The Dance Historian Is In: Lynn Dally on Jazz Tap Ensemble and Jimmy Slyde

This event will take place online via Zoom as well as in person at The Library for the Performing Arts. A streaming link will be emailed to everyone on the morning of the event for those wishing to attend virtually.

Lynn Dally, Artistic Director of Jazz Tap Ensemble, tells the story of a unique collaboration between the Jazz Tap Ensemble and the legendary tap artist, Jimmy Slyde. Opening with Slyde’s solo appearance as Guest Artist with the JTE at the Joyce in 1992 and complimented by Jerome Robbins Dance Division footage from Le Cave (midtown NY), Black and Blue (Broadway), and other sources, Dally will share rehearsal footage of Slyde, Dally, and young Derick Grant in Boston, along with Ensemble footage in LA, revealing how the piece Interplay was created from Slyde’s “motifs” for the 1995 Joyce premiere, and how Slyde’s vision of Interplay evolved in the JTE touring repertory for over a decade.

Dally (B.A. Dance & French Lit, the Ohio State U 1963, M.A. Theater, Smith College 1965) completed her long teaching career, after years as Guest Artist in Dance Departments across the country, as Adjunct Professor in UCLA’s Dept of World Art & Cultures/Dance 2000-2012

where her courses included Tap Technique, Improvisation, Repertory, Tap on Film, and History of Tap in America.   She taught undergrads and grads, hosted many legends including Fayard Nicholas, Gregory Hines, Dianne Walker, Arthur Duncan, Eddie Brown.  In 2008, she created and produced the first national Women in Tap Conference & Concert, featuring 14 distinguished female tappers including Brenda Bufalino, Dianne Walker, Acia Gray, Michelle Dorrance.  The concert DVD, titled “Gotta Move: Women in Tap” is located in the Jerome Robbins Dance Division at Library for the Performing Arts.

For more than 10 years, The Dance Historian Is In at the Library for the Performing Arts has highlighted a diverse range of dancers and choreographers across history. This series began when archivist and historian David Vaughan started volunteering at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division. Vaughan began a monthly program showing his favorite dance films from the Division's extensive collection, through which he unearthed many treasures, and helped acquire even more. Vaughan continued the series until the end of his life. Today, we honor his memory and work by inviting dance historians from all over the world each month to carry on the tradition of highlighting dance history through the Dance Division's moving image collection.

Photo Credit: Jazz Tap Ensemble and Jimmy Slyde (center) in "Shim Sham." Photo by Johan Elbers, 1992. Jerome Robbins Dance Division.