Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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influential tap dancers by Stephanie moore.
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First up, we have Bill Bojangles. Robinson years active 1900 to 1943.
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He was a dancer. Actor and activist.
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Bill Robinson also known as the great Bojangles.
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He was the first black star to tap dance solo on the stage.
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He brought tap dancing up onto his toes rather than flat footed.
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Robinson was the first african american head to headline a broadway musical.
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Bill Bojangles broke racial boundaries and tap dancing.
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Robinson was light,
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graceful and an exquisite tap dancer of delicate and clear sounds
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Fred Astaire years active in 1904 to 1981,
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he was an actor, dancer, singer, presenter, choreographer and percussionist
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because of segregation and different budgets.
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Black dancers were denied access to the white film industry.
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As a result, the distinction and top styles began to develop
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black dance artists continued the tradition of rhythm, tap on stage and screen.
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Artists like Gene kelly and fred Astaire evolved a balletic
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broadway style of tap dancing and film
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where jazz rhythms were less important,
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fred Astaire, who was considered the greatest answer in film history.
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Astaire was inspired greatly by Bill Bojangles. Robinson.
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His greatest traits were an uncanny sense of rhythm,
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perfectionism and innovation.
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Astaire would rehearse his stance for his movie for two months before filming.
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His style reflected heavy into Syncopation and lines,
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not particularly fast steps.
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He was a virtuoso dancer and when called for,
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he was able to convey lighthearted or deep emotion.
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His technical control. Since the rhythm were astonishing.
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You would find a stair incorporating jazz and ballet and theatrical tap dances.
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Eleanor Powell Years Active 1928 - 1953.
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Dancer actress
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Eleanor Powell, one of the top dancing stars during the golden age of Hollywood
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pal was versatile and known as a powerful female dancer of the Hollywood studio air.
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She developed this dance style that fused her ballet,
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acrobatic abilities with her grounded taps
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pal enjoyed smooth, effortlessly fast, complex footwork,
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barely leaving the floor
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even to perform tap steps that take place airborne such as double Pullbacks.
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This was contracted with energetic term sequences,
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high fly and buoyant leaps which further showed her technique and ability.
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Gregory Hines years active 1951,.
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He was a dancer, actor, choreographer and singer.
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Next we have the most celebrated dancer of all time.
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Gregory hinds Hinds was an avid improviser of tap steps, tap sounds and tap rhythms.
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His improvisation was like that of a drummer.
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He was a laid back dancer usually wore loose fitting pants and a tighter shirt.
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Heinz purposely obliterated the tempos in his dance.
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He aligned tap with freeform experiments and jazz and postmodern dance.
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Savion Glover years active 1985 - 2001, he was a dancer. Actor and choreographer.
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Gregory Hines hugely influenced our next chapter Savion glover
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Save Ian styles quoted by him. Young and funk.
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One of his teachers being Gregory Hines Hines stated that
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seven is probably the best tap dancer who ever lived.
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Safavian revitalized tap dancing for the millennium generation,
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blunt and driven by an internal duty.
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He was funky and had a flat heeled style with a demeanor that was cool and aloof.
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His body style was hunkered over and crouching with
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no attention to the carriage of the arms,
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glover has a sharp pounding into the floor technique,
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a rhythm tapper making music with his feet compared to
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a theatrical tapper like fred Astaire for whole body tappers.