Word: dancers
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Maybe Thomas was reacting to Witt when Debi finagled a consultation with the dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov. "I couldn't believe it," she says. "Standing right there. Baryshnikov. I was so inspired. The neat thing is, I think he was inspired too." He suggested a few points of emotional emphasis, an exaggerated movement here and there. "Could you do this?" he asked gently. Then he turned her over to a colleague, former American Ballet Theater Soloist George de la Pena. "I found her to be extraordinarily intelligent," says De la Pena., "and extraordinarily shy. A lot of people look...
...such man was Leon Collins, who is the subject of Songs Unwritten: A Tap Dancer Remembered, a documentary by David Wadsworth '84. The project is the first in a series for The Leon Collins Archive, Inc., which Wadsworth hopes will bring recognition to Collins and other lesser-known jazz performers...
Wadsworth caught up with him in Brookline where, in 1982, he had started the Leon Collins Dance Studio. After a 40-minute interview with the dancer, Wadsworth became impressed by "the man's vernacular and approach to art... It was clearly the start of something much bigger...
...appreciate the innovation involved, it is important to understand that Collins was not technically a tap dancer, but a hoofer. Whereas a tap dancer concentrates on the effect of movement, a hoofer expresses himself through percussion, creating melodies with his feet. As Dizzy Gillespie explains during the film, "Leon was one of the pioneers of the bebop of dancing, along with Teddy Hale and Baby Laurence. They would dance one of my solos or one of Charlie Parker's, and they'd do it perfectly. They used to knock...
...short time after Wadsworth began the project, Leon Collins was diagnosed as having cancer, and he died in 1985. Songs Unwritten: A Tap Dancer Remembered goes a long way toward keeping the memory of Collins and his fellow innovators alive...