Bojangles and Astaire
Fred Astaire was said to have been influenced by Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson. It is true that he did admire him, but he thought John W. Bubbles was a far better dancer. When Astaire did his controversial tribute to Bill Robinson, the critics focus tended to be on the fact that Astaire was ‘blacked up’ rather than the style of dancing. Robinson was popular because his style was laid back; he hardly used his upper body letting his feet doing the talking. Astaire’s performance in Bojangles of Harlem, the extended solo from the 1936 film Swing Time is a brilliantly accomplished piece from Astaire but is hardly in the style of Robinson. Astaire uses all of his body to dance, a key difference.
Bojangles Style of Dance
Bill Robinson born in 1878 was a perfect antithesis to the frenetic style of the jitterbug popular at the time. He relied on his feet and an expressive face. Although he started dancing at the age of six, it wasn’t until he was fifty that he danced for a white audience devoting his early career to the black theatre circuit.
He is often credited with getting tap dance ‘up on its toes’, rather than the more traditional ‘buck and wing’ style which was performed in a flat-footed style Robinson danced on the balls of his feet performing in a ‘shuffle-tap’ style. It was this style that got him noticed, making him a headline act in many nightclubs and musical comedies. He famously headlined with Cab Calloway on several occasions at the legendary Cotton Club in Harlem.
He also danced with a distinctive sound, this due to him wearing wooden taps. As vaudeville began to decline, he was easily able to make the transition to Broadway and then film.
Career Development
As already mentioned, Robinson spent most of his career dancing in nightclubs and on the vaudeville circuit. He made the transition to Broadway as vaudeville was fading and from here moved into films. From the early thirties onwards he appeared mainly in films famously with Shirley Temple on several occasions. His appearance in The Little Colonel in 1935 was the first appearance of an African-American male with a Caucasian girl. He appeared in thirteen films in total between 1930’s Dixiana to 1943’s Stormy Weather. He made a brief return to the stage during this time but from then on confined himself to a few performances even though he danced into his sixties.
The Bojangles Legacy
Bill Robinson died penniless in 1949, despite earning more than two million dollars in his lifetime. There is a statue of Robinson in Richmond, Virginia and in 1989 National Tap Dance Day on May 25 was dedicated to Robinson. He was inducted into the National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame, New York in 1987.
Many artists are indebted to Bill Robinson for changing the style of tap, introducing a whole new generation to its delights. A biography written in 1988 was turned into a film for television in 2001. Gregory Hines who starred as Bill Robinson in the film was a right foot lead dancer whereas Robinson himself was a left foot lead. This meant that Hines had to re-train himself to lead with the other foot. This can be seen at the end of the film when Hines and Robinson are both shown doing the Bojangles speciality the dancing staircase.
