Video Analysis - Savion Glover & Ted Levy

I was able to learn and take away many exciting and informative aspects from the video I watched of
Savion Glover & Ted Levy dancing.

Funk Step -- toe, heel, toe, (heel drop on supporting leg) brush, step, heel, stomp, brush, heel, stomp.
Brush, heel, step, heel, stop. Three pattern sections and a break feel.

1)

- Activation of the heel drops

Mark Knowles: A tap dancer. This usually refers to one who focuses more on the rhythmic percussion
of the sounds, rather than one who incorporates upper-body movements.

Al Gilbert: A slang term for TAPDANCERS. Most associated with the close to the floor style of tap dancing,
using mostly footwork and very little body and arm movement.

Tommy Sutton: A tap dancer who dances close to the floor and puts emphasis on Stamp and Stomp accents,
executing primarily in one spot.In contrast, a tap dancer executes up on the balls of the feet and more or less
covers the state. However, most professional tap dancers combine some hoofing techniques in their routines
and choreography.

Jeni Legon
I danced like the boys, she recalled in an interview with The Globe and Mail of Toronto in 2009.
I could do the girls splits, but I used the boys splits because you could get up faster.

Born in 1916 and raised near the south side of Chicago, her musical talents were developed
on the street in neighborhood bands and musical groups

She was one of the first African American women in tap dance to develop a career as a
soloist


She was not a high-heeled dancer in pretty skirts, she was a low-heeled dancer performing
toe-stand in pants, and her rigorous combination of flash, acrobatics, and rhythm dancing proved
you didnt have to be a man to dance like a hoofer

At the age of thirteen she landed her first job in musical theatre, dancing as a soubrette in
pants, not pretty skirts.

By the age of sixteen, she was dancing in a chorus line backed by Count Basie Orchestra, and
soon after touring as a chorus line dancer with Whitman Sisters, the highest paid act on the TOBA
circuit

It was while working in Los Angeles, where she was stopping the show for her flips, double
spins, knee drips, toe stands, that LeGon got a part in the 1935 MGM musical, Hooray for Love, as
dance partner to Bill Robinson, who she says was a patient teacher and a perfectionist.

Back in Hollywood, LeGon appeared in over sixty films. Often portraying stereotypical roles,
Jeni played every kind of maid from an Egyptian hand servant to singing and dancing in a French
maid outfit. However, LeGon did have the opportunity to play lead parts in several black films
where she got to be the heroine and even have men fight over her and as Jeni says thats what
its all about.

In the 50s, she started her own show Jazz Caribe, which toured around the world.
Touring finally landed her in Vanouver where she had always been reluctant to visit
because of the snow and igloos. However, when she arrived she ran into some colleagues
and former students she had taught in LA. They convinced her to stay and she quickly set
up a dance studio.

In a 1999 documentary, Fayard Nicholas narrates and reveres LeGon as a star

performer and a gifted teacher who could do it all. LeGon says that she sees teaching
as a natural extension of her performing Ive had a dance school all my life.

Legon died on Dec. 7, 2012 in Vancouver at the age of 96.