Lavaughn E Robinson

LaVaughn E. Robinson was a Philadelphia rhythm-tap dancer, choreographer, teacher, and repertory keeper whose exceptionally fast, low-to-the-floor paddle-and-roll style and historical knowledge helped power tap's late-twentieth-century revival. Born February 9, 1927, in South Philadelphia, Robinson learned his first time step from his mother at age seven on the kitchen floor. He soon joined the city's competitive street-dance culture, busking for tips and learning through observation, challenge, and exchange among figures including the Nicholas Brothers, Honi Coles, and the Condos Brothers—a living repertory that extended far beyond formal studio instruction.

Robinson enlisted in the United States Army in 1945 and performed at military facilities during his service. After his discharge in 1947, he entered a professional circuit of big bands, nightclubs, and theaters. The NEA documents his appearances with Cab Calloway, Tommy Dorsey, Maynard Ferguson, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Anthony, and Louis Kramer, as well as partnerships with Howard Blow, Henry Meadows, and Eddie Sledge. By 1972, the shrinking nightclub and live-band economy forced a transition; tap's sound competed with amplified instruments, and many veteran hoofers lost the venues that had sustained them. Robinson remained rooted in Philadelphia, carrying both an encyclopedic memory of dancers and a street-based understanding of tap as self-authored rhythmic speech.

In 1980, Philadelphia's College of the Performing Arts invited Robinson to help build its tap program. At what became the University of the Arts, he taught a generation of dancers and organized career-long material into études. He performed with Sandra Janoff and developed a long partnership with attorney and dancer Germaine Ingram. Robinson and Ingram appeared together in the 1989 PBS special *Tap Dancing in America*, hosted by Gregory Hines. Robinson received a 1989 NEA National Heritage Fellowship, a 1992 Pew Fellowship, Pennsylvania's 2000 Governor's Award for Artist of the Year, and appointment as Distinguished Professor at the University of the Arts in 2005. The 2003 documentary *LaVaughn Robinson* preserved his dancing, teaching, and oral history. He died in Philadelphia on January 22, 2008.