a short tap routine called "The BS Chorus", that was often done by The Copasetics. Here is a version of the tune performed by Jimmie Noone and his Orchestra. Click here to see Chuck Green and Ralph Brown dance to this recording. Click here to see The Copasetics do the BS Chorus.

Another vintage standard is "Bye, Bye Blues" by Fred Hamm, Dave Bennett, Bert Lown, and Chauncey Gray. Tap dancers would use it in stop time. Here is a fun rendition of the tune by a group called Blazin' Banjos. At about 2:39 in, they go stop time and you can see how easily tap could work with the whole tune done that way!

Here's another use of stop time on a tune, which became associated with a tap dancer. The dancer was Peg Leg Bates and the tune is "Sleep" by Fred Waring. This is a 1928 recording of Fred Waring & His Pennsylvanians doing it "normally." Click here to see Peg Leg use it in a whole other way!

There are some artists whose music tap dancers find easy to work with. Two such artists are Count Basie and Oscar Peterson. They are liked because when they play, space can be left in the music for dance. In a class I once took with Dianne Walker, she used the tune, "I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)", played by Basie and Peterson. I wound up using it a lot when I taught. Imagine how you'd move to this...

I believe, if you really pay close attention and listen, you can tap to any kind of music. If you've never seen Leon Collins dance to Nikolai Rimski-Korsakow's, "The Flight of the Bumblebee", you will now be in for a treat. The music also segues into "Begin The Beguine" by Cole Porter.

I have an appreciation of many genres of music but, as a Baby Boomer, there is just some stuff from Motown that hits me in a special way. I had a idea to do a tap piece to a Stevie Wonder tune I love and got a chance to do it at the 4th Annual NJ Tap Festival in 2013. 

So, go find "your" music and dance!!!!

YouTube finds: Part 2

Two posts ago I talked about roaming YouTube. One of the things that happens is my discovery of dancers of the past I am unfamiliar with. It's great knowing that there is always something new to learn. Here are some examples of tap dancers I found. If you know more about any of them, let me know!

The first is from the 1938 film, God's Step Children directed by the pioneer black filmmaker, Oscar Micheaux whose career spanned about 30 years. Usually, he found ways to include nightclub dance sequences in his films. This dancer is identified as Sammy Gardiner.

This is Cora La Redd with the Noble Sissle Orchestra from That's The Spirit, a one-reel musical comedy made in 1933. The film also includes the great Mantan Moreland and Flournoy Miller, who collaborated with Sissle and Eubie Blake to create the 1921 stage musical Shuffle Along.

I got really intrigued by this dancer, Lorraine Krueger, because I liked the rhythms and steps she was doing. It had me wondering who influenced her, and I felt pretty sure it had to be a black dancer. Well, in doing research and viewing more clips of her, I found my answer. The first clip, from the short 1940 film, Tickled Pinky, is what I initially saw. The second clip is from the 1944 film, Career Girl, and gives me my answer. Her introduction of her dance in that clip reveals those times and I think it'll be pretty obvious who her influence was!

I'm always fascinated by dance acts, and found this act called The Steiner Brothers from a 1958 television show. What I usually do, when I run across something I don't know much about, is look it up quickly online. In this case, I found an article about these brothers. Turns out they were from Canada and, as of this 2016 article, are still around. Click here to read the article.

This last one is for you Baby Boomers out there. It's not really of someone I never heard of, but is someone I didn't realized tap danced (should have been in my Part 1 "YouTube finds" post!). One of the stars of the 1950s sit com Father Knows Best, was Elinor Donahue, who played the oldest daughter of the characters played by Robert Young and Jane Wyatt. I knew she had been a dancer, but didn't know she tapped. Here she is doing it in an episode of that show.

If the shoe fits...

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Laraine Goodman's shoes

My first pair of tap shoes were shiny, patent leather ones bought at a store called Selva on Broadway. I was about 10 or 11, studying at the Mable Hart Dance Studio in Harlem, and really liked those shoes. I'd put them on in the house whenever I could and, when my parents weren't around, would practice some tap in the living room. When I decided to get back into tap dancing, in my late 20s, I bought some shoes at Capezio and had them for awhile, not using them that much because I wasn't tapping that much. In later years, I've had a number of shoes from different brands and currently favor a pair of wooden soled shoes because I really prefer their sound more than the metallic tap sound. Plus, that's what Bill Robinson wore! I asked some dancers about their relationship with tap shoes and here are their answers. If you have thoughts about shoes, comment below. Thanks.

Sarah Petronio
Me and my shoes...
I have funky feet...funky not in the "bring in the funk" way just sensitive feet with bunions. So, I need wide comfortable shoes. I wore the lovely Capezio leather K360 for 20 years. I have had them in white, black, tan and even painted them brown with little silver music notes. I made the “Capezio stop” to buy tap shoes every time I came to the USA from France where we lived. I started with Capezio Master Taps, tried the Tele tone taps when the Master Taps were impossible to find. I also enjoyed the Duo-Tone heel Taps. I beat my feet to all kinds of music especially Be bop and jazz. When I was invited to teach and perform at the Boston Umbrella Tap Festival, I ended the week teaching 35 excited students and got so excited myself that at the end of the class, I jumped up in the air and landed back down with the most terrible pain in my right foot. I decided to ignore the slight swelling on my foot that night because not even a broken foot would have stopped me to be on that stage the following night where I was scheduled to perform with the most incredible line up of artists - Jimmy Slyde, The Nicholas Brothers, Steve Condos, Brenda Bufalino, Savion Glover, Honi Coles, The Jazz Tap Ensemble, LaVaughn Robinson, Eddie Brown and Dianne Walker. I had requested Bross Townsend to inspire me with his piano playing and Major Holley to walk with me to the sound of “Blues in the Closet” and they did. Except for the agonising shooting pains that seemed to go through my Capezio shoes into my dancing feet all went relatively well. THANK YOU MY TAN CAPEZIO K360’s for supporting me as I danced! After the show my foot was as large as a small pumpkin so when I returned home I spent the next few years rediscovering with the help of orthopaedic soles how to continue walking and dancing with one dislocated toe in my right foot. It was then that I switched to Miller and Ben tap shoes offered to me by Avi Miller and Ofer Ben. They were strong, but a bit stiff so I wore them for a year to break them in without the taps till they were ready and very comfortable for me to “hit” the way I wanted. I still wear them and find that they are well made and offer me a powerful sound on stage and when I teach big tap classes.

Hilary-Marie Michael

I'm loving and currently wearing The GS1 Tap Boots made by Matt at Dancing Fair. I really enjoy the quality of sound, they're extremely comfortable, there are many options to customize the build (sounding board, shank, insole, material, etc.) and I like the cut and style. I also have a pair of leather oxfords by Matt that I use for recordings and soft shoe performances. Dancing Fair is a small business that has a dancer's comfort, sound and style at the forefront of their mind, and for that, I'm very appreciative.

Laraine Goodman

I guess my very first attraction to tap shoes was on the feet of Eleanor Powell in 1964 when I was an apprentice for Summer Stock Theater in West Springfiled, MA. Eleanor was tall and gorgeous and had the lead in a musical bound for Broadway (can’t remember which show it was). My real dive into tap and tap shoes was around 1986, 87 when I stumbled upon a used a used pair of Capezio character shoes with taps at a street fair. They were my size, a perfect 8, and they felt like heaven. As my tap life progressed, I graduated to flat Brenda Bufalino tap shoes (designed by Brenda and Avi Miller and Ofer Ben) They were called Danskys. I wear that brand to this day. I like my taps loose. Also, Thinking about trying out Capezio K360s. During the 90s, Gregory Hines gave me two pairs of his own brand, his design: One a woman’s style, see two tone black and red in photo and a “mens” style, black and dark grey. These days, all shoes should be gender fluid.

Shoes from top to bottom (see photo at top):
Brenda Bufalino's with one screw taps installed by Rob Rowe
Greg Hines two tone red/black “woman's"
Greg Hines two tone black/grey
Avi, Ofer and Brenda’s Danskys (Black and two tone Black/White)
Real Rockette’s red tap shoe from Rockette’s closet circa 1940s
And, last but not least, my first capezio character shoes found on street

Megan Haungs
I could dance just like John Bubbles
Heel drops would be no trouble
I'd tear up that tap mat.
Rhythm time steps would be easy
Syncopation always easy
If I only tapped in flats.

Inspired by Ms. Mable
The feminine enabled
But still keeping it real.
I'd dance like those before us
Who tap danced in the chorus
If I only danced in heels.

There is the saying that Ginger did everything that Fred did, only backwards and in heels. And certainly their ballroom numbers are among the most elegant icons of romance. But the Fred and Ginger numbers I enjoy most are the conversational tap dances--"Isn't a Lovely Day" from Top Hat, "I'll Be Hard to Handle" from Roberta, "Let Yourself Go" from Follow the Fleet. In these dances, they are side by side or face to face but neither is following or leading but playfully conversing, inventing, surprising each other. Ginger is dressed in slacks--very unusual for the 1930's. Which leads me to the subject of shoes. When I started to tap dance in the late 70's, I first got patent leather Mary Janes, then Freeds, then finally Capezio flats (I don't know if they were called K-360's then). Most of the women I studied with or danced with had similar shoes. We wanted the sound, the solid footing, the headliner professionalism of the flat helped shoes that were worn by our teachers and mentors. The shoes were a statement. We were sometimes (or often) asked why we dressed like men, or why we danced like men, or why don't we wear women's shoes, which meant heels. But of course we were wearing women's shoes, because they were shoes being worn by women. We were just redefining what a women's shoe could be. A shoe in which we could dance upfront, center stage, in which we could invent and converse like our teachers and mentors. 

Favorite shoe: Miller and Ben Jazz-Tap Master--love the sound!

Michael "Toes" Tiranoff

One night in the 90s, Traci Mann, Ginger de Paris, and I were in the the East Village where there used to be a block-long informal flea market by Astor Place. At one stand, Ginger spotted these heavy black and white shoes with taps; more suited to the monster in Young Frankenstein. They happened to be my size, so I brought them. They were maybe five or ten dollars. Well, I set them aside till I went on tour in with the Flying Karamazov Brothers and the New Old Time Chautauqua ( a group of Vaudevillians) in the summer of 1998. At our first stop in Homer, Alaska, we were camped out on the playground track by the high school where we were to do our first shows. Doug Weiselman, the musical director of the band, liked my idea of tap dancing in the show to Caravan. He furiously wrote out charts for the entire band. The arrangement not only allowed for stop time, but also a tacit for me. There was no place to rehearse except by the outside bathrooms. The pavement was concrete. Not wanting to mess up my good tap shoes (Capezio K-360s), I used those heavy duty black and white shoes to practice with. For the best acoustics, and also, because of a light rain all the musicians and I took over the Ladies Rest Room to rehearse the number. After a few run throughs, the number really started to come together. Everyone was excited about that number. It was a highlight of the tour, and still is one of my favorite arrangements. I felt limited in what I could do in these much heavier shoes, but Doug said he liked the bassier sound better than what my regular tap shoes gave me. So, I used them in our first show the next night. I felt restricted with my dancing, and went back to my good tap shoes for the rest of the tour. However, I would use those clunkers for our parades through the towns we travelled to, tapping along with the musicians, and other Vaudevillians.

YouTube finds: Part 1

I, like a lot of other people, can wind up wasting a lot of time on YouTube. You probably know the routine.  You just want to quickly look up one thing, and then you notice all the associated clips and it's all over. Hours later you're saying, "Just this one more and then that's it!' But the upside are the discoveries one can make. Recently, after looking at some tap clips, I decided to find clips of famous actors/performers dancing you were not known for doing tap and any related dance forms. Below are some examples. I realize that depending on your age or experience you may not know who some of these folks are, so I'll try and give a brief bio of each person.

First, we have a quintet of an unlikely line up of "tap dancers." Dean Martin was mainly known as a singer, but was a pretty good dancer. Buddy Ebsen became known on TV for his acting, but was a very good dancer and was almost in The Wizard of Oz. Lee J. Cobb was as dramatic an actor as you can get, having originated the role of Willie Loman in Death of a Salesman and not known at all as a dancer. Charles Nelson Reilly acted and also became a popular guest on game shows. Jackie Vernon was a droll comedian and, as you'll see, not a natural dancer. This clip seems to be from the Dean Martin Show from the 1960s

Doris Day (still with us at 95!) started her career as a singer with big bands and then had a movie career as singer and actress. But she was also a really good dancer. Here she is with dancer Gene Nelson from the 1951 film, Lullaby of Broadway.

Old school Hollywood had a roster of actors known for their tough guy/gangster roles. One such actor was Edward G. Robinson. Well, here he is "cuttin' up the rug" with Wendy Barrie in 1938's I Am The Law.

Cary Grant was known as the handsome, suave, sophisticated guy in the Hollywood of yore, an image he developed over the years, although he did have a knack for comedy. Even though not known as a dancer, he was quite agile because in his youth he juggled and did acrobatics with a traveling comedy troupe. Watch him (and Ingrid Bergman) move in a moment from the 1958 film, Indiscreet.

Another handsome, etc., etc., guy was Clark Gable. Well known as Rhett Butler telling Vivian Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" at the end of the 1939 film, Gone With The Wind, he is here in a different mood from Idiot's Delight, of the same year.

Jimmy Stewart, who I would call the "Ah, shucks" guy, had quite a film career that spanned a few decades. Just google his name to find out about his films, but to see him in a rare dance moment, check this out from Born To Dance (1936). Others in the clip are Buddy Ebsen, Frances Langford, Eleanor Powell, Sid Silvers and Una Merkel.

The last example is someone who actually is a dancer, having come out of vaudeville, but also known as an actor. His name is Eddie Anderson and became quite famous on the Jack Benny Show as the character "Rochester". He also appeared in many films, including the great 1943 musical Cabin in the Sky, and this clip is from the 1941 Kiss the Boys Goodbye. The singer, Connee Boswell, was inspired by blues singer Mamie Smith and Ella Fitzgerald was inspired by Ms Boswell! Watch Mr. Anderson work the sand...

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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

Music: Part 2

As promised, this is a follow up to last week's post. It's often is said that tap dancers are musicians, but I think they are also storytellers. When dancing, there should be something that the dancer wants to say, whether literally or emotionally. The "story" could be short or long, all depending on the context in which the dancing is done.

A number of years ago James "Buster" Brown hosted a weekly tap jam at the Swing 46 Jazz and Supper Club in Manhattan. On occasion, when he couldn't be there, I was one of the folks who would take over the hosting job. Once when I was hosting a tap dancer did her thing, but afterwards seemed rather disturbed. After a little while she asked me if she could go up again. I asked her why and she said she was frustrated because she hadn't "said" what she wanted to say when she danced earlier. We dancers all know that feeling. The audience can like what you do, but you know you didn't just get it right. When I would hang with some of the tap veterans, back in the day, they often were quite critical of a dancer who they felt "wasn't saying anything." One of the things Charles "Cookie" Cook told me about Bill Robinson was that you could listen to his routines and hear how one step went logically into the next one. Most of us tap dancers can also recognize certain familiar steps and routines just by hearing them. I even rehearsed and worked out a tap routine with Cookie once on while the telephone, just by us scatting and vocalizing "steps" back and forth.

I mentioned in the first of these Music posts that I was searching for some clips on Baby Laurence online, but got side tracked. Well, for those of you unfamiliar with Laurence, below is a clip of him for you to watch and listen to. I got to see him live in the 70s when he hosted a semi regular tap event at the Jazz Museum that used to be down the block from the City Center in NYC. There is a good documentary about him called, "Jazz Hoofer" that includes some footage of him at the Museum. This clip is from an episode of the ABC show Hollywood Palace that was hosted by Sammy Davis, Jr.

And now I want you to listen, and take an optional test. Here are audio clips of 7 dancers. Check them out and pay attention to what you hear. The optional test is to see if you can guess who the dancers are. It might be too simple for some of you, but we'll see. If you have answers, please put them in the "Comments" section at the bottom of the blog here but not on Facebook, if you are accessing this blog from there. I'll have the answers in my next posting. Enjoy and keep working on your particular music and stories!

Dancer #1

Dancer #2

Dancer #3

Dancer #4

Dancer #5

Dancer #6

Dancer #7

Music: Part 1

Okay, last year...ONE post! In fact, only one for each of the past two years! I'm not gonna make promises, but I really hope to do more this year. We'll see...

I was watching a Facebook "live" thing (still not quite sure how that works) the other day where Marshall Davis was doing a segment of what he calls "Tap Conversations". He was talking about the importance of the sound of what tap dancers do. Working on steps is good, but just learning more steps, without having an understanding of what you are saying with the feet, can be a tendency for a lot of young tap dancers, as far as he is concerned. It got me into searching the web for some audio examples of tap dancing, but I got side tracked. I wound up coming across an example of a tune I never knew of before that was named after a tap dancer and it had me thinking about other tunes inspired by tap dancers and dancers of associated forms. So, in this post I want to look at some music influenced by dancers, which I'm calling "Part 1.". "Part 2" will focus on audio of the music dancers make with their feet. See, this makes me committed to doing at least 2 posts this year....

I began my YouTube search looking for clips of the tap master Baby Laurence (born Laurence Donald Jackson), hoping to find some from his album "Dancemaster", which I have. But one of the things that popped up was a recording by Count Basie of a tune called, "Baby Lawrence". It was written by him and played by his trio that included Basie on piano, Ray Brown on double bass and Louis Bellson on  drums. I hadn't heard of this tune. In doing some quick refresher research I saw that Laurence he danced with Basie's big band, in addition to others, but I couldn't find out anything about what might have inspired Basie to write the tune. Upon listening to it, I have to admit I found it hard to relate it to Laurence or "see" him dancing to it. It's fast and kind of a stride piano piece and I think of Baby Laurence more in the vein of a different kind of style.  But, so what! It is fast, which could also be said of Baby's feet, and he probably could've danced to it!

Baise has another piece of music, which he and Andy Gibson composed, called."Shorty George." That title refers to a dance step from the Lindy Hop era, but also must be associated with George "Shorty" Snowden, one of the early Lindy Hoppers in Harlem. Now, when I hear that piece of music I can see/hear the relation to Snowden and dance of that time. But that might be the case because of clips I've seen of dancers moving to that music. In previous posts on this blog I've mentioned tunes connected to Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. There's the number from the film "Swing Time" where Fred Astaire (in blackface, which I go into in that post) dances to the tune "Bojangles of Harlem" and there is "Mr. Bojangles", which some people think is about Bill Robinson, but is not. In my last post I talk about Duke Ellington's "Bojangles: A Portrait of Bill Robinson". I was wondering if there were other tunes to consider and then I remembered.

At the end of the 19th century the cakewalk became a popular dance and the husband and wife team of Charles Johnson & Dora Dean, became known for doing it in their act. In 1896, a contemporary of theirs, the great Bert Williams, wrote a song about Dora called, "Dora Dean: The Sweetest Gal You Ever Seen." To find out more about them, the cakewalk and Bert Williams, look it up, you'll be fascinated by what you find. Lastly, speaking of Bert Williams, Duke Ellington also wrote on tune for him. Williams evidently wasn't the greatest dancer, his partner George Walker was, but his moves were unique to his character. The Ellington tune is called, "A Portrait of Bert Williams."

Dora Dean

Bert Williams

Below are examples of four of the tunes I mentioned. Enjoy.

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"Baby Lawrence" - The Count Basie Trio

"Shorty George" - Count Basie Orchestra, with clips of George "Shorty" Snowden

"Dora Dean" - sung by someone called Sheet Music Singer

"A Portrait of Bert Williams" - Duke Ellington Orchestra