Timothy Tap Dancing

Episode Details: Tap études by LaVaughn Robinson; Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World medley by Israel "Iz" Kamakawiwo'ole; Performed by Timothy Yue.

This episode is a tribute to the legendary, master, tap dancer LaVaughn Robinson. The improvised tap solo is made up of LaVaughn études, short compositions he taught his students.

The locations have subtle significance to Philly hoofers. LaVaughn learned to tap dance on the streets of Philadelphia. His spot was the corner of Broad and South. LaVaughn was very proud to be a professor at the University of the Arts, and they were lucky to have him. The other main location is his tap studio at UArts. For a number of years, his studio was at 313 S Broad. That location no longer exists; however, I know that he loved his new studio.

LaVaughn will be deeply missed.

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Friends,

The world has lost a legendary master tap dancer. LaVaughn Robinson passed away January 22, 2008. The National Endowment for the Arts named LaVaughn a national treasure, and we are a poorer nation without him.

He was a wonderful friend and mentor. He was caring and concerned for all tap dancers. I'll miss the twinkle in his eye when he talked about life and art and reminisced about the great dancers who came before him. He came up as a street dancer, and his spot was the corner of Broad and South in center city Philadelphia. LaVaughn was a story teller, and he told stories with his feet.

He liked to talk about the great dancers who influenced him like Bill Bailey and Teddy Hale. Listen when I tell you, LaVaughn was the greatest tap dancer I've ever seen. He was fantastic. Compared to many other Art forms, like music and painting, with their thousands of years of history and tradition, tap is still in its infancy. The American art form of tap dancing can be traced back maybe 110 years. Much earlier than that and the dancing would be considered one of tap's ancestors like buck dancing, clogging, and Irish step dancing.

In it's brief history, LaVaughn was a major innovator, creator, and contributor. He individually elevated the art from of tap. The rhythmic intricacy and complexity that he invented, developed tap into a mature percussive musical form. So much of what tap dancers do today would not be possible without LaVaughn's innovations. He will be profoundly missed.

The examiner:

Robinson and partner Henry Meadows danced professionally for 40 years, performing throughout the South and in Boston and Chicago, but often returning to Philadelphia nightclubs.

Later performances took Robinson all over the world. He also shared stages with performers such as Charlie Parker, Jimmy Dorsey, Cab Calloway and Billie Holiday.

Philly DOT com:

He started dancing on the linoleum floor in the shed kitchen of his family's South Philadelphia rowhouse. His mother hiked her skirt above her knees to teach him his first time-step.

"You could walk down South Street," he once recalled, "and meet up with the best dancers in the city. As a youngster, I put my steps to good use, performing for change on the streets of downtown and South Philadelphia."

Inquirer:

"Tap is a self-creating art," Mr. Robinson told his students. "It is highly individualistic, and each dancer differs from the other in a way which is not matched by any other form of dance. It is intricate and very free. Tap comes from the mind."

Mr. Robinson often danced to no music at all. His "close floor work," considered by many the purest form of tap, was his music.

The New York Times:

In awarding a National Heritage Fellowship to Mr. Robinson in 1989, the National Endowment for the Arts cited his distinctive style: “In performance, Robinson stresses the vernacular origins of tap grounded in community tradition and honed by generations of tap masters, many of whom, such as Honi Coles and the Nicholas Brothers, grew up in Philadelphia.”

Season 2

Saturday January 19, 2008

Episode Details: Performed by Timothy Yue; Choreography by LaVaughn Robinson.

This is a tribute to the master LaVaughn Robinson. Known as the fastest feet in the business, he is the master of the paddle and roll. LaVaughn is Philly hoofing. This is one version of a piece LaVaughn taught all of his students at University of the Arts for years. I wish him a speedy recovery.

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