Author Maureen Footer is joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning cultural critic Margo Jefferson to talk about Footer’s new biography of groundbreaking jazz and tap choreographer Buddy Bradley, Feel the Floor: Restoring the Life and Legacy of Jazz Choreographer Buddy Bradley.
A pioneering but unsung figure in the development of jazz and tap dance in the 20th century, Bradley’s revolutionary style electrified dance on Broadway and London’s West End in the 1920s and ‘30s. He introduced the language of jazz dance into the ballets of giants Frederick Ashton and George Balanchine. And his students – Eleanor Powell, Ruby Keeler, Adele Astaire – became legends. But the racism of the era left his work in the US uncredited, making him the most influential dancer and choreographer many have never heard of. Hear Footer talk with Jefferson about Bradley’s journey from Jim Crow-era Birmingham to the nightclubs of the Harlem Renaissance and beyond, his influence as a Black artist on white performing stages, the innovations that live on in the work of Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, and on Broadway today, and much more. And hear her explore with one of our leading arts critics how this under-celebrated genius used African American dance to transform an art form.
Book will be available for purchase.