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Tap (film)
''Tap'' is a 1989 American dance drama film written and directed by Nick Castle and starring Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis Jr. Plot Max Washington (Gregory Hines), just released from prison after serving time for burglary, is a talented tap dancer. His late father owned a dance studio that is now run by Little Mo (Sammy Davis Jr.), whose daughter Amy Simms ( Suzzanne Douglas) gives lessons to children. Back on the streets, Max isn't interested in dancing again but he is interested in seeing Amy, his former girlfriend. A local gangster, Nicky, doesn't care for Max personally but does try to recruit him to take part in a robbery. Amy has a job as dancer in an upcoming Broadway show and tells its choreographer about Max, hoping to land him a role in the chorus. Max is reluctant to agree to it, then incensed when he is humiliated during the auditions. Max must decide whether to swallow his pride and dance the way the man wants, or give up his art once and for all and return to a li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nick Castle
Nicholas Castle (born September 21, 1947 in Kingsport, Tennessee) is an American screenwriter, film director, and actor. He is known for playing Michael Myers (Halloween), Michael Myers in John Carpenter's horror film ''Halloween (1978 film), Halloween'' (1978). He also had a cameo as Myers in ''Halloween (2018 film), Halloween'' (2018). Castle also co-wrote ''Escape from New York'' (1981) with Carpenter. After ''Halloween'', Castle became a director, taking the helm of films such as ''The Last Starfighter'' (1984), ''The Boy Who Could Fly'' (1986), ''Dennis the Menace (1993 film), Dennis the Menace'' (1993), and ''Major Payne'' (1995).Nick Castle casting information aHalloweenMovies.com last accessed April 19, 2006. Career Castle's film credits include ''Dark Star (film), Dark Star'' where he assisted with the production, and played the beach ball alien, ''Major Payne'', ''Dennis the Menace (1993 film), Dennis the Menace'', ''The Last Starfighter'', and ''Connors' War'' as a di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ensemble (musical Theatre)
In musical theatre, the ensemble or chorus are the on-stage performers other than the featured players. Ensemble members typically do not play named characters and have few or no spoken lines or solo parts; rather, they sing and dance in unison. An ensemble member may play multiple roles through the course of a show. Origin The modern musical chorus descends from the chorus line, associated with early 20th century theatrical revues such as ''Ziegfeld Follies''. The chorus line was typically composed of women (dubbed ''chorus girls'' or ''chorines'') performing synchronized dances in a line. Composition In the 2018–2019 season, ensemble sizes for Broadway productions ranged from 9 (for ''Hadestown'') to 55 (for ''The Lion King''). Ensemble sizes on Broadway have generally decreased over time, possibly due to cost-cutting. Many modern musicals feature no ensemble at all, such as ''Girl from the North Country'' and '' Six''. Within the ensemble there exist certain specialized r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature the E Street Band, his backing band since 1972. Springsteen is a pioneer of heartland rock, combining commercially successful rock with poetic, socially conscious lyrics that reflect working class American life. He is known for his energetic concerts, some of which last more than four hours. Springsteen released his first two albums, ''Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.'' and ''The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle'', in 1973. Although both were well-received by critics, neither earned him a large audience. He changed his style and achieved worldwide popularity with ''Born to Run'' (1975). Springsteen followed with ''Darkness on the Edge of Town'' (1978) and ''The River (Bruce Springsteen album), The River'' (1980), Springsteen's first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Ebert was known for his intimate, Midwestern writing style and critical views informed by values of populism and humanism. Writing in a prose style intended to be entertaining and direct, he made sophisticated cinematic and analytical ideas more accessible to non-specialist audiences. Ebert endorsed foreign and independent films he believed would be appreciated by mainstream viewers, championing filmmakers like Werner Herzog, Errol Morris and Spike Lee, as well as Martin Scorsese, whose first published review he wrote. In 1975, Ebert became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Neil Steinberg of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' said Ebert "was without question the nation's most prominent and influential film critic," and Kenne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago Tribune''. The ''Sun-Times'' resulted from the 1948 merger of the Marshall Field III owned ''Chicago Sun'' and the '' Chicago Daily Times'' newspapers. Journalists at the paper have received eight Pulitzer Prizes, mostly in the 1970s; one recipient was the first film critic to receive the prize, Roger Ebert (1975), who worked at the paper from 1967 until his death in 2013. Long owned by the Marshall Field family, since the 1980s ownership of the paper has changed hands several times, including twice in the late 2010s. History The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' has claimed to be the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city. That claim is based on the 1844 founding of the '' Chicago Daily Journal'', which w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Slyde
James Titus Godbolt (October 2, 1927 – May 16, 2008), known professionally as Jimmy Slyde and also as the "King of Slides", was an American tap dancer known for his innovative tap style mixed with jazz. Slyde was a popular rhythm tap dancer in America in the mid-20th century, when he performed on the nightclub and burlesque circuits. He was also popular in Europe and lived in Paris for a brief period of his life. Slyde appeared in several musicals and shows in the 1980s, and he received numerous awards for his talent. He was known for his signature move, the slide. Early life Godbolt was born in Atlanta and moved to Boston at the age of three. As a child, his mother encouraged him to play the violin, and he enrolled at the Boston Conservatory of Music to advance as a violinist. However, the Conservatory was across the street from Stanley Brown's dance studio, which he would visit to watch great tap dancers such as Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, John W. Bubbles, Charles "Honi" Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Nicholas
Harold Lloyd Nicholas (March 27, 1921 – July 3, 2000) was an American dancer specializing in tap. Nicholas was the younger half of the tap-dancing pair the Nicholas Brothers, known as two of the world's greatest dancers. His older brother was Fayard Nicholas. Nicholas was featured in such musicals as '' An All-Colored Vaudeville Show'' (1935), '' Stormy Weather'' (1943), '' The Pirate'' (1948), and '' The Five Heartbeats'' (1991). Life and career Early years Nicholas was born to drummer and orchestra leader Ulysses Dominick Nicholas, Jr. and pianist Viola Harden in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. By the age of three, his older brother Fayard enjoyed sitting in the audience of the black vaudeville theater where his parents performed, enraptured by the great performers on stage. Immersed in show business, when the Nicholases added a second son to the family, seven-year-old Fayard insisted that the child be named after his idol, Harold Lloyd, the silent-screen comedian. The two ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Condos
Steve Condos (October 12, 1918 in Pittsburgh, PASeptember 16, 1990 in Lyon) was an American tap dancer. He was a member of the Condos Brothers, with siblings Nick and Frank. The Condos Brothers are credited in the film '' Wake Up and Live'' (1937), in which two of the brothers are introduced by orchestra leader Ben Bernie and dance two tap routines, but the brothers are not further identified. They were also credited in the film '' Moon Over Miami'' (1941), as specialties. He danced in the films '' Song of the Open Road'' (1944), '' Meet Me After the Show'' (1951), '' Tap'' (1989), and numerous others. He collaborated with Jimmy Slyde on a program of jazz tap improvisation at the Smithsonian Institution during the 1980s. He created the tap rudiments, based on the drum rudiments used by drummers. He died at 71 of a heart attack, in Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Sims
Howard "Sandman" Sims (January 24, 1917 – May 20, 2003) was an African-American tap dancer who began his career in vaudeville. He was skilled in a style of dancing that he performed in a wooden sandbox of his own construction, and acquired his nickname from the sand he sprinkled to alter and amplify the sound of his dance steps. "They called the board my Stradivarius," Sims said of his sandbox. From the 1950s to the year 2000, Sims was a regular attraction—a "fixture"—at Harlem's noted Apollo Theater, comedically ushering failed acts offstage with a hook, broom or other prop. He was also involved in New York City's Hoofers Club, a venue primarily for black tap dancers. As part of the resurgence of interest in tap dancing in the 1980s, Sandman Sims served as a cultural ambassador, representing the United States with dance performances around the world. He was featured in the 1989 dance film '' Tap'', along with Sammy Davis Jr., Gregory Hines and Savion Glover, demonstrat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bunny Briggs
Bunny Briggs (February 26, 1922 – November 15, 2014) was an American tap dancer who was inducted into the American Tap Dancing Hall of Fame in 2006. Briggs was born under the name Bernard Briggs in Harlem, New York on February 26, 1922. When asked about his nickname Briggs said "Well, I'm fast." At one point he thought about becoming a Catholic priest but his priest told Briggs that "God clearly wanted him to be a dancer." In the 1960s, Briggs was known to dance with the likes of bandleaders Lionel Hampton and Duke Ellington, so much so that Briggs was deemed "Duke's dancer." In May 1985 Briggs performed on the NBC TV Special, "Motown Returns to the Apollo." He was nominated for a Tony Award in 1989 for his work in the Broadway show ''Black and Blue''. He appeared on stage and in movies including the Gregory Hines film ''Tap'' in 1989. In 2002, Briggs received an honorary Doctorate of Performing Arts in American Dance by Oklahoma City University in 2002, honoring him as one of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buster Brown (tap Dancer)
James "Buster" Brown (1913-2002) was an American tap dancer active from the 1930's to 2000. Brown started his career in African-American dance circuits while still in high school and went on to perform internationally, accompanying acts like Duke Ellington and dancing with Savion Glover. Having appeared in numerous films and documentaries, including Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club, he has been described as an inventor of the tap dance art form and one of the most prominent figures in the world of tap dance. 1913-1930s: Early life Brown was born James Richard Brown in 1913 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the only boy, with seven sisters. His father William Brown, an oyster shucker, died when he was six years old, leaving his mother to raise the children. Brown acquired the nickname "Buster" as a child. The children all took jobs after school to support the family. The entire family loved to dance, and Buster picked up tap by imitating people on the street. "I started t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Duncan
Arthur Chester Duncan (September 25, 1925 – January 4, 2023) was an American tap dancer, also called an "Entertainer's Entertainer,"“About the International Tap Dance Hall of Fame: Biographies,” American Tap Dance Foundation, accessed April 27, 2022. known for his stint as a performer on ''The Lawrence Welk Show'' from 1964 to 1982. This, along with his earlier inclusion (despite objections) on '' The Betty White Show'' in 1954 and with the help of White herself, made him the first African-American regular on a variety television program. He performed all over the world, and notably at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. Early life Born in Pasadena, California, one of thirteen children, Duncan entered show business at age thirteen, when he was a member of a dance quartet that performed at McKinley Junior High School in Pasadena. He later entered Pasadena City College to study pharmacy. Career Arthur Duncan took dance lessons with Willie Covan and Nick Castle. Duncan claim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
