12/20/2023 0 Comments Dance moves names jazzThere he gained an early education in show business by watching great Black entertainers such as the jazz musician Louis Armstrong, the dance team Buck and Bubbles, the singer Adelaide Hall, and the dance teams Leonard Reed and Willie Bryant and the Berry Brothers.Fayard taught himself how to dance, sing, and perform by watching the entertainers on stage. They performed together in pit orchestras for Black vaudeville shows throughout the 1910s to the early 1930s, forming their own group called the Nicholas Collegians in the 1920s.įrom the time Fayard was an infant, his parents brought him to the theatre for their practices and performances. Their mother, Viola, was a classically trained pianist, and their father, Ulysses, was a drummer. The brothers’ parents were both college-educated professional musicians. Sadly, there is not much more documented regarding Alice’s life, hers, like many of the other named and unnamed Sepia Steppers are stories that have been forgotten by history, but in the essence of this feature is the aim to remember and honour the impact their talents had on the development of the rich art form that is jazz dance. The unconfirmed list of members found online: Ferebee Purnell, Nikki O’Daniel, Alice Barker, Jackie Lewis (sometimes listed as Jacqui Thompson), Partin Porton, Francine Everett (Excerpt from ) Based in NYC, their most famous soundies were Stepping Along, Toot That Trumpet, Poppin’ the Cork, Sweet Kisses, and Chatter – all from 1943. The Sepia Steppers were an all female tap group who starred in a number of soundies in the 1940s. Based on this, Barker was one of the first African American dancers to appear on national prime time television. Further digging shows that the Frank Sinatra Show ended in 1960, so it’s possible this was actually in the late 1950s instead. One of the most amazing and wonderful facts we were able to find in researching Alice, was that in the 1960s, she made an appearance dancing on The Frank Sinatra Show. The films would be distributed in jukebox-like devices that were placed in bars, clubs and racetracks, where people could watch them for a coin. Typically a soundie would be shot in a popular night club, and feature whatever the hot performer or song was at the time. The short musical films found of Alice are called “soundies,” and they were among the first films that used sound. She also danced in numerous movies, commercials and TV shows with legends including Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Gene Kelly, and a young Frank Sinatra. She danced at clubs such as The Apollo, Cotton Club, and Zanzibar Club, where she was part of a legendary group known as the Zanzibeauts. She was born in Chicago, and left for New York City to become a dancer in her mid 20’s-which was quite a bold move for a woman in her time.įor her entire career she worked as a chorus line dancer in New York City, on Broadway and during the Harlem Renaissance of the the 1930s and 40s. As she says, dancing was all she ever wanted to do. ALICE BARKER (1912-2016) & THE SEPIA STEPPERSĪlice Barker loved to dance from the moment she was born. Though we are sharing this list throughout February in honour of Black History Month, we strive to ensure that an appreciation for their impact is shared continuously through our work. This feature is a living blog post, that will be updated weekly throughout February, featuring a partial list of the countless Black Artists that timelessly impacted the art form. We strive to be respectful in honouring the roots and history of jazz, we dance with reverence for those who came before us, we dig deep to go forward, we strive to appreciate rather than appropriate. We are inspired by and benefit from traditions born of a culture that is not our own. We acknowledge this history and recognize ourselves as guests in this form. Jazz Acknowledgement: Jazz is born of Black American culture and its roots lie in the turbulent history of the African American experience.
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