Buddy Bradley
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YouTube YouTube Buddy Bradley, born in the Jim Crow South in 1905, made his way to Harlem at age 16 where he learned to tap dance and became a chorus boy. He was sought out on Broadway as both teacher and choreographer, but never got the credit he deserved, and he moved to London in the 1930s where he had a hugely successful career as a dance director on stage and in film. Although his name isn’t well known today, his influence lives on in dance. Joining me in this episode is Maureen Footer, author of Feel the Floor: Restoring the Life and Legacy of Jazz Choreographer Buddy Bradley.
Our theme song is “Frogs Legs Rag,” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “That 'jazz' dance,” composed by W. Benton Overstreet and performed by Handy’s Orchestra on September 21, 1917, in New York City; the recording is in the public domain and is available through the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is Buddy Bradley teaching at the West End dance school; the image is used under a Creative Commons license and is held in the Mander & Mitchenson Collection of the University of Bristol Theatre Collection.
Additional Sources:
- “Buddy Bradley, Director And Choreographer, Dead,” The New York Times, July 25, 1972.
- “Harlem’s ‘Buddy’ Bradley, Tap Dancer And The First African-American To Run A British ‘White Company,” Harlem World Magazine, April 23, 2018.
- “Buddy Bradley: Unsung Hero of the British Musical Stage,” by Annette Walker, August 20, 2023;Published version available from Black Ink, Issue 4, 20 September 2023.
- “Buddy Bradley,” Tap Legacy.
- “‘Oh, You Black Bottom!’ Appropriation, Authenticity, and Opportunity in the Jazz Dance Teaching of 1920s,” by Danielle Robinson, Dance Research Journal. 2006;38(1-2):19-42.
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Maureen Footer’s work focuses on the dynamics of twentieth-century culture as revealed through its arts and creators.
Her current book, Feel the Floor: Restoring the Life and Legacy of Jazz Choreographer Buddy Bradley (Beacon Press, May 2026), rediscovers Buddy Bradley, the Harlem Renaissance chorus boy turned choreographer and teacher whose teaching and choreographic career on Broadway and London’s West End revitalized hidebound theatrical dance with tap, blazed the path to the integrated book musical, and infused jazz and tap into the vocabulary of ballet choreographers George Balanchine and Frederick Ashton, sparking the birth of neoclassical ballet.
Previous books include Dior and His Decorators: Victor Grandpierre, Georges Geffroy and the New Look (Vendome 2018), an examination of the intersection and influence of haute couture and high design in Paris after World War II. Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams (Rizzoli, 2021), a study of the intersection of French couture values and post-war American society. Dior: The Legendary 30, avenue Montaigne (Rizzoli, 2022) traces the history of the famous couture house through its architecture. George Stacey and the Creation of American Chic (Rizzoli, 2014), chronicles the transformation of American design as the country came of age culturally, socially, and economically.
Ms. Footer has spoken at the Sorbonne, Sotheby’s, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Institute of Classical Architecture, the French Heritage Society, Winterthur, the Huntington Museum, Parsons School of Design (Paris), and the New Yo… Read More
