Bunny Briggs's Carvel Ice Cream

Just a few weeks ago we lost a great legend in tap history, Bunny Briggs. It all started when Briggs was three years old and his mom took him to watch his Aunt Gladys as a chorus girl at the Lincoln Theatre. Bunny was mesmerized when Bill “Bojangles” Robinson performed; his inspiration to become a tap dancer. Bunny picked up his tap dance on the streets in his neighborhood and he and a few others were formed into a youngsters dance group named Porkchops, Navy, Rice, and Beans that performed around the city. Briggs was in a way discovered by an orchestra leader and pianist named Lucky Roberts in the early 1930s and was asked to join Roberts’ Society Entertainers and performed in mansions of America’s richest people and for the wealthiest: the

Wanamakers, Astors, and Vanderbilts by the age of eight. His career as a child didn’t go into much depth because he had to go to school, but it all came back quickly by his twenties when he started accomplishing many things. At age twenty he was touring with the “Big Swing Bands” of Earl Hines, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Charley Barnet, and Count Basie. Bunny began to figure out his style of paddle-and-roll and fell into Bebop; a type of fast tempo jazz style that is improved to. Briggs states, “My style is carefree. It’s carefree and hard, but I try to make it look easy” (atdf.org). Bunny appeared in multiple TV shows and films throughout his life. He was on the Ed Sullivan Show, a movie tone short of the Charlie Barnet Orchestra, King Cole Trio & Benny Carter Orchestra, Apollo Uptown and Monk's Time, Cavalcade of Bands, the Jackie Gleason Show, Johnny Carson show, appeared in Washington, D.C. with the Lloyd Price big band, PBS/Great Performance’s Tap Dance in America, being a third “Hoofer”, his biography is documented in No Maps On My Taps, Black and Blue, and Tap, staring Gregory Hines. In 1960, Bunny became known as “Duke’s dancer” after dancing at the Monterey Jazz Festival with the Duke Ellington band. He was picked in Ellington’s Concert of Sacred Dance to be the soloist in “David Danced before the Lord,” and for the East Coast premiere of Concert of Sacred Music. He danced aside Honi Coles, Cholly Atkins, Pete Nugent, and Baby Laurence in the Newport Jazz Festival. Bunny performed in Sweet Saturday Night in Europe and on Broadway in Black and Blue, My One and Only, and Are You With It? His performance in Black and Blue got him nominated for a Tony Award. According to atdf.org, Briggs’ explains that one of his most substantial moments was in Staten Island in the Moulin Rouge nightclub. He asked all the couples in the audience to link arms while he tap danced. He told the audience, “This is the first and last time I’ll ask for this. I don’t want no applause. Just stay like that.” He danced to “I’ll Be Loving You, Always,” and walked off the stage when he finished leaving the couples loving on one another. “And that to me was the greatest compliment I’ve ever had. It was just beautiful.” Bunny Briggs received an honorary doctorate of Performing Arts in American Dance in 2002 by Oklahoma City University. While Bunny lived a long, successful life tap dancing and was a legend, newer and younger tap dancers have to continue in styles alike his to keep up his hard work and keep it popular. Greg Russell, in particular, is contributing a lot to the tap world with the same love and compassion as Bunny Briggs did. Alike Bunny Briggs, Greg has a rhythm tap style working with improvisation and choreography. He also started dancing when he was young around four years old. He has had the opportunity to work with legends such as Bette Midler, Gene Kelly, Kenny Ortega, The Nicholas Brothers, Gregory Hines, Ahem, Smashmouth, Reba McEntire, The B-52‘s, Jason Mraz and Michael Jackson.

He is an Emmy nominated choreographer and has directed a commercial for Carvel Ice Cream. He was on Paula Abdul’s Live to Dance and made it to the semi-finals with his tap duet Ryan Lohoff. He is a master instructor for Co. Dance and has his own tap company Tap Sounds Underground that performs in live stage shows in Los Angeles. He, Ryan Lohoff, and his other partner Angela Carter run a summer tap intensive called Tap Into the Network. Greg strives to keep tap dance alive and exciting to dancers since nowadays tap isn’t the most popular at studios. He keeps the technique important but style even more important. He makes sure his classes are stylistically challenging while changing the styles up each class so that you are as versatile as possible. According to nextgeninsider.com, Gregg’s favorite video with tap in it was when the hoofers dance in the movie Tap; one of the three hoofers being Bunny Briggs. This website also mentions that Gregg wants to “expand the boundaries of tap in both the performing and teaching

world”. As Gregg has lived a much shorter life than Briggs, Gregg has things he wants to do at some point accomplish. He would like to perform in a “stadium packed house” and if possible, receive some type of tap world record in the Geinness Book of World Records. Gregg performed in a commercial for Volkswagon representing Donald O’Conner. He has performed on “Dancing with the Stars” and choreographed and performed on “Mobbed” the TV show. He also writes for Rhee Gold’s Dance Life Magazine. According to tapintothenetwork.com, currently and in the future he performs at New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden, travels around to different tap festivals, and is working for a new dance showing coming in the future. Both Bunny and Gregg have influenced the tap world to extremes. Bunny has left us with so much motivation and work while Gregg will continue his work bringing up the next generation of rhythm tap dancers while keeping tradition but adding to it.

Works Cited

"Bunny." Bunny. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2014. .
"BunnyBriggsHomepage." BunnyBriggsHomepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2014. .
"Faculty." Faculty. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2014. .
"Tap Into Gregg Russell." : Next Gen Insider. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2014. .
Weber, Bruce. "Bunny Briggs, Tap Dancing Virtuoso, Dies at 92." The New
York Times. The New York Times, 28 Nov. 2014. Web. 02 Dec. 2014. .