Alfred "Pepsi" Bethel (August 31, 1918,

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte, North Car ...

– August 30, 2002,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

) was a

jazz dance Jazz dance is a performance dance and style that arose in the United States in the mid 20th century. Jazz dance may allude to vernacular jazz about to Broadway or dramatic jazz. The two types expand on African American vernacular styles of danc ...

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

, and leader of his own dance troupe, the Pepsi Bethel Authentic Jazz Dance Theater, which he founded in 1960.Terry Monaghan
Pepsi Bethel, Lindy-hopping jazz dancer who choreographed the celebratory revue One Mo' Time

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September 27, 2002

Career

He began his career with dances like the Cakeywalk,

Lindy hop The Lindy Hop is an American dance which was born in the Black communities of Harlem, New York City, in 1928 and has evolved since then. It was very popular during the swing era of the late 1930s and early 1940s. Lindy is a fusion of many danc ...

, and Charleston at the

Savoy Ballroom The Savoy Ballroom was a large ballroom for music and public dancing located at 596 Lenox Avenue, between 140th and 141st Streets in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Lenox Avenue was the main thoroughfare through upper Harlem ...

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Harl ...

, and worked with the

Mura Dehn Mura Ziperovitch Dehn (1905–1987) documented African-American social jazz dancing at the Savoy Ballroom in New York in the 1930s and 1940s, a time that she referred to as the "Golden Age of Jazz." She also worked as a producer and documenter up ...

Jazz Ballet and other companies before forming his own troupe. He is known for choreographing the Lindy Hop jazz routine

Tranky Doo The Tranky Doo (also called Trunky Doo) is a jazz dance choreography. A source states it was choreographed by Frankie Manning himself and ″''...named in tribute to the chorus girl who inspired it.''″Frankie Manning - Ambassador of Lindy Hop ...

. Jennifer Dunning
Pepsi Bethel, 83, a Champion Of American Popular Dance

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, September 6, 2002 Bethel worked as a consultant and choreographer on several shows directed by Vernel Bagneris, including two productions of ''

One Mo' Time One More Time may refer to: Film and television * ''One More Time'' (1931 film), a Merrie Melodies cartoon * ''One More Time'' (1970 film), a film by Jerry Lewis * ''One More Time'', a 1974 TV special with Carol Channing, Pearl Bailey, and other ...

'', '' Staggerlee'' (1987) and ''Jelly Roll!'' (1994). In 1980, his work as a choreographer was honored in ''Celebration of Men in Dance'' at the Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

. Four years later, he staged the revue ''An Evening With Charles Cook and Friends'' at Aaron Davis Hall and was a production consultant ''Sing Hallelujah!'' at the

Village Gate The Village Gate was a nightclub at the corner of Thompson and Bleecker Streets in Greenwich Village, New York. Art D'Lugoff opened the club in 1958, on the ground floor and basement of 160 Bleecker Street. The large 1896 Chicago School structur ...

in 1987.

Death

He died the day before his 84th birthday in New York City.

References

External links

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Pepsi Bethel
on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Bethel, Pepsi 1918 births 2002 deaths American jazz dancers American choreographers People from Greensboro, North Carolina Artists from New York City 20th-century American dancers