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Dianne Walker
Dianne Walker (born March 8, 1951), also known as Lady Di, is an American tap dancer. Her thirty-year career spans Broadway, television, film, and international dance concerts. Walker is the Artistic Director of TapDancin, Inc. in Boston, Massachusetts. Career She began her dance training in Boston with Mildred Kennedy-Bradic and later studied with Leon Collins, Jimmy "Sir Slyde" Mitchell, and Jimmy Slyde. In 1979, she began a professional dance career. She later performed with Collins & Company and became one of the Directors of the Leon Collins Dance Studio, Inc. in Brookline, Massachusetts. She is considered a pioneer in the resurgence of tap dancing. The ''Boston Herald'' has called her "America's First Lady of Tap." Prominent contemporary tap dancer Savion Glover and his peers affectionately call her “Aunt Dianne” in acknowledgment of her unique place as a mentor, teacher, and confidante. She is often seen in jazz clubs and festivals around the US. A memorable appeara ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most populous city in the country. The city boundaries encompass an area of about and a population of 675,647 as of 2020. It is the seat of Suffolk County (although the county government was disbanded on July 1, 1999). The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Boston, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 4.8 million people in 2016 and ranking as the tenth-largest MSA in the country. A broader combined statistical area (CSA), generally corresponding to the commuting area and including Providence, Rhode Island, is home to approximately 8.2 million people, making it the sixth most populous in the United States. Boston is one of the oldest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in Midtown Manhattan. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances. One is also given for regional theatre. Several discretionary non-competitive awards are given as well, including a Special Tony Award, the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre, and the Isabelle Stevenson Award. The awards were founded by theatre producer and director Brock Pemberton and are named after Antoinette "Tony" Perry, an actress, producer and theatre director who was co-founder and secretary of the American Theatre Wing. The trophy consists of a spinnable medallion, with faces portraying an adaptation of the comedy and tragedy masks, mounted on a black base with a pewter swivel. The rules for the Tony Awards are set forth in the off ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oklahoma City University
Oklahoma City University (OCU) is a private university historically affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The university offers undergraduate bachelor's degrees, graduate master's degrees and doctoral degrees, organized into eight colleges and schools and one Methodist seminary. Students can major in more than 70 undergraduate majors, 20 graduate degrees, including a JD, MBA, MFA, and PhD in Nursing, and an Adult Studies Program for working adults to earn a Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts degree. The university has approximately 3,000 students, including 1,200 graduate students. The official school and athletic colors are blue and white. History Early history Oklahoma City University began as Epworth University by local developer Anton Classen in the early 1900s. Classen was looking to begin a Methodist university in conjunction with other development projects he worked on. Construction of the school began in 1902 and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lexington, Massachusetts
Lexington is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is 10 miles (16 km) from Downtown Boston. The population was 34,454 as of the 2020 census. The area was originally inhabited by Native Americans, and was first settled by Europeans in 1641 as a farming community. Lexington is well known as the site of the first shots of the American Revolutionary War, in the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775, where the " Shot heard 'round the world" took place. It is home to Minute Man National Historical Park. History Indigenous history Native Americans inhabited the area that would become Lexington for thousands of years prior to European colonization of the Americas, as attested by a woodland era archaeological site near Loring Hill south of the town center. At the time of European contact, the area may have been a border region between Naumkeag or Pawtucket to the northeast, Massachusett to the south, and Nipmuc to the west, though the land was ev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LaVaughn Robinson
LaVaughn Robinson (born LaVaughn Evett) (February 9, 1927 – January 22, 2008) was an American tap dancer, choreographer, and teacher. A virtuoso tap dancer, Robinson perfected a high speed, low to the ground, a cappella style of dance that was characterized by elegance, precision, and clarity of sound. In a career spanning over 70 years, he started performing on the street, then in nightclubs, and finally in national and international tap festivals. He was recognized by the National Endowment of the Arts as a "Living National Treasure", received a NEA National Heritage Fellowship in 1989, a lifetime honor, and a 1992 Pew Fellowship in the Arts. Career Street dancing LaVaughn Robinson was born in South Philadelphia, one of seven brothers and seven sisters. His mother (Catherine Griffin Robinson) taught him his first tap dancing step, the plain time step, at the age of seven. During the Depression, Philadelphia was a Mecca of tap dancing; the Nicholas Brothers (Fayar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prince Spencer
The Four Step Brothers were an American dance group. The group started out as a trio in 1925, with the original members, Maceo Anderson, Al Williams and Red Walker. Although their original name was the ''Step Brothers,'' because that was also the name of another famous young tap dancing quartet, they subsequently changed their name to "The Three Step Brothers." In 1927, after accepting a new member, Sherman Robinson, they became The Four Step Brothers. Dubbed "The Eight Feet of Rhythm," the group soon traveled with Duke Ellington. While starring with the "Brothers," Anderson also appeared at the Hoofers Club and worked part-time as a newsboy. The quartet was the first black act to perform at Radio City Music Hall, the first to appear at the Chez Paree Club in Chicago and the first to break television's color bar. Style and moves The group became known for their complex dance routines. The "Brothers" incorporated snake hips, five-tap wings, slides, rhythm (jazz) tap, the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry LeTang
Henry LeTang (June 19, 1915April 26, 2007) was an American theatre, film, and television choreographer and a dance instructor. Biography Born in the Harlem neighbourhood of Manhattan, LeTang was the second son of Clarence, born in Dominica, and his wife Marie, who emigrated from St. Croix. The couple owned and operated a radio and phonograph repair shop. All their children were musically inclined; in addition to his interest in dance, LeTang played the violin. At the age of seventeen, he opened his first studio, one small room with a piano. Over the ensuing decades he taught and/or worked with a multitude of entertainment personalities, including Lena Horne, Betty Hutton, Billie Holiday, Eleanor Powell, Lola Falana, Peter Gennaro, Leslie Uggams, Joey Heatherton, Chita Rivera, Ben Vereen, Debbie Allen, Hinton Battle, Savion Glover, and the Hines brothers, Maurice and Gregory. LeTang devised dance routines for the Broadway musicals ''My Dear Public'' and ''Dream with Music ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Condos
Steve Condos (October 12, 1918 in Pittsburgh, PASeptember 16, 1990 in Lyon) was an American tap dancer. He was a member of the Condos Brothers, with siblings Nick and Frank. The Condos Brothers are credited in the film '' Wake Up and Live'' (1937), in which two of the brothers are introduced by orchestra leader Ben Bernie and dance two tap routines, but the brothers are not further identified. They were also credited in the film '' Moon Over Miami'' (1941), as specialties. He danced in the films '' Song of the Open Road'' (1944), '' Meet Me After the Show'' (1951), '' Tap'' (1989), and numerous others. He collaborated with Jimmy Slyde on a program of jazz tap improvisation at the Smithsonian Institution during the 1980s. He died at 71 of a heart attack, in Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peg Leg Bates
Clayton "Peg Leg" Bates (October 11, 1907 – December 6, 1998) was an African-American entertainer from Fountain Inn, South Carolina, United States. Life and career Early life Peg Leg Bates was born Clayton Bates on October 10, 1907 in Fountain Inn, South Carolina, the son of Rufus and Emma W Stewart Bates. His mother was a sharecropper. By the age of five, Bates was dancing on the streets of Fountain Inn for pennies and nickels; he lost a leg at the age of 12 in a cotton gin accident. His uncle, Wit, made his crude first "peg leg" after returning home from World War I and finding his nephew handicapped. Bates subsequently taught himself to tap dance with a wooden peg leg. By the time he was 15, Bates was again adept enough at dancing to enter amateur talent shows, working his way up to employment through the Theater Owners Booking Association, which booked entertainers for African-American theaters in the US. Career At 20, Bates was dancing on Broadway. In the early 1940 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicholas Brothers
The Nicholas Brothers were an entertainment act composed of biological brothers, Fayard Nicholas, Fayard (1914–2006) and Harold Nicholas, Harold (1921–2000), who excelled in a variety of dance techniques, primarily between the 1930s and 1950s. Best known for their unique interpretation of a highly acrobatic technique known as "flash dancing", they were also considered by many to be the greatest tap dancers of their day, if not all time. Their virtuoso performance in the musical number "Jumpin' Jive" (with Cab Calloway and his orchestra) featured in the 1943 movie ''Stormy Weather (1943 film), Stormy Weather'' has been praised as one of the greatest dance routines ever captured on film. Growing up surrounded by vaudeville acts as children, they became stars of the jazz circuit during the Harlem Renaissance and performed on stage, film, and television well into the 1990s. Diminutive in size, they were appreciated for their artistry, innovation, and soaring leaps. Ear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eddie Brown (dancer)
Eddie Brown (1918–1992) was an American tap dancer. Origin When Eddie Brown was 16, he entered a talent contest in his hometown when he was sixteen years old. He won first place and was discovered by famous American entertainer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, who offered him a job in New York. Brown’s parents would not allow him to travel across the country to dance because he was still in school, however Brown went to New York anyway. Since Brown was still underage, he lived on the money that he made from dancing on the streets until he turned 18, when he joined Robinson’s show at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.Frank, R.E. (1990) Tap! The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and Their Stories 1900-1955. William Morrow and Company, Inc. New York. Career Brown danced professionally throughout the 1930s and 1940s as part of a trio with Carl Gibson and Jerry Reed, as well as being a solo dancer in nightclubs, and with swing and jazz musicians such as Jimmie Lunceford, Duke Ellington, and D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Coles
Charles “Honi” Coles (April 2, 1911 – November 12, 1992) was an American actor and tap dancer, who was inducted posthumously into the American Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2003. He had a distinctive personal style that required technical precision, high-speed tapping, and a close-to-the-floor style where "the legs and feet did the work". Coles was also half of the professional tap dancing duo Coles and Atkins, whose specialty was performing with elegant style through various tap steps such as "swing dance", "over the top", "bebop", "buck and wing", and "slow drag". He appeared in the films '' The Cotton Club'' and '' Dirty Dancing'', as well as the documentary '' Great Feats of Feet''.Hill, Valis Constance. “Charles "Honi" Coles iography” In Tap Dance in America: A Twentieth-Century Chronology of Tap Performance on Stage, Film, and Media, Library of Congress, accessed May 4, 2022, https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.music.tdabio.43/default.html Coles was also a tap-dan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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