1. LaVaughn Robinson was recognized by the National Endowment of the Arts as a "Living National Treasure", received a NEA National Heritage Fellowship in 1989, a lifetime honor, and a 1992 Pew Fellowship in the Arts.
16 Facts About LaVaughn Robinson
1. 2.
LaVaughn Robinson was born in South Philadelphia, one of seven brothers and seven sisters.
3.
LaVaughn Robinson's mother taught him his first tap dancing step, the plain time step, at the age of seven.
4.
LaVaughn Robinson learned from older street dancers, who vied for the best corners for busking.
5.
LaVaughn Robinson danced and played in a tramp band, and when he was older, he busked in clubs.
6.
LaVaughn Robinson earned enough money by busking to buy his own clothes, contribute to paying for the family groceries, and to go to the Earle Theater.
7.
LaVaughn Robinson danced with Eddie Sledge and Tony Lopez when he worked for Eddie Smith, a booking agent who handled only trios and quartets.
8.
LaVaughn Robinson performed in a close rhythms style, avoiding splits, jumps, and flips of the style of the Nicholas Brothers, after suffering injuries to his legs.
9.
LaVaughn Robinson performed at the Broadwood Hotel and Palumbo's, then the resort hotels in the Catskills, Club Delisa in Chicago, the 500 Club and the Harlem Club both in Atlantic City, New Jersey and throughout Canada.
10.
LaVaughn Robinson lived in Boston from 1965 to 1973, then returned to Philadelphia.
11.
LaVaughn Robinson started rehearsing at nights in the basement of the Neff Building in Philadelphia with Jerry Tapps, whose daytime job was the building's elevator operator.
12.
Tapps inspired LaVaughn Robinson to create his signature solo dance, Artistry in Taps.
13.
LaVaughn Robinson was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment of the Arts in 1989 and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts for Choreography and Performance Arts in 1992.
14.
LaVaughn Robinson performed Artistry in Taps at the awards concert in the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC In 2000, he won the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Governor's Arts Award for Artist of the Year.
15.
From that one basic step, LaVaughn Robinson was able to create an endless number of variations.
16.
Fundamentally constructing compositions on the paddle, LaVaughn Robinson was able to subdivide the quarter note, macro beat into four sixteenth note beats.