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>> Hi, you're back. Let me explain a little bit to you. We're going to go and talk
about some more hoofers. I've given you the four that were responsible for the
evolution of your hoofing style. And now I'm going to give you some more.
Understand that in your tap you have a lot of African-Americans, because there was
a freedom in that. A lot of the tap you did not have to go to a special school to
learn tap. A lot of this kind of tapping, hoofing, was actually learned out in the
streets. So therefore, you have a lot of performers that are in this area, where
some areas there are limitations. So let's continue. Let's go. Okay, now starting
with Honi Coles and Cholly Atkins. They were an act I explained to you a little
bit. We were talking about them being a class act. They were nice-looking men, and
Honi Coles basically -- and Cholly were actually very close friends. And they had
this act, and they were in the hoofers club, which was a very elite club to be in.
And they traveled around, and they did their act. Eventually they broke up. When
they split up, Honi Coles started to do more Broadway shows here. And Cholly Atkins
started creating the dance moves. You know how you see performers like NSYNC and -what is it? -- B2K, those kinds of guys, you know, and they're doing the boom, and
they're singing, and they're moving, and all that. Okay, well, that actually
started back in Motown days, and Cholly Atkins was very important and pivotal in
that whole thing. And what he would do is he would choreograph with these different
groups from Motown like Gladys Knight and the Pips, and the Four Tops, and the
Cadillacs, and they had all these different names for these groups. So if you're
not familiar with that you can go and look up Motown and find out some information
about that. Now you had Chuck Green who's the next one, and Chuck actually had an
act with Chuckles. Chuckles played the piano, and Chuck would dance. And they were
actually proteges of Buck and Bubbles. Remember, I talked to you about John
Bubbles. John Bubbles had an act, Buck and Bubbles. And he was feeling like they
needed someone to come up after them to sort of take their spot when they go. So
they groomed Chuck Green and his partner Chuckles. And they were called Chuck and
Chuckles. So you have Buck and Bubbles, and they groomed Chuck and Chuckles. Okay,
moving on. Here's a picture of the Four Tops. When I was telling you about Cholly
Atkins, I have a picture here. I don't know whether he -- this was like an older
picture of the Four Tops. But the kinds of movements that they were doing Cholly
Atkins was responsible for. Okay, moving on. You have two women -- and there
weren't a lot of women with this hoofing style. It was basically a male-dominated
dance form. And you did have some women. You had Alberta, and you had Alice
Whitman. They were the Whitman sisters, and in fact, there were more of them. In
fact, I think there were about four of them. And the four of them started a
production company which was -- which is very admirable for back in that time. Now
both of them when they would perform dressed as men. They didn't perform as women;
they dressed as men. And that's because of that whole stigma of, like I said, a
male-dominated hoofing club that existed. So they would perform as men. Alice was
considered to be the Queen of Taps. That is the name that she was given because of
her proficiency. Now we have some others. You have Sandman Simms. Most of these
performers had some kind of specialty that they would perform with. And Sandman
Simms specialty was tapping on sand. Look at your footage. He would take a box.
He'd put sand on it, and he would tap on it, would make a [shushing noise] kind of
sound, which was really wonderful and exciting to hear. Moving on, you have your
Nicolaus Brothers. This is the correct spelling for the Nicolaus Brothers. Again,
they were a specialty act. They were an example of your flash act. And just a
little side note, the two of them was Harold and Fayard -- Harold and Fayard. And
one was younger than the other. And the youngest one actually passed away about -in -- I think in 2000. But at any rate, they were -- as children they were
recognized. They were phenomenal, phenomenal. And they broke out really big in -not only just in these venues I was talking about, because a lot of these hoofers
were only in these venues because they couldn't really break into film. But these
Nicolaus Brothers were able to break into film. Harold was married to Dorothy

Dandridge. And there is a story called the Dorothy Dandridge story, and you might
want to look that up. Okay, moving on. We have Peg Leg Bates. Peg Leg, as just
that. What happens is when he was very young he was in the cotton field. And they
had these warehouses where you go, and they do something with the cotton. They
churn it. Somehow he fell into this machine, and it actually took off his leg. Back
in that day African-Americans couldn't go to your local hospitals. And so they
actually took him back home, took his leg and put it on the table, and he had to
suffer through that particular situation with no help from -- medical help from any
doctors. However, he feels like that was a blessing to him, and see some footage -you'll see footage of him dancing -- because he was so proficient -- he got so
proficient in dancing with his peg leg that actually he could compete with anyone
who had two legs. And because of that peg leg he became famous in his dancing. So
it shows you how some things that turn out no so well in life you can make
something positive out of it. Okay, moving on we have Henry Le Tang. Henry Le tang
had choreographed "The Cotton Club" movie and a lot of Broadway shows, "Black and
Blue" and "Jelly's Last Jam." And he is Gregory Hines -- most people know Gregory
Hines who did the movie "Tap" and has performed a lot in the movies -- Gregory
Hines mentor. He was the one -- whenever Gregory does anything in terms of tapping
or shows, he always calls in Henry. Henry is a wonderful choreographer and
instructor. He actually lives here in Las Vegas. Then next we have Jimmy Slyde.
Jimmy Slyde -- I had said to you before that a lot of these dancers had sort of
gimmicks or specialties. Jimmy Slyde -- now I don't know if the name -- his last
name, which is spelled as you see, S-L-Y-D-E -- I don't know if his name came from
what he does, or if it's just coincidence, but he would slide when he would tap.
And don't have footage of that, but it's something to see. As he's tapping he would
do this sliding, tap-tap-tap-slide, tap-tap-slide. Kind of hard to show you. But at
any rate, that was his particular specialty. You had Sammy Davis, Jr. And we all
know Sammy Davis, Jr. from the Rat Pack, especially people from Las Vegas. And
Sammy Davis, Jr. started out as a hoofer, but he was such an incredible performer.
He was considered a song and dance man. He could do everything. He could do -- he
could shoot a gun. He did impersonations. He could play almost every instrument.
And he could act. So he is a total, total performer. That's Sammy Davis, Jr. Moving
on, we have Bunny Briggs. Bunny Briggs basically got his start as a young child,
and what he would do was at half-time he would tap, and people would throw him
money so that he could pay for the rent, his mother's rent. And he was seen by Bill
"Bojangles" Robinson, and Bill wanted to take him on the road. But his mother
declined because she had a sister who was a pony-- remember, we were saying chorus
girls were considered ponies back then -- and she just didn't recommend a young
child -- think he was maybe like eight or nine -- to go on the road, such a rough
life. Okay, now we're moving into a new generation of performers. Most of you know
Maurice Hines and Gregory Hines. Maurice and Gregory, they were very young. They
had an act with their father called Hines, Hines, and Dad. And what happens is with
these older men -- one thing I like about hoofers is that these men would always
embrace the youth. They always wanted to teach the youth, and they did. They taught
Maurice and they taught Gregory how to tap. And eventually what happened was -- is
that they would go behind the Apollo where they would have these challenges -remember I told you about the challenges. And that's where the real performance
went on, when you saw these great hoofers challenging each other. And Maurice and
Gregory were learning these particular styles of challenge, you know, these
different rhythmic patterns. So as time goes on, in about the '60s, hoofing almost
becomes extinct. In the '70s there are Broadway shows that start to come back onto
the show up on Broadway that really talked about some of the lifestyles of like the
'40s and the '30s. And so when this happened, Gregory and Maurice who are now older
at this point were pulled in to do these shows. Gregory, matter of fact, was like a
hippie, I understand, in California. I think he had a singing group. But he was
pulled into New York with his brother, and they did this show called "Eubie!" E-UB-I-E. And it was about Eubie Blake. You see this here, E-U-B-I-E. And from there
they became popular. Maurice went into more of your Broadway style of tapping, and
Gregory just kind of stuck with the hoofing, although Maurice does hoofing, too. So

let's just take a picture of them -- oh, we have "The Cotton Club," that they were
in, the movie "Cotton Club." The were both in this movie together. Now Gregory was
just in the movie "Tap," and he brought in a lot of these men who we've talked
about. So if you actually happen to see the movie "Tap," and you would like to rent
it or whatever, it's very interesting, and you can see a nice little challenge
scene with a lot of the people that we're discussing. And Gregory Hines also
starred in "Bojangles." Here's a picture of Gregory and Maurice. This is
a picture of Gregory. And Gregory -- and from the movie "Tap." Now we have one
woman, Diane Walker, who was also in the movie "Tap." And she has been really given
a lot of acclaim for her ability to do hoofing style. And this is like the newer
generation. And it's exciting to see her work. So if you see that movie "Tap," you
will also see her in that movie. She's a very dynamic woman. Her name is Diane
Walker. Savion Glover, now again, just as these men embraced Maurice and Gregory,
Gregory has then embraced new talent. And Savion Glover, a lot of you have seen him
on television. He did a lot of Broadway shows with Gregory like "Black and Blue"
and "Jelly's Last Jam." He's also seen in the movie "Tap." He's very young then, I
think about 14 or 15. But he went on, and he did a -- choreographed a Broadway show
which he also created. And it was called -- look at out monitor here, we have -"Bring in the Noise, Bring in the Funk." And he received a Tony for this. He is the
youngest choreographer who has ever received a Tony, at the age of 21. He can also
be seen in "Bamboozled" and in "Bojangles," those two movies. Also, look at your
footage again. Here's a picture of Savion here in "Bring in the Noise, Bring in the
Funk." And this is a picture of Savion. And I'd like to also let you know that the
Nike commercial with the basketballs and the rhythm, this commercial was actually
choreographed -- I mean, a lot of it was freestyle -- but the parts that were
choreographed were choreographed by Savion. So we have gone through from the old to
the new generation, and I hope that you've enjoyed this. And we'll be going on next
time to another dance style idiom form. All right, so until next time, I will see
you. Bye! Have a nice day.
>> If you are interested in any other UNLV distance education course, please call
us at 702-895-0334.
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