Eleanor Torrey Powell was born in Massachusetts, 1912. She took up dance lessons at a young age, as her mother thought it may encourage her to overcome her social awkwardness, but she didn’t learn to tap until after her stage career had already begun. Powell performed in two children’s shows before her first appearance on […]
Bernard “Bunny” Briggs was born in 1922 in the heart of Harlem, NYC: “a swingin’ area, I’ll tell you that.” According to Briggs, he was born dancing. In his interview with Rusty Frank for the book Tap! The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and Their Stories, 1900-1955 he says: “When I finally faced the world my […]
Frederick Austerlitz was born in 1899 in Omaha, Nebraska, and moved to New York in 1905 with his family to receive dance training and perform on vaudeville stages. He and his sister Adele studied with Alviene Master School of the Theatre and Academy of Cultural Arts, but could not perform in New York due to […]
Gregory Oliver Hines was born in New York in 1946. The family lived on Sugar Hill, home of black entertainers, on Harlem’s West 150th Street. His grandmother had danced at the Cotton Club in the 1920s, and his father was a respected drummer who performed in many legendary venues, including the Savoy Ballroom. It was […]