The Littlest Rebel Shirley Temple Tap Dancing Scene Bill Bojangles Robinson

Tap dancing on the balls of one s feet hardly seems like a novel idea, but the technique is due largely to beloved hoofer Bill Bojangles Robinson (18781949). He revolutionized the previously popular style of flatfooted shuffling with uponhistoes tapping and a swinging rhythm. Born Luther Robinson in Richmond, Virginia, he was given the nickname Bojangles as a reference to his quarrelsome nature (from jangler ), and he began performing as a teenager in the pickaninny (that is, AfricanAmerican child) chorus for the white minstrel show The South Before the War. Eager to pursue a professional performance career, Robinson moved to New York around 1900. He soon made the rounds on the vaudeville Keith and Orpheum circuits with fellow dancer George W. Cooper, satisfying the twocolored rule, which required blacks to perform in pairs. By 1915, Robinson had moved on to become the first black solo act in vaudeville, known to audiences as The Dark Cloud of Se