Tap Dancer Biographies: A-L
- Lane Alexander
- Eddie Brown
- Ernest "Brownie" Brown
- James "Buster" Brown
- Brenda Bufalino
- Roxane Butterfly
- Bob Carroll
- Herbin Van Cayseele
- Joe Chvala
- Heather Cornell
- Skip Cunningham
- Lynn Dally
- Dean Diggins
- Jan Feager
- Rod Ferrone
- Acia Gray
- Chuck Green
- Josh Hilberman
- Nicole Hockenberry
- Hervé Le Goff
- Jeni LeGon
- Ted Levy
- See also:
- Performers Index
- Tap Bios: M-Z
- Philadelphia Tappers
LANE ALEXANDER
Lane Alexander, co-founder of the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, danced as a principal and soloist with the National Tap Dance Company of Canada and Austin on Tap. His choreography has been seen on the musical theatre and concert stages as well as television and film. Lane is one of a handful of dancers who perform Morton Gould's Tap Dance Concerto for Symphony Orchestra.
Lane Alexander co-founded the Chicago Human Rhythm Project in 1990. Lane toured as a Principal and Soloist with Austin on Tap and the National Tap Dance Company of Canada's International Orchestral Series, appearing with symphonies of Quebec. Spoleto (Italy), Indianapolis, Houston, Dallas, Grand Rapids, Milwaukee and Detroit. He was commissioned by the Chicago Sinfonietta to choreograph and perform the Foortieth Anniversary of Morton Gould's Tap Dance Concerto and performed the Concerto a Carnegie Hall as part of a tribute to the late Maestro Gould.
He has choreographed some of the great America musicals including the second national tour of "The Tap Dance Kid," as well as "Oklahoma":, "Mame", "The Music Man" and "42nd Street." Lane was featured in the motion picture "Outtakes", choreographed and performed for the televeision series "The Untouchables", and appeared on televeion programs in Eudorpe, South America a nd Asia. Having taught for eight years at the Lou Conte Dance Studio (official school of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago), and five years at the Gus Giordano Dance Center, Lane currently teaches intensive workshops, residencies and master classes around the globe. Lane serves on the Chicago Dance Coalition Board of Directors.
Lane also designed the Concerto tap shoe for Leo's Dancewear, Inc. and is proud of the fine-tuning in the shoe's current design. Contact: (773) 761-4889. [5/1/98]
EDDIE BROWN
Eddie Brown performed for more than 50 years in a career that spanned the U.S., Canada, and Africa and was discovered at age 16 by Bill Robinson. At age 18, he joined the Bill Robinson Revue at N.Y.'s famed Apollo Theater. He later appeared with Billie Holliday and Joe Turner at the Savoy in Art Tatum's show in 1945, and with jazz greats Dizzy Gillespie, Cal Tjader, George Shearing, among others. Mr.Brown was a featured artist in Jon Hendrick's San Francisco production Evolution of the Blues in the 1980's and has been featured in many tap festivals in San Francisco, Boston, Denver, Boulder, Houston, and New York.
Mr.Brown was a recipient of an NEA choreography fellowship. He appeared frequently as guest artist with the Jazz Tap Ensemble. Because Eddie was primarily an improvisor there are few pieces set by him, the most notable are "Doxy"---created exclusively for the JTE, and the well-known E.B./B.S. Chorus. Eddie's style could be described as rhythmically intricate steps close to the floor with equally intricate and sophisticated jazz phrasings. Eddie described his dancing as "scientific rhythm" because you heard all this music/rhythm but couldn't see where it was coming from.
His work can also be seen in the two documentary videos "Two Takes on Tap" and "Eddie Brown's Scientific Rhythm."
ERNEST "BROWNIE" BROWN
Mr. Ernest Brown, 70-something, began to dance professionally as a child. With longtime partner, Charles "Cookie" Cook, he was half of th celebrated vaudeville duo Cook and Brown. During the 30's and 40's, Mr. Brown headlined at New York's Roxy, Radio City Music hall and the Cotton Club, and at London's Palladium and the Latin Casino in Paris. Broadway veteran of "Kiss Me Kate", Brownie was a member of The Copasetics and appeared in the film "The Cotton Club." Has taught at Chicago's "Human Rhythm Project" tap festival.
JAMES "BUSTER" BROWN
Octogenarian James "Buster" Brown, a Baltimore, MD native was a member of the legendary Copasetics Club (an elite group of master dancers formed after the death of the great Bill "Bojangles" Robinson to honor his legacy.) Mr. Brown enjoyed a career spanning seven decades, from touring the vaudeville circuits to guest appearances in the Broadway hit revue Black and Blue. Other career highlights included the Apollo Theater, soloist with the Cab Calloway Orchestra, United States Information Agency tours, performing Duke Ellington's Sacred Concert, appeared in the film The Cotton Club (dance sequence with Gregory Hines) TV spots on many shows including the PBS special The Gershwin Gala. Mr. Brown was also a featured artist in several tap dance documentaries, including Fancy Feet and Great Feats of Feet. He spent much time as an active teacher and choreographer, and was the recipient of fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1990 he was a resident artist at the Colorado Dance Festival and Boston Great Tap Reunion.
Mr. Brown is one of America's true national treasures and appears in selected National Tap Ensemble presentations. He was selected by his peers as the sole recipient of the 1998 American Tap Dance Legend Award. There is a tribute Web site at http://www.DrBusterBrown.com/
BRENDA BUFALINO
Brenda Bufalino performs and teaches throughout the U.S. and in Israel, Italy, England, Germany, France, and most recently in Australia. She has appeared as a guest soloist in such prestigious arenas as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall the Apollo Theater, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Smithsonian Institute, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
In 1986, Ms. Bufalino formed The American Tap Dance Orchestra. An ensemble of dancers, backed by vocalists and musicians, the ATDO presents a totally new concept in contemporary ensemble tap: ensemble lap in orchestral form. The dancers' feet are the instruments; using their feet, they create a spectrum of musical tones and rhythms in the manner of a conventional orchestra. Ms Bufalino's unique choreography for the ATDO, which is based on counter rhythms and fugues, is now a model for numerous other up-and-coming tap dance companies. Her choreography has also been commissioned by performers and touring ensembles across the country including Rhythm & Shoes, Tappers With Attitude, the Jefferson Dancers, and the Manhattan Rhythm Kings. [See http://www.tapdancing.org/ or Email: Brenda@tapdancing.org for more information.]
ROXANE BUTTERFLY
Free style tap artist and Bessie Award Winner 99 Roxane "Butterfly" (Semadeni), was given her stage name by her mentor, tap master Jimmy Slyde. She danced with the Original Hoofers for several years at the "University of LA CAVE" in the early nineties and went on touring around the world (Asia, Europe, Africa, US) in her own solo productions. Her versatility as an improviser has allowed her to appear in many different prestigious jazz festivals (Nice, Toulon, La Villette, Genova...to name a few) and hip hop events such as Suresnes-Cité-Danse in Paris, _where she invited Savion Glover (in 1996)_, as well as the innovative hip hop Musical "MADhattan" (with the original cast of "Jam On The Groove"), _played in 1997 at the NY NY Hotel in Las Vegas.
Roxane has taught at NYU, Broadway Dance Center, The Beat (San Francisco), Dance Works (London), Paris Centre (France) and extensively throughout Europe. She has created many tap jams in France and New York ( Teddy's, The Cooler, Internet Café...). In 1998 she founded the "Make That Move" street-dance'n tap Mega Jams with b-boy Jazzy J. Roxane has also performed with Gregory Hines and the Jazz Tap Ensemble at the Ford Theater (LA) and more recently at the Joyce Theater (NY) with Harold Nicholas and Yvette Glover. She has always been an active artist in the NY tap scene and is thankful for being included in all the major tap ceremonies. Roxane was the tap instructor of Pablo Veron in the movie "Tango Lesson". She is currently publishing her bilingual tap newsletter Tappin Time. Based in Harlem, she directs "BeauteeZ'n The Beat", the first Tap and Hip Hop show entirely created and performed by Women.
*In New York, BeauteeZ... has appeared on ChannelP.com for the Bessie Ceremony 99, The Dance Space Improvisation Festival, the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, the Off Broadway Theater of Saint Clement's Church, Saint Peter's Church, The Supper Club, the New 42n Street Theater, Brooklyn College, the Tribute to Peg Leg Bates...
Contact: Roxane Butterfly, 15 E 128th Street, Apt 4, NYC NY, 10035-USA. Tel: 212 636 9584; Web: http://beauteez.free.fr/
BOB CARROLL
Bob Carroll, a featured soloist with Rhapsody In Taps, was formerly a tap soloist with the Don Chrichton Dancers on the Tim Conway Show. He also tapped in the films Pennies from Heaven and I'll Do Anything and worked at 20th Century Fox Studios as a tap coach/advisor on the feature film Rising Sun. Bob has appeared in several national commercials and was a member and improv soloist with Manhattan Tap. He currently teaches tap in Los Angeles.
HERBIN VAN CAYSEELE
Herbin Van Cayseele was born in Cayenne, French Guiana and as a young man wanted to paint, study and dream. He was studying in Paris and saw a street performer doing tap dance. Later Herbin took up street performance focusing on tap improvisation. He says,
I wanted them to see me and what I had to offer... I would take the music and make it sound like something they would never forget because of the way my body would move and let my feet talk to their minds.
His first breakthrough in the tap world was at the Majesty of Tap with Jimmy Slyde, Chuck Green, Lon Chaney and Bunny Briggs at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center. Currently, he works with different styles of music with the organization Giant Steps in New York City. It is a multimedia project that travels world wide.
Herbin created the Sunday tap scene at Deanna's in NYC, a small club in the East Village. He is working with Urban Tap in NYC a concept group based on improvisation. Contact Urban Tap at: (212) 725-8493. [Information taken from a recent ITA Newsletter article by Mr. Cayseele.(May/Jun '95) Photo copyright Daniel Ruhl.]
JOE CHVALA
Joe Chvala, director, choreographer, writer, composer, performer and teacher, moved to the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) in 1990 and worked with a variety of theater companies while developing his own choreographic dance/theater work for his company of percussive dancers, the Flying Foot Forum. Since the premiere of their first full concert (May '93), the Forum has been presented in a variety of venues from Paris to New York City, Jacob's Pillow to England.
The Flying Foot Forum incorporates percussive dance, classic dance and inventive imagery. One description of a performance: "Fleet-footed and smooth, the company of six dancers tapped their way through an a capella celebration of the sounds of tap, a magical, medieval mystery tour, and a starkly surreal netherworld." Joe and the Forum do lecture demonstrations, master classes in tap and clogging. Contact: Flying Foot Forum, 1820 Sevens Ave., South #10, Minneapolis, MN. 55403, (612) 874-6662.
HEATHER CORNELL
Heather Cornell is a well known tap soloist in New York City venues and abroad and has been featured in shows with many of her mentors: Charles "Cookie" Cook, Buster Brown, Chuck Green, Steve Condos and Eddie Brown. She has also worked with Jimmy Slyde, Honi Coles, Gregory Hines and most of the dancers of her era. In her early performing years, she was a member of The Jazz Tap Ensemble, Gail Conrad "Street Dance", Anita Feldman "Body and Sole" and was partner to tap dancing clown artist Noel Parenti.
In 1986 Ms. Cornell co-founded Manhattan Tap and today is sole artistic director for this company that has been called "one of New York's leading tap ensembles" New York Times.
She is especially known for her collaborations with musicians on original jazz and world music compositions for tap, including bassist Ray Brown, pianist Keith Saunders, drummer Leon Parker, body musician Keith Terry and jazz singer Michele Hendricks. Musicians she has danced with include Obo Addy (master Guinean drummer), Celso Machado (Brazilian percussion/guitar), and jazz musicians Lewis Nash, Panama Francis, Clint Houston, the Ray Brown Trio, Mickie Tucker, The Harper Brothers, Robin Eubanks and more. Her choreography has been commissioned by Meet the Composer, KQED-TV, PBS (TV), The Tap Company (Zurich, Switzerland) and the Portland Dancers, among others.
For fuller bios on Ms. Cornell and the dancers and muscians, and more information on the company's projects, see the Manhattan Tap Web site.
SKIP CUNNINGHAM
Skip Cunningham is one of America's most talented entertainers and perhaps our last great "song and dance man". The career of this phenomenal tap dancer and singer spans a wide range of American entertainment alongside the likes of Tony Bennett, Ray Brown, Johnny Carson, Arnett Cobb, Nat King Cole, Bill Cosby, Lionel Hampton, Milt Hinton, Bob Hope, Illinois Jacquet, Jerry Lewis, Richard Pryor, Frank Sinatra, Noble Sissle, among many others. TV credits include the Ed Sullivan Show, the Smothers Brothers Special, the Tonight Show, and 32 appearances on the Merv Griffin show. He has performed on Broadway (George M., Eubie, Golden Boy, Evolution of the Blues), in such movies as The Cotton Club, Tap and The Detective, on the theater stage (Stalag 17, Arsenic and Old Laces) and throughout Europe, South America, the Far East, Australia and New Zealand. Mr. Cunningham has recorded for the Kapp, Coral and Motown labels.
LYNN DALLY
Lynn Dally, Director and co-founder of world renowned Jazz Tap Ensemble. Recognized as a leader in the renaissance of American tap dance, Lynn has received numerous choreographic fellowships and grants from the NEA and CAC. She is a frequent guest artist and master teacher in the US and abroad and has appeared on film, TV and live in concert with the greats including Charles "Honi" Coles, Eddie Brown, Jimmy Slyde, Gregory Hines and Harold Nicholas. Her work has become a model for ensembles around the globe. Contact: (310) 475-4412 [Photo copyright Johan Elbers.]
Lynn is slated to teach technique and composition at UIUC and choreograph two works for students, including one for Illinois Dance Theatre's Festival '97. (In Residence Oct. 21-Dec. 13).
DEAN DIGGINS
Dean Diggins, best known for his classical approach to tap, danced with the Stone-Camryn Ballet Company in Chicago and later moved to New York to study extensively with tap pioneer, Paul Draper. He danced with the Mattison Trio for 10 years, authored Tap Technique and currently performs the Morton Gould Tap Dance Concerto around the US. Dean teaches Intermediate and Advanced level classes at workshops focusing on his and Paul Draper's classical syllabus
JAN FEAGER
Jan Feager founded and directs St. Louis' Tapsichore. She was one of 12 artists chosen to work with "Honi" Coles at the Colorado Dance Festival's First Tap Creative Residency. Jan teaches at Webster University and Washington University and her sublime technique, humor, and craft identify her as one of today's very best
ROD FERRONE
Rod Ferrone is an actor/dancer/singer/hat trickster/choreographer who has danced for the stage, film and television and has performed with some of the legends of the entertainment world including Jimmy Slyde, Gregory Hines, and Henny Youngman, among others. He was one-half of the comedy duo Hot Foot, whose critically acclaimed show 'Scorch Marks on the Floor' was seen the world over. He has most recently performed on Broadway in the groundbreaking smash hit 'Urban Tap.' He has toured extensively with 'Cool Heat Urban Beat,' a fusion of tap and hip hop, which was critically acclaimed in Scotland, London, Spoleto Festival in Italy, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii. Rod contributed some of the choreography to the show. He is also co-star of Feet 2 The Beat, which he founded in 1996. Other tap credits include Dance Umbrella's 'Jazz Tap Hip Hop,' the JVC and Panasonic jazz festivals in NYC, the Colorado Dance Festival, a guest appearance at National Tap Dance Day at Lincoln Center ('96) and at Town Hall ('99), and a guest appearance with the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra in Morton Gould's 'Tap Dance Concerto.' He has also been involved in the 'Meet the Artist' program at Lincoln Center, giving lecture-demonstrations to grade school and high school students. He has taught master classes and workshops extensively throughout the world, teaching jazz, Latin, eccentric, and funk/hip hop. Acting credits include 'Scrooge' in the role of the Narrator at the Lamb's Theater in NYC. Rod is an accomplished guitarist as well. Tel: (212) 749-5789; email: hooferboy@earthlink.com
FEET 2 THE BEAT - Rod Ferrone and Max Pollak first crossed paths in 1992 at the New York jazz club, La Cave. It was there that the legendary tap dancer, Jimmy Slyde, hosted an evening of jazz tap improvisation. They have both danced throughout the world (Rod as a soloist and as co-star of Hot Foot; Max as a soloist on his own, with Manhattan Tap, and with the Danillo Perez group). They began their collaboration in March, 1997 and have since performed in Japan, Europe and throughout the US and Canada. They dance on swing, bebop, Latin, and hip-hop. Their aim is to capture tap's raw, uninhibited energy and style while keeping an eye to the future with new and innovative ways of presenting tap. Their choreography can be completely free-bodied and wild, reminiscent of its street roots, or it can be subtle and highly refined. They also leave a lot of room for dazzling improvisation, challenges, and trading of ideas within their dances. They are very serious about their craft but they also draw on tap's humorous side, utilizing satirical and comedic turns as a set up for many of their routines. Feet 2 The Beat's goal is to dazzle their audiences and to enlighten them to the sheer joy that can be derived from tap dancing, while providing some laughs along the way. For stage, film, television, or corporate events, call (212) 749-5789 or send an email to hooferboy@earthlink.com
ACIA GRAY
As the co-founder/Artistic Director of Tapestry Dance Company in Austin, TX, Ms. Gray has toured extensively to over 250 cities across the country and abroad to include England, Ireland, Cyprus and Austria. As a tap soloist, she has shared the stage with such tap greats as Savion Glover, Brenda Bufalino, Dianne Walker, Sarah Petronio, Chuck Green, Lon Chaney, Steve Condos, Ted Levy, Lane Alexander, Van Porter and many others in such productions as The Great Tap Reunion, Tap Do/Wop, Just Friends and Chicago on Tap to name a few. Ms. Gray was chosen as one of 12 dancers to work with the late tap legend Charles 'Honi' Coles in America's first creative residency for tap at The Colorado Dance Festival in 1989 and again in l990 with Jimmy Slyde.
Along with Tapestry Dance Company, she was a founding member and Managing Director of Austin on Tap, served on the steering committee of The International Tap Association and was featured in the l990 Dance Magazine calendar. She has served as choreographer on such Equity productions as Nunsense, She Loves Me, Cabaret, Man of La Mancha, My Fair Lady, A Christmas Carol and Dark of the Moon as well as South Pacific and Big River! Ms. Gray has also collaborated with numerous international ballet and modern dance artists including Lambros Lambrou, Stephen Mills, James Clouser and Bruce Wood and continues her interest in joint projects with numerous modern dance artists including an Blue Pearl with Sally Jacques in June 2000. In Austin, she teaches an accredited tap program at Austin Community College as well as Tapestry Dance Company Academy and served as the Artistic Director/Tap for Dance Arts Institute of America. Ms. Gray has choreographed and taught for numerous dance and academic organizations across America and abroad including Columbia College, The Colorado Dance Festival, Dance Masters of America, the American School/London, the Inis Ealga School of Irish Dance/Dublin and numerous tap festivals throughout the U.S. Ms. Gray is the author of the critically acclaimed The Souls of Your Feet - A Tap Dance Guide for Rhythm Explorers available at all major bookstores. Email: dance@tapestry.org
CHUCK GREEN
Chuck Green was part of the tap duo "Chuck and Chuckles" and became a protege of tap great John Bubbles. Chuck's duo was billed as the successor to "Buck and Bubbles." Chuck was a master tapper in his own right despite being side-lined by illness at different points in his career. He is one of three featured performers in the documentaries "No Maps on My Taps" along with Sandman Simms and Bunny Briggs and "Masters of Tap". In the current hit show "Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk", Savion Glover specifically describes Chuck as a major influence in the "mirror" scene. Bubbles to Green to Glover to...
Chuck Green passed away on March 6, 1997 and will be sadly missed
JOSH HILBERMAN
Josh performs in the US and Europe including appearances at the Boston Globe and Toulon Jazz Festival, Lincoln Center, the St. Louis Tap Festival, Barcelona's "Nit de Claque" and Munich's Unterfahrt. In 1994, Josh was a featured soloist and MC in the Boston Dance Umbrella's fourteen city tour, "Fascinating Rhythms" with tap greats Jimmy Slyde, Savion Glover and Dianne Walker. Josh has danced with Manhattan Tap. His innovative choreography is performed by premier youth tap groups "Tappers with Attitude" and the "North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble." He has been a faculty member at Roger Williams University, Mount Holyoke College and the Leon Collins Dance Studio,
NICOLE HOCKENBERRY
Nicole B. Hockenberry is an Easton native, where she studied tap since the age of eight. Upon further training in New York City, Nicole became a performing member of MANHATTAN TAP, a touring rhythm tap company, currently directed by Heather Cornell. While working with the company and performing with such tap legends as James 'Buster' Brown, LaVaughn Robinson, Heather Cornell, Savion Glover, Dianne 'Lady Di' Walker, Jeannie Hill and Germaine Salsberg, she became overwhelmed at the musicality of her art. Nicole has enlightened audiences nationwide with her unique style of rhythm-based jazz and tap. Mixing the bass and melody of tap with different musical instruments and keeping that jazz influenced improvisation is what she strives for as a soloist. As a teacher, she is dedicated to teaching her students the importance of musicality and inner rhythm. Through technique, improvisation and performance, she makes sure that her students know that they are musicians first and foremost.
T.A.P. Co. is a group of talented and dedicated rhythm tap dancers who find individual style within a dynamic group setting. The company goal consists of the three P's : to be Proud to Preserve and Perform the art of tap dance.
The company has been together since 1995 and has been successfully training and performing throughout the Lehigh and Delaware Valleys. Their performances have included The Philadelphia International Tap Dance Day Celebration 1997 & 1998; Musikfest 1996, 1997 & 1998; various concerts under the sponsorship of Terpsichore SAND, Frenchtown, NJ; local cable TV and radio shows; local elementary school music program and performance assemblies; college and University dance concerts; festivals celebrating music, dance and art and many other concert and lecture/demonstration programs both indoors and out. The Absolute Trio travels with T.A.P. Co. to many of the concert performances in order to provide the audience with a bigger sense of the musicality between Jazz and Tap. The trio consists of bass, guitar and drums and is joined on occasion by vocals.
See Web site for more information.
JENI LEGON
Jeni LeGon performed with mythic musical giants like Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Fats Waller, and Count Basie. She felt at home in legendary live venus like Harlem's Apollo Theater, and she was the first black woman to be offered a long-term contract by a Hollywood studio, eventually appearing in musicals like "Hooray for Love" and "Easter Parade". Chicago-born dancer Jeni LeGon's special stylistic flourish at the height of her career was wearing pants, so she could leap high and land in splits, just like the male tap stars of the swing band era. At the age of 82, Jeni wound down her long career, which took her from headlining with stars to teaching her distinctive style to hopeful students. Grant Greschuk's documentary about her, "Jeni LeGon: Living in a Great Big Way", shows off her considerable teaching skills and flashes back to footage of her limber, seemingly effortless dance moves. See a list of films for Jeni LeGon at the Internet Movie Database. [Notes from 2001 New Orleans Jazz Dance Festival which honored "Special Heritage Guest Artist" Jeni LeGon.]
HERVÉ LE GOFF
Tap Dancer/Choreographer Hervé Le Goff, based in Paris, France, is a former soloist with the American Tap Dance Orchestra where he performed in the U.S., Bermuda, and New York City (Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center, Town Hall, Apollo Theater...) With French pianist Frédérique, he created "Dansez Sur Moi" and "Je sais des tas d'histoires d'amour", both shows of songs and tap dance they perform in NY, Paris and Canada.
Hervé received a scholarship from the French Ministery of Culture for choreographic studies in New York.
Hervé co-founded, with director Lucie Tiberghien, Charniére a tap-dance-theater company. They created "Putain D'Soleil/This Damned Sun" performed in New York in Feb. 97, "Bonsoir Mon Prince/Good Evening My Prince" performed in New York in Feb. 98 and The Quiet Room (an adaptation of Howard Buten's novel Quand j'avais cinq ans, je m'ai tué) performed in New York in Apr. 99 and in Oct. 2000.
Hervé is currently touring with "2 temps 3 mouvements", a show that accompanies the presentation of the new Hermè shoe collection (artistic director, Patrice Nave). He also dances regularly for La Tribu des Créateurs, a agency of corporate entertainment.
His style is highly inflenced by his training as a flamenco dancer, his studies of Brazilian percussions and his passion for Latin music. e-mail: hervelegoff@yahoo.com
TED LEVY
Ted Levy's professional training began in Chicago with Mrs. Shirley Hall Bass and Mr. Finis Henderson II, Master Tap Dancer and former manager of Sammy Davis Jr.. Mr. Henderson encouraged Ted to pursue a professional career in the performing arts, which began at The Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago.
Mr. Levy made his Broadway debut in the smash hit Black & Blue. He collaborated with George C. Wolfe and Gregory Hines on the Choreography of Jelly's Last Jam, for which he received a TONY NOMINATION, DRAMA DESK NOMINATION and the 1993 OUTER CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD. Ted was awarded an EMMY AWARD for his television debut performance in the PBS Special Precious Memories, and appeared in Spike Lee's Malcolm X for his film debut. His production of Ted Levy and Friends, directed by Gregory Hines, celebrated Ted as one of America's premier Tap Dance Artists. Influenced by Mr. Hines, Ted acquired his directorial debut as Director of Savion Glover's, Dancing Under The Stars at the New York Shakespeare Festival's Delacorte Theater. He also assisted in the choreography of Broadway's Tony Award winning hit Bring In 'Da Noise! Bring In 'Da Funk! Ted appeared in the movie Bojangles with Gregory Hines, returning to Broadway as Papa Jack in Susan Stroman and Harry Conick Jr.'s Thou Shalt Not; and as The Mikado in The Ford Theater's production of The Hot Mikado. For which he won a HELEN HAYES AWARD. Most recently Ted performed with the Sammy; a production based on the musical life of Sammy Davis Jr.
Ted has taught and lectured throughout the United States and abroad. For master class information he can be contacted at
- Email: bamalam@nyc.rr.com
- Web: http://www.myspace.com/tedllevy