Word: hoofers
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...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...
...comic humiliation that befell him -- whether getting vamped by a transvestite rabbit or fricasseed by an irate hunter -- he displayed the bravura resilience of a born loser. This master thespian could play an existential hero (Duck Amuck), a base canard (You Ought to Be in Pictures), a hard-breathing hoofer (Show Biz Bugs) or a World War II draft dodger (Draftee Daffy). Wily farceur, dynamite showman, he made 126 pictures before retiring in 1968. For years he could be seen only on kiddie TV shows or -- oh, the ignominy of it all! -- commercials. But now he has returned, pretty much...
...Broadway, which invented what have since become the cliches of backstage sagas and gangster melodramas. Pat Patton's staging abounds with campy cabaret numbers, menacing slapstick and chorus-girl goofiness, and centers on a superbly acted struggle for the heroine between a sinuous mobster (Castellanos) and a cheery hoofer (Brian Tyrrell). Broadway celebrates the gutsy traditions and restorative powers of the theater. Some 2,500 miles off Broadway, Ashland does the same, season after season...
...retirement to play Ragtime's canny police commissioner, a man whose final ruthlessness was like a congealed residue of Cagney's youthful pugnacity. Cagney was rediscovered and in the years that followed treated to a flood of public affection, tributes and honors. Though age had undone his hoofer's dexterity, he made a last proud turn in the Hollywood spotlight...
...used the fast-changing rhythms of a hoofer to orchestrate a characterization. Like all the best actors, he always made it look easy. Like Spencer Tracy, he seemed a natural force: everything seemed to flow out without calculation. Tracy, however, made chamber music; Cagney was a marching band. It is probably this particular blend of effortlessness and theatricality that moved Orson Welles to marvel, "You're supposed to be scaled down and subtle in movie acting. But look at Cagney--he's big. Everything he does is big, and it works...