Pamela Joan Raff (January 13, 1952 - November 20, 2009) was a British-American

tap dancer Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm (jazz) tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses on dance; it is widely perfo ...

. Raff performed, developed

choreography Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design ...

and taught dance mainly in the

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- mo ...

area.

Biography

Pamela Joan Raff was born on January 13, 1952, in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and grew up in

Morristown, New Jersey Morristown () is a town and the county seat of Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. ...

. At the age of three, she started

tap dance Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm (jazz) tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses on dance; it is widely perfo ...

lessons and later learned

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

, modern dance and belly dance. She briefly attended

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

, but dropped out to hitchhike across the United States (US) and ended up in

. She worked in malls around the US as a "dancing Magoo" and when she returned to Boston, she started to study dance in 1978 with

Leon Collins Leon Collins (February 7, 1922 - April 16, 1985) was an American tap dancer. Collins was born Leandre Kollins in Chicago, Illinois to a father of West Indian descent. He began tap dancing at an early age, but he wanted to be a prizefighter. As ...

. Raff also worked on dance

. Raff and Collins founded Collins & Company in 1982 and Raff taught and developed dance curriculum at the Leon Collins Dance Studio. She and others kept the studio running after the death of Collins in 1985. In 1994, she released the "first full-length digital recording of jazz tapping," called "Feet First." It was favorably reviewed by critic, Patricia Myers, writing for '' JazzTimes''. Raff started teaching dance in her own studio in 1995. She also performed at the Boston Center for the Arts' Black Box Theater in 1995, where Diane C. Grant wrote in the ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' that her performance "belies just about every tap dance stereotype." Raff died in her home in Upton, Massachusetts, on November 20, 2009.

References

External links

Dianne Walker & Pamela Raff
(1990 video) {{Authority control 1952 births 2009 deaths American tap dancers People from Oxford People from Boston