| INGRAM: |
So, nowadays, you prefer to dance without musical accompaniment. But there was a time when you had elaborate music charts and those types of things. |
| ROBINSON: |
Well, there was a time that we did have charts; we used charts. This was when I had the pleasure of working with John Coltrane and Charlie Parker and them guys. You see what I'm saying? I never will forget the time we gave our music to Charlie Parker and John Coltrane from North Philadelphia. That's where he came up, in North Philadelphia. He looked at our music, and he says, "Oh, I can play that ." And he played it like he thought it should have went. But he didn't play it like it was on the page. You understand. Things like that have happened because he was such an improviser, and he thought he could improvise to what we was doing. He was so busy listening to what we were saying with our feet that he never did play our music. So these are one of the things that made me say, "Well, look, I don't need the music." And I didn't need Charlie Parker. You know. I didn't need John Coltrane. Because I'm dancing the way I like to dance and the way I wanted to dance. You follow me? |
| INGRAM: |
Mmmm hmmm, I think I do. You've talked before about how you worked in clubs, some of those little, tiny clubs like the RF Club. |
| ROBINSON: |
You remember that? |
| INGRAM: |
Yeah, I remember, we went down to the "Regular Fellows Club." You almost had to climb over people to get to the stage. |
| ROBINSON: |
Had to step over people. |
| INGRAM: |
But you've also danced on marvelous, large stages. To what degree does the venue or the place where you dance affect your material? |
| ROBINSON: |
Well, I'll tell you, sometimes, when you're working a venue--say, for instance, like Town Hall (in New York) that has such a huge stage--I'd rather have been down the place that we did downtown with the small stage. Because that stage was so big, we never did get to the introduction. And when we did the intro, we were still on the edge of the stage because the stage was so big. You see what I'm saying? I never got joy out of working on great, big stages. |
| INGRAM: |
Talk about some of the places where you felt most comfortable dancing and performing. |
| ROBINSON: |
Well, I'll tell you, one of the greatest times I think I've had is when we were at Club DeLisa's in Chicago. I think that was fantastic. Because they had a show that went on six o'clock in the morning. They call it a breakfast show. And this was for all the stragglers and all the hustlers and all the Pimps so they could get a chance to see the show. They was doing the same thing in Club Harlem in Atlantic City.
And this was the same thing, you know. But then I had the pleasure of working in Atlantic City, at the Five Hundred in Atlantic City, which was a joy, with some of the great comics and stuff. |
| INGRAM: |
What was special about Club DeLisa's? |
| ROBINSON: |
Well, Club DeLisa's was run by that old Al Capone mob. Frank DeLisa. They had a show that went on-- this was continually --until six o'clock in the morning. We lived right across the street, because he had his own hotel. We could sit in our room window and hear Red Saunders' band when he started that first part of the show. Then we could just run right out the door into the club, you know. And we had a ball. Then I went to Canada for Pinkney Roberts--a producer and me. And Ruth Brown had just cut that record "So Long, And It's Raining." We had a ball. Pinkney Roberts was the first guy that carried us to Montreal. First time I'd ever been to Canada. And Canada was great. |
| INGRAM: |
Well, Pinkney is still around. |
| ROBINSON: |
I know. He's going to be here forever. |
| INGRAM: |
I know that there is a man that you were very close to and influenced how you thought about your dancing, especially after you came back to Philadelphia in the early eighties, and that was [both speak at once]: Jerry Tapps. Talk about Jerry's influence on you. |
| ROBINSON: |
Oh, man, Jerry Tapps. Mmmm! God bless him. Jerry Tapps was the one that caused me to do a single. He told me--he said, "LaVaughn, you got to learn how to dance by yourself." He says, "All that's good, what you're doing," he says, "but you got to learn." And him and I used to get together just about every evening. He worked in the Neff Building, down in the-- |
| INGRAM: |
On Jeweler's Row, here in Philadelphia. |
| ROBINSON: |
Yeah. And down in the basement was a nice floor where we used to go and practice just about every night. He ran the elevator, and he didn't get off until somewhere around eleven o'clock. Around eleven o'clock, I'd go down there with him, and we'd go down in the basement and dance for two or three hours. And then him and I had some beautiful things together that we were doing, you know? I learned a lot about dancing, more so being with Jerry Tapps, than I did with everybody else I ever messed with, as far as tap, because Jerry had a keen sense of rhythm. And he was just so easy to talk to far as tap because he would always tell me--he says, "Well, listen, I'm going to put that in the back of my mind right now, and we'll get to you later." But Jerry Tapps influenced me a lot about tap. And Jerry--in fact, Jerry Tapps was the first one that started me teaching. When I first come back to Philadelphia-- I come back to Philadelphia in the middle seventies. I had lived up in Boston for quite a while. I lived up in Boston, I'd say, from sixty--let me see, from '65 to '73. Then, when I came back to Philadelphia that's when Jerry Tapps and I had started the board beating together. Then I started teaching. When I started teaching here in Philadelphia, I had a group that I was teaching-- all of them were clog dancers. And if I'm not mistaken, you were one of the main ones in that group. |
| INGRAM: |
No, I was never a clog dancer [Laughter]. |
| ROBINSON: |
No, but you was with the group that I was teaching. I met this girl Karen Vorkapitch was a clog dancer, and she wanted to learn how to tap dance. A lot of the things that I did tap dancing was similar to what she was doing clog dancing. Karen Vorkapitch was the first one that introduced me to this school, right here. |
| INGRAM: |
University of the Arts. |
| ROBINSON: |
In 1980. I never will forget it. She introduced me to the people that was running the dance department here--by the name of Bonnie Rosen. I'll never forget her (Rosen) as long as I live because she started me teaching right here in this school. And I've been here for 21 years teaching tap dancing. That's why my legs are shot now [Laughter]. |
| INGRAM: |
Can we go back to Jerry for a minute? If you had to describe to someone what was special about Jerry's style, how would you talk about that? |
| ROBINSON: |
Oh, God. Well, you know one of the only things I would say about Jerry's style of dancing--I would just say he was a sweet, tasty dancer. Because that's what he was, very tasty. |
| INGRAM: |
Say more about what that means. |
| ROBINSON: |
Well, that's-- If you ever heard a song coming out of a dancer's feet, that was Jerry Tapps. Because when he'd dance, the song that he was dancing to sounded like it was coming out of his feet. He was clever. |
| INGRAM: |
Didn't you used to do a routine with Jerry called, "Telephone"? How did the two of you come up with that? |
| ROBINSON: |
Well, that was his idea. Because I followed Jerry; I followed suit. Because if he would just say to me to do this, I couldn't do that. I'd have to have him pulling me along. |
| INGRAM: |
Describe that piece. |
| ROBINSON: |
It was almost like a call and response. That's what it was. Which I do now, sometimes, with the class that I teach. But Jerry was the one that started me doing that. Jerry Tapps-- look, all the credit-- see, Jerry was the one that taught me that I should start teaching. Because when I came back to Philadelphia and saw what they was doing, they needed to be taught. I'm serious. I came back to Philadelphia, and I came here at the school and saw what they was doing. They needed to be taught. And I was so glad I came back to Philadelphia because I've been dancing just mainly here for quite a while. And when dancers were starving to death, I was dancing. You understand? I thank God that He put me in a position to do the things that I'm doing because I was blessed. I think I was blessed. |
| INGRAM: |
And I've been blessed, too, by the ability to learn from and dance with you. |
| ROBINSON: |
Thank you. |
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