Throwback Thursday and Paul Draper
Born in Italy on October 25, 1909, Paul
Draper was the son of American parents. He is credited with creating a new
style known as ballet-tap.
He had little formal training in tap in
a beginners class. He withdrew from this class when he was told he was “without
talent”. He went on to work on his tap technique on his own. His ballet
training was with Anatole Vilzak, and Anatole Oboukhoff at the School of
Amercan Ballet (SAB). He borrowed from ballet and added a new elegance to tap’s
arm movements, jumps and turns.
He made his professional debut in
vaudeville in London in 1932. In 1936 he appeared in the film Colleen with Ruby Keeler. From 1940-1949
he toured with Larry Adler, a harmonica virtuoso. He lived abroad in the early
1950s, touring Israel in 1951. He returned to the United States and became a
solo performer.
In the late 1960s he began teaching at
Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and occasionally performed and choreographed
works for the American Dance Festival and Lee Theodore’s American Dance
Machine.
Paul Draper died on September 20,1996 in
Woodstock, New York and he is buried in Artists Cemetery there.
From the Big
Blue Book of Ballet Secrets
Dance History Secret #219:
“Paul
Draper was an American tap dancer who
create ballet-tap.”
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“The more
you get set into your own world, the smaller your world becomes.”
― J.R. Rim
― J.R. Rim
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