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Class Act (performance)
A class act is a performance or personal trait or behavior that is distinctive and of high quality. As a noun phrase, it is typically used to refer to a single person, a team – such as a performing artists working together – or an organization. Usage and contemporary etymology In sports In sports, a "class act" would be an athlete who not only performs exceptionally well, but also exhibits a range of other admirable qualities, on and off the field. In dance In dance during the jazz age and the swing era (the first half of the 20th century) – tap dance in particular – a class act was, and still is, a complimentary reference to a dance team that exhibits precision, elegant dress, detached coolness, flawless execution, and dignity. In 1946, after serving in the Army, Charles "Honi" Coles and Cholly Atkins collaborated as a dance duo that became highly acclaimed. British dance critic Edward Thorpe, in his 1989 book, ''Black Dance,'' described Coles and Atkins as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noun Phrase
In linguistics, a noun phrase, or nominal (phrase), is a phrase that has a noun or pronoun as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently occurring phrase type. Noun phrases often function as verb subjects and objects, as predicative expressions and as the complements of prepositions. Noun phrases can be embedded inside each other; for instance, the noun phrase ''some of his constituents'' contains the shorter noun phrase ''his constituents''. In some more modern theories of grammar, noun phrases with determiners are analyzed as having the determiner as the head of the phrase, see for instance Chomsky (1995) and Hudson (1990). Identification Some examples of noun phrases are underlined in the sentences below. The head noun appears in bold. ::This election-year's politics are annoying for many people. ::Almost every sentence contains at least one noun phrase. ::Current ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Honi Coles
Charles “Honi” Coles (April 2, 1911 – November 12, 1992) was an American actor and tap dancer, who was inducted posthumously into the American Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2003. He had a distinctive personal style that required technical precision, high-speed tapping, and a close-to-the-floor style where "the legs and feet did the work". Coles was also half of the professional tap dancing duo Coles and Atkins, whose specialty was performing with elegant style through various tap steps such as "swing dance", "over the top", "bebop", "buck and wing", and "slow drag". He appeared in the films '' The Cotton Club'' and ''Dirty Dancing'', as well as the documentary '' Great Feats of Feet''.Hill, Valis Constance. “Charles "Honi" Coles iography” In Tap Dance in America: A Twentieth-Century Chronology of Tap Performance on Stage, Film, and Media, Library of Congress, accessed May 4, 2022, https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.music.tdabio.43/default.html Coles was also a tap-danc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-1900s American South and published research on hoodoo. The most popular of her four novels is '' Their Eyes Were Watching God'', published in 1937. She also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays, and essays. Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama, and moved with her family to Eatonville, Florida, in 1894. She later used Eatonville as the setting for many of her stories. In her early career, Hurston conducted anthropological and ethnographic research while a student at Barnard College and Columbia University. She had an interest in African-American and Caribbean folklore, and how these contributed to the community's identity. She also wrote fiction about contemporary issues in the Black community and became a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Her short satires, drawing from the African-American experience an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Queens College
Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 countries. Queens College was established in 1937 and offers undergraduate degrees in over 70 majors, graduate studies in over 100 degree programs and certificates, over 40 accelerated master's options, 20 doctoral degrees through the CUNY Graduate Center, and a number of advanced certificate programs. Alumni and faculty of the school, such as Arturo O'Farrill and Jerry Seinfeld, have received over 100 Grammy Award nominations. The college is organized into seven schools: Aaron Copland School of Music, Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, School of Arts & Humanities, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, School of Education, School of Math and Natural Sciences, and School of Social Sciences. Queens College compet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fields of literary and cultural studies, history, social work, sociology, religion, film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ..., and international studies. History Founded in May 1893, In 1933 the first four volumes of the ''History of the State of New York'' were published. In early 1940s revenues rises, partially thanks to the ''Encyclopedia'' and the government's purchase of 12,500 copies for use by the military. Columbia University Press is notable for publishing reference works, such as '' The Columbia Encyclopedia'' (1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acro Dance
Acro dance is a style of dance that combines classical dance technique with precision acrobatic elements. It is defined by its athletic character, its unique choreography, which seamlessly blends dance and acrobatics, and its use of acrobatics in a dance context. It is a popular dance style in amateur competitive dance as well as in professional dance theater and in contemporary circus productions such as those by Cirque du Soleil. This is in contrast to acrobatic, artistic and rhythmic gymnastics, which are sports that employ dance elements in a gymnastics context under the auspices of a governing gymnastics organization (such as FIG) and subject to a Code of Points. Acro dance is known by various other names including ''acrobatic dance'' and ''gymnastic dance'', though it is most commonly referred to simply as ''acro'' by dancers and dance professionals. Acro is an especially challenging dance style for dancers as it requires them to be trained in both dance and acrobat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition or light poetry, interspersed with songs or ballets. It became popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, but the idea of vaudeville's theatre changed radically from its French antecedent. In some ways analogous to music hall from Victorian Britain, a typical North American vaudeville performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. Types of acts have included popular and classical musicians, singers, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, ventriloquists, strongmen, female and male impersonators, acrobats, clowns, illustrated songs, jugglers, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, minstrels, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Cole (composer)
Robert Allen Cole Jr. (July 1, 1868 – August 2, 1911) was an American composer, actor, playwright, and stage producer and director. In collaboration with Billy Johnson, he wrote and produced ''A Trip to Coontown'' (1898), the first musical entirely created and owned by black showmen. The popular song '' La Hoola Boola'' (1898) was also a result of their collaboration. Cole later partnered with brothers J. Rosamond Johnson, pianist and singer, and James Weldon Johnson, pianist, guitarist and lawyer, creating more than 200 songs. Their vaudeville act featured classical piano pieces and their musicals featured sophisticated lyrics without the usual stereotypes such as "hot-mamas" and watermelons. Success enabled Cole and Rosamond to tour America and Europe with their act. The trio's most popular songs were "Louisiana Lize" and " Under the Bamboo Tree" (1901?). Their more successful musicals were ''The Shoo-Fly Regiment'' (1906) and '' The Red Moon'' (1908, written without Weldo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pete Nugent
Gary "Pete" Nugent (July 16, 1909 – April 25, 1973) was an American tap dancer known as "Public Tapper, Number 1". He was also part of the class act, Pete, Peaches, and Duke. Nugent performed all over the world including across Europe in World War II and in Mexico,""FOLLOW THE FLEET" ON SCREEN AT ODEON." The New York Amsterdam NewsGardner, Chappy. "BUCKING TRAFFIC." Afro-American (1893-), Feb 29, 1936 but had a focus on New York and Harlem in particular. He danced with many of the greats including Honi Coles, Bunny Briggs, Charles 'Cookie' Cook, and Peg Leg Bates.Constance Valis Hill"Pete Nugent (biography)" ''Tap Dance in America: A Twentieth-Century Chronology of Tap Performance on Stage, Film, and Media'', Library of Congress, accessed May 4, 2022. Early life Nugent was born in Washington, D.C., July 16, 1909 to Pauline Minerva Bruce, the offspring of a Scottish Loyalist and Richard H. Nugent, Jr., an elevator man. After their father's death, Nugent's mother who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicholas Brothers
The Nicholas Brothers were an entertainment act composed of biological brothers, Fayard (1914–2006) and Harold (1921–2000), who excelled in a variety of dance techniques, primarily between the 1930s and 1950s. Best known for their unique interpretation of a highly acrobatic technique known as " flash dancing", they were also considered by many to be the greatest tap dancers of their day, if not all time. Their virtuoso performance in the musical number "Jumpin' Jive" (with Cab Calloway and his orchestra) featured in the 1943 movie '' Stormy Weather'' has been praised as one of the greatest dance routines ever captured on film. Growing up surrounded by vaudeville acts as children, they became stars of the jazz circuit during the Harlem Renaissance and performed on stage, film, and television well into the 1990s. Diminutive in size, they were appreciated for their artistry, innovation, and soaring leaps. Early lives Fayard Antonio Nicholas was born October 20, 1914 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Mordecai
Jimmy Mordecai (July 11, 1905 - May 7, 1966) also known as James Mordecai was a Harlem-based jazz tap dancer in the 1920s and 1930s. He featured in the 1929 short film '' St. Louis Blues (1929 film)'' starred in the 1930 Vitaphone Varieties musical short film '' Yarmekraw'' based on James P. Johnson's song of the same name. Career Mordecai was born in New York City on July 11, 1905. His father was Samuel Mordecai and his mother Edith Wilhelm. His parents immigrated to the United States from British West Indies in 1901 through Cuba. He was in the cast of a 1924 touring show called "Cotton Land," with music by James P. Johnson. He was a member of a popular dance trio, Wells, Mordecai and Taylor – Dickie Wells ''(né'' Richard Wells; 1907–1949) and Ernest Taylor (died 1934) – the trio also was known as the Hot Feet Boys and the Three Klassy Kids, with whom he performed at the Cotton Club in 1930 with a Duke Ellington revue called ''Brown Sugar (Sweet But Unrefined)''. In th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eddie Rector
Eddie Rector (December 25, 1890 – January 7, 1963) was an American tap dance artist and master of ceremonies. His career spanned the 1920s-40s as he danced in Harlem, across the US, and in Europe. He is known as a “soft shoe expert,” and he invented the Slap Step.Constance Vallis Hill, "Eddie Rector 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.158/default.html Rector was the protégé of John Leubrie Hill and later danced as a team with Ralph Cooper. He danced in notable revues including ''Darktown Follies'' (1914), ''Tan Town Topics'' (1926), ''Blackbirds of 1928, Hot Rhythm'' (1930), ''Rhapsody in Black'' (1931), ''Blackberries of 1932,'' and ''Yeah Man'' (1932)''. '' Career Rector was born on Christmas day in 1890 in Orange, New Jersey. According tConstance Vallis Hill's biographyon thdatabase, Recto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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