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Charles “Cookie” Cook
Charles "Cookie" Cook (February 11, 1914 – August, 1991) was a tap dancer who performed in the heyday of tap through the 1980s, and was a founding member of the Copasetics. He was the dance partner of Ernest "Brownie" Brown, with whom he performed from the days of vaudeville into the 1960s. They performed in film, such as Dorothy Dandridge 1942 "soundie" ''Cow Cow Boogie'', on Broadway in the 1948 musical ''Kiss Me, Kate'', twice at the Newport Jazz Festival, as well in other acts, including "Garbage and His Two Cans" in which they played the garbage cans. He headlined venues including New York's Palace, the Apollo, Radio City Music Hall, Cotton Club, and London Palladium.Constance Valis Hill, “Charles ‘Cookie’ Cook iography” Tap Dance in America: A Twentieth-Century Chronology of Tap Performance on Stage, Film, and Media, Library of Congress, accessed May 4, 2022, http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.music.tdabio.58/default.html. Quoted as saying "if you can walk, you ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tap Dance
Tap dance (or tap) is a form of dance that uses the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion; it is often accompanied by music. Tap dancing can also be performed with no musical accompaniment; the sound of the taps is its own music. It is an American artform that evolved alongside the advent of jazz music. Tap is a type of step dance that began with the combination of Southern American and Irish dance traditions, such as Irish soft-shoe and hard-shoe step dances, and a variety of both slave and freeman step dances. The fusion of African rhythms and performance styles with European techniques of footwork led to the creation of tap dance. This fusion began in the mid-17th century but did not become popular until the mid-19th century. There are two major versions of tap dance: rhythm (jazz) tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses on dance; it is widely performed in musical theater. Rhythm tap focuses on musicality, and practitioners consider themselve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s and gained a national profile through his orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. A master at writing miniatures for the three-minute 78 rpm recording format, Ellington wrote or collaborated on more than one thousand compositions; his extensive body of work is the largest recorded personal jazz legacy, and many of his pieces have become Standard (music), standards. He also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol's "Caravan (1937 song), Caravan", which brought a Spanish tinge to big band jazz. At the end of the 1930s, Ellington began a nearly thirty five-year collaboration with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his writ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Wein
George Wein (October 3, 1925 – September 13, 2021) was an American jazz promoter, pianist, and producer."George Wein: Dinosaur Walks the Earth" AllAboutJazz.com interview, June 2000, Retrieved on April 1, 2007. He was the founder of the , which is held every summer in . He also co-founded the Newport Folk Festival with |
National Endowment For The Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government by an act of the Congress of the United States, U.S. Congress, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 29, 1965 (20 U.S.C. 951). It is a sub-agency of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities, along with the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The NEA has its offices in Washington, D.C. It was awarded Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre in 1995, as well as the Special Tony Award in 2016. In 1985, the NEA won an honorary Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its work with the American Film Institute in the identification, acquisition, restoration and preservation of histo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CETA Employment Of Artists (1974–1981)
CETA Employment of Artists (1974–1981) refers to the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), which federally employed more than 10,000 artists – visual, performing, and literary – during a span of eight years. This was the largest number of artists supported by Federal funding since the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the 1930s. It is estimated that an additional 10,000 arts support staff were funded as well. During its peak year, 1980, CETA funding for arts employment funneled up to $300 million (more than $1 billion in 2020 dollars) into the cultural sector – and the economy – of the United States. In comparison, the National Endowment for the Arts budget that year was $159 million. Unlike the WPA, which included artists in its original design through five specific projects, CETA was designed as a generalized program to provide training and employment for economically disadvantaged, unemployed, and underemployed persons. In addition, federal funding wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Harlem School Of The Arts
Harlem School of the Arts (HSA) is an art school located in the Harlem, New York, Harlem section of Manhattan, New York City, United States. Opening its doors in 1964, HSA serves ages 2 through 18. History Harlem School of the Arts was founded in 1964, by soprano Dorothy Maynor in the basement of the St. James Presbyterian Church in Harlem at a time when the community suffered severe physical blight, high levels of poverty, and few cultural resources for its young people. Maynor was succeeded by mezzo-soprano Betty Allen as President in 1979, when a new 37,000 square foot facility designed by Ulrich Franzen was completed. Other presidents included Allicia Adams, Camille Akjeu, and Daryl Durham. Eric G. Pryor was president and CEO between August 2015 and December 2019. Currently, Lisa Davis and Kenneth W. Taber act as Interim Co-Chairs. In 2005, the school was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 structure by architect Ernest Flagg was known at the time as Mills House No. 1 and served as a flophouse for transient men. In its heyday, the Village Gate also included an upper-story performance space, known as the Top of the Gate. Throughout its 38 years, the Village Gate featured such musicians as John Coltrane, Coleman Hawkins, Duke Ellington, Mongo Santamaria, Jimi Hendrix, Golden Earring, Dizzy Gillespie, Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck, Larry Coryell, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey, Woody Shaw, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Vasant Rai, Nina Simone, Herbie Mann, Woody Allen, Patti Smith, Lucio Dalla, Velvet Underground, Edgard Varèse, and Aretha Franklin, who made her first New York appearance there. The show ''Jacques Brel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Yale was established as the Collegiate School in 1701 by Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalist clergy of the Connecticut Colony. Originally restricted to instructing ministers in theology and sacred languages, the school's curriculum expanded, incorporating humanities and sciences by the time of the American Revolution. In the 19th century, the college expanded into graduate and professional instruction, awarding the first Doctor of Philosophy, PhD in the United States in 1861 and organizing as a university in 1887. Yale's faculty and student populations grew rapidly after 1890 due to the expansion of the physical campus and its scientif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American University
The American University (AU or American) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Its main campus spans 90-acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, in the Spring Valley (Washington, D.C.), Spring Valley and Tenleytown neighborhoods of Northwest (Washington, D.C.), Northwest D.C. American was chartered by an Act of Congress in 1893 at the urging of Methodism, Methodist bishop John Fletcher Hurst, who sought to create an institution that promoted public service, Internationalism (politics), internationalism, and pragmatic idealism. AU broke ground in 1902, opened as a graduate education institution in 1914, and admitted its first undergraduates in 1925. The university was founded by the General Conference (Methodism), General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church as a United Methodist Church higher education, national Methodist institution. It remains affiliated with the United Methodist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brooklyn Academy Of Music
The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a multi-arts center in Brooklyn, New York City. It hosts progressive and avant-garde performances, with theater, dance, music, opera, film programming across multiple nearby venues. BAM was chartered in 1859, presented its first show in 1861, and began operations in its present location in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, in 1908. The Academy is incorporated as a New York State not-for-profit corporation. It has 501(c)(3) status. Gina Duncan has served as president since April 2022. David Binder became artistic director in 2019. History Original facility On October 21, 1858, a meeting was held at the Polytechnic Institute to measure support for establishing ''"a hall adapted to Musical, Literary, Scientific and other occasional purposes, of sufficient size to meet the requirements of our large population and worth in style and appearance of our city."'' [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1984 Summer Olympics
The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the second time that Los Angeles had hosted the Games, the first being in 1932 Summer Olympics, 1932. This was the first of two consecutive Olympic Games to be held in North America, with Calgary, Alberta, Canada, hosting the 1988 Winter Olympics. California was the home state of the incumbent President of the United States, U.S. president Ronald Reagan, who officially opened the Games. These were the first Summer Olympic Games under the President of the International Olympic Committee, IOC presidency of Juan Antonio Samaranch. The 1984 Summer Olympics boycott, 1984 Games were boycotted by fourteen Eastern Bloc countries, including the Soviet Union and East Germany, in response to the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott, American-led boycott of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LeRoy Myers
LeRoy Myers (November 10, 1919 – April 26, 2004) was an African American tap dancer and manager of the Copasetics. He was born in North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and learned to tap dance on the street corners of Philadelphia. When Bill "Bojangles" Robinson died in 1949, LeRoy Myers and some close friends were inspired to form the Copasetics, named after Bill Robinsons' favorite expression, "Everything is Copasetic." The Copasetics was a fraternity of black entertainers that were influential in the revival of tap dancing in the late 1970s through the 1980s. LeRoy Myers was elected as the club's first president. The original membership included Billy Strayhorn, James "Chuckles" Walker, Charles "Cookie" Cook, Luther "Slim" Preston, Henry "Phace" Roberts, Johnny Rocket, Pete Nugent, Honi Coles, Cholly Atkins, Peg Leg Bates, Ernest Brown, Milton Larkin, Francis Goldberg, Frank Goldberg, Emory Evans, Elmer Waters, Roy Branker, Paul Black, Eddie West, and Chink Collins. Le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
