Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Hill, Constance Valis

Description

1. 5 streaming video files (approximately 10 hrs. and 16 mins.) : sound, color. +

Summary

1. Streaming file 1 (one hour and 50 minutes), November 9, 2020. Deborah Mitchell speaks with Constance Valis Hill about her family and childhood in St. Louis, Missouri, in particular her parents Maudeva Williams Smith and John B. Smith, Jr., and how they inspired her; her three sisters Patricia Sanders, Pamela Albright, and Daphne Moore; more on her parents as role models; her mother's placing her in tap dance class when she was seven, but taking her out due to the racism at the school; her education, including Beaumont High School, which was racially integrated; her relative lack of awareness of racism at this time; how this gradually changed based on various events including the de facto resegregation of her high school; her breaking of the color barrier when she became a cheerleader; her reasons for attending Southern Illinois University, in Carbondale (Illinois); her close relationship with two of her white roommates, including how she dealt with the racism of one of the two roommate's parents; her growing awareness that the Midwest was as racist and segregated as the South, and how this spurred her to work even harder; the long absence of dance from her life after she stopped taking tap dance lessons; musical influences including the jazz, rhythm and blues, and dance music she heard at home; her reasons for majoring in sociology at Southern Illinois University and getting a masters degree in social work at Indiana University; marrying her college sweetheart Ronnie Mitchell and moving with him to New York City; the short duration of their marriage and very amicable divorce including her decision to keep the name "Mitchell"; her realization as she went to her first tap dance class (since childhood), at Henry LeTang's studio, that she was "home"; being sent by LeTang to study with Eleanor Harris at the Clark Center [Clark Center for the Performing Arts] where she also studied African dance with Charles Moore; at the same time, living in Newark (New Jersey) and working at the Newark Preschool Council; her subsequent job in Carteret (New Jersey) as a member of a child study team that evaluated children for emotional problems and disabilities; her soon realizing that bias against Black children had resulted in many being mistakenly labeled as "emotionally disturbed" and how she tried to correct this; her happiness at this time in being able to support herself while being involved in the arts; her tap dancing as the center of her life; LeTang as a teacher including his emphasis on using one's whole body and clear, precise footwork; his goal of creating a dancer with stage presence; Harris' focus on repetition and the mastering of progressively more difficult routines; Harris' perceiving that Mitchell was bored and sending her to "Honi" [Charles] Cole (around 1975); Alex Bradford and how their professional association began with her auditioning for him; being cast as Mary in Black nativity and becoming part of his theater group Creative Movement; Bradford's death in 1978 and the dissolution of Creative Movement; in 1979 becoming the resident choreographer for Marie Thomas and her Childrens' Theater Workshop; an anecdote about how she came to attend a rehearsal of the Copasetics and others in their show Steps in Time, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in December 1979; memorable dance experiences during this period (1974-1979): seeing Ben Vereen in Jesus Christ Superstar and Micki Grant, Hope Clarke, Ben Harney, and Marie Thomas among others in Don't bother me, I can't cope; taking class at the Alvin Ailey school and learning about [Lester] Horton technique; teachers she met at the Clark Center including Pepsi Bethel, Fred Benjamin, and Moore; participating in the New Dance Group; her feeling that her life has been divinely orchestrated in that at every step she has met someone who has set her in the right direction; her view of working in the arts as service to the community; more on her parents and how they have influenced her life.
2. Streaming file 2 (two hours and one minute), November 10, 2020. Constance Valis Hill speaks with Deborah Mitchell about the background of the four-day tap festival Steps in Time including the founding of the Copasetics after Bill "Bojangles" Robinson's death in 1949, and the "tap dance revival" in the 1970s; Mitchell speaks with Valis Hill about how she used to rehearse on a stage in an abandoned community center in Newark; finding her way (with tap shoes in her purse) to the Brooklyn Academy of Music and sneaking into the auditorium early on the day of a Steps in Time concert rehearsal; being discovered in the auditorium by one of the performers who introduced her to the other performers including [Charles] "Cookie" Cook, [James] "Buster" Brown, [Charles] "Honi" Coles, Face Roberts, Louis Simms, Fayard Nicholas, and [Leslie] "Bubba" Gaines; attending the concert at the invitation of Gaines; dancing for Gaines in the abandoned community center and being asked to do a time step while jumping rope; Gaines' reminiscences (as told to Mitchell) about his late partner James "Hutch" Hutchinson (in Three Dukes: the Aristocrats of Dance) including Hutch's signature time step with a jump rope; dancing at Gaines' invitation with the Copasetics in Harlem including Gaines' comments on her performance; Gaines as a teacher and a mentor; stories he told her about his own experiences, including the racism he encountered as a soldier in France, and the life lessons he taught her; the importance of faith in her life; some of the routines he taught her including steps and rhythms he had performed with the Three Dukes; his advice regarding the use of space and of her femininity in her dancing; an anecdote about his telling the audience "if you continue to clap for me, you will make me completely destroy myself"; more on Gaines as a mentor including what it meant to be his proťǧ; Valis Hill speaks about the performance by the Copasetics on July 3, 1980 at Avery Fisher Hall [now David Geffen Hall] in Swinging Taps, in particular that Brenda Bufalino and Mitchell were the first women to dance on the same stage with the Copasetics and moreover that Mitchell was the first Black woman to do so; Mitchell recalls Gaines' pride that his proťǧ was a Black woman; his always treating her as a mentee not as his partner; (briefly) her relationship with Brenda Bufalino, Jane Goldberg, and other female tap dancers; auditioning for The Cotton Club (1984); an anecdote about her conversation with the film's choreographer Henry LeTang after she learned that she had been cast; her fellow Rhythm Queens, Cavril Payne and Melissa Johnson, with whom she performed the number "Lady be Good" (later cut from the movie); her jump rope number filmed on site at Grand Central Station; an anecdote about Richard Gere commenting on the magnificence of the dancing; the outstanding cast; her costumes; the cutting from the final version of about 75 percent of the dance numbers choreographed by LeTang; her "day job" during this time in Jersey City as the director of a resource center for parents of abused and neglected children; meeting her future husband Ken McDonald through her work at the center; using her money from The Cotton Club to quit her job and dance full time; the circumstances that led to her performing with Rashamella Cumbo and Germaine Goodson, as the next iteration of the Rhythm Queens in LeTang's Cotton Club on Parade in Las Vegas (Nevada); their number "Lady be Good"; (briefly) touring, including in Reykjavik, Iceland; Cab Calloway's criticism of the show overall (while in Reykjavik) while praising them; Cumbo's later leaving the group to pursue a career in film; LeTang as a choreographer who always tried to bring out the best in a dancer; performing her nightly solo as choreographed without improvisation; the grand finale with high kicks that ended the routine.
3. Streaming file 3 (two hours and one minute), November 12, 2020. Constance Valis Hill speaks about her impressions of The Cotton Club upon watching it for the first time in many years; Deborah Mitchell speaks about her relative lack of awareness at the time of the political and racist implications of The Cotton Club; Francis Ford Coppola's reworked version of the film [The Cotton Club Encore, 2019]; her reminiscences of the many Black artists who collaborated in the original film; the film's finale, choreographed by Henry LeTang to Duke Ellington's "Daybreak Express"; the almost complete absence of tap dance ensemble numbers in films from the time of Stormy weather [1943] until the making of The Cotton Club; Valis Hill speaks about the Broadway production of the musical revue Black and blue and the Paris production of Black and blue, on which it was based; Mitchell speaks about how she came to be involved with Black and blue, including Henry LeTang's calling her and the other Rhythm Queens (Cumbo and Goodson) to audition for Black and blue; being cast with Cumbo and Goodson as one of seven women in the ensemble of the Paris production; the men cast for the male ensemble including the 12-year old Savion Glover; the costumes and the venues, initially Theatre du Chatelet and subsequently the Casino de Paris; the minimal use of scenery; the Rhythm Queens' number "I Can't Give You Anything But Love"; Mitchell reads aloud and comments on the dance numbers listed in the program (all choreographed by LeTang); names three singers Ruth Brown, Linda Hopkins, and Sandra Reaves-Phillips, and the hoofers Jimmy Slyde, George Hillman, Lon Chaney, and Ralph Brown; the producers' respect for Black artists and Black culture; her responsibilities and challenges as dance captain; the comity and professionalism of the cast; more on Ken McDonald, who visited at Christmas and proposed to her at the Eiffel Tower; her time in Paris with Black and blue as one of her life's great experiences; returning to New York after the show closed where she worked as a corporate secretary and performed with the Rhythm Queens; the number "Lady Lingerie", which she performed as part of the [1986] show Back in the big time starring Mable Lee and Harold Nicholas; marrying McDonald in 1987; finally getting a call from LeTang to audition for the Broadway production of Black and blue; Dianne Walker's role in the French production as an ensemble member and as dance captain in the New York production; some changes in the cast of the Broadway production from the Paris production; Mitchell displays and comments on the cover and various pages of the program from the Paris production; she shows and comments on a photograph from the Paris production including a description of the costumes; the pleasure and pride she felt in being part of this show; some of the considerations that influenced Héctor Orezzoli and Claudio Segovia in casting the show, in particular, the musicians; describes the five-part finale of the Paris show, including a dirge-like performance of "Black and blue", and Glover's role; more on LeTang, as a choreographer and as a person including his insistence that the female dancers always be in heels; an anecdote about the differences that arose between Le Tang and Orezzoli and Segovia regarding a costume design; the Paris production as the foundation for the Broadway production; more on the Rhythm Queens' number "I Can't Give You Anything But Love"; more on Le Tang as a choreographer and a person; Bubba Gaines as a person, in particular his reserved but confident personality; her brief association with Mercedes Ellington and Dance Ellington, including her memories of Ellington and her choreography; the musical Back in the big time including her reminiscences of the headliners Mable Lee and Harold Nicholas; her two numbers as one of the Rhythm Queens: "Lingerie Lady" and "Feel the Heat"; the relatively small cast, the large number of solos, and the absence of ensemble numbers; Nicholas as a performer including his dynamism and stage presence; Lee as a performer; why she thinks it would be impossible to reproduce a show like Black and blue today.
4. Streaming file 4 (two hours and three minutes), November 13, 2020. Deborah Mitchell speaks with Constance Valis Hill about how it took approximately three years after the closing of the Paris production of Black and blue for the Broadway production to open; Orezzoli's and Segovia's renovating of the Minskoff Theatre in preparation for the production including the extension of the proscenium; changes made in the production and cast including the hiring of the conductor [J.] Leonard Oxley and increasing the size of the orchestra; the inclusion of additional dance styles and hiring of additional choreographers: Cholly Atkins [Charles Atkinson], Fayard Nicholas, and Frankie Manning; the cast watching archival dance footage from the 1920s and 1930s as preparation for their roles; the sense of legacy the cast felt when performing; the great care taken with every detail of the show including the costumes; Mitchell displays and (briefly) comments on the cover image of the Playbill for the show; she speaks about numbers in Act I beginning with the opening act, "I'm a Woman" and including LeTang's "Everybody Loves My Baby", Atkins' "After You've Gone", and Fayard Nicholas' "I Want a Big Butter and Egg Man"; the Younger Generation: Savion Glover, Cyd Glover, and Dormeshia Sumbry (now Sumbry-Edwards), who performed LeTang's "Rhythm is Our Business"; Frankie Manning's jazz dance number "Black and Tan Fantasy", which did not include any tap dancing; an anecdote about the singer Ruth Brown's audition for Orezzoli and Segovia that illustrated the qualities they were looking for in the cast; LeTang's "That Rhythm Man", which closed Act I and which was performed at the [1989] Tony award ceremony; notes that Dianne Walker was the sole female hoofer; speculates that Walker's knowledge of the period was an important factor in her being made an assistant choreographer; she speaks about Act II, which opened with Manning's "Swinging" and included Atkins' soft shoe number "Memories of You"; LeTang's "I Can't Give You Anything But Love", including how it differed from the Paris production; some of the Paris numbers that were not in the Broadway show; a number with Tina Pratt that was not used; differences between the styles of LeTang and the choreographer Leon Collins, with whom Walker had worked; how Mitchell and LeTang compensated for her relatively short stature including her placement in the line; the difficulties Orezzoli and Segovia had in casting the musicians; an anecdote about a rehearsal with LeTang and the musicians of "Everybody Loves My Baby"; working with the orchestra and Oxley; the costume for Walker's soft shoe routine (for which Mitchell was the understudy); she displays and comments on photographs of herself in Walker's costume and a statuette of herself and Goodson including the red wig she had to wear in the show; she displays and comments on additional photographs including a photograph of Cumbo in her costume for "Mystery Song" and photographs of herself in her respective costumes for "Wednesday Night Hop", "I Can't Give You Anything But Love", and "Rhythm Man"; reminiscences about Jimmy Slyde in "Stompin' at the Savoy" and Bunny [Bernard] Briggs, accompanied by the saxophonist Jerome [Richardson] in "Sentimental Mood"; the ability of Briggs and other artists of his generation to engage with the audience; the enthusiastic, appreciative audiences; opening night; her great pleasure and pride in being part of Black and blue; the strengthening of her bond with Germaine [Goodson] over the course of the show; the show's afterlife on film and on tour (with a new cast) in Europe; the show's finale, set to "Black and Blue", including its (initially) dirge-like tone and somber lyrics; more on what it meant to her to be part of this show and why she felt it was so significant for Blacks and the appreciation of Black culture; in response to Valis Hill's remarks about the Black female presence in Black and blue and the "tap renaissance", Mitchell speaks about how the women in Black and blue danced (in their heels) as well and as dynamically as the men, had equal presence, and were front and center as powerful stars in their own right; the fact that Cab Calloway called the Rhythm Queens (at this point Mitchell and Goodson) to tour with him immediately after the show closed as further evidence of their strength; her belief that she and the other female dancers (including for example Dormeshia and Walker) were part of the tap renaissance; she notes that all of the women who were in the Paris production were also in the Broadway show.
5. Streaming file 5 (two hours and 21 minutes), November 16, 2020. Deborah Mitchell speaks with Constance Valis Hill about the period from 1991, the year Black and blue closed, to 1994, just before she founded New Jersey Tap Ensemble (also referred to as New Jersey Tap Dance Ensemble; legal name is New Jersey Tap Ensemble, Inc.); her and Germaine Goodson's decision to continue the Rhythm Queens, performing as a duo; touring with Danny Holgate, Cab Calloway's musical director; Leonard Oxley and his ensuring they had class act level charts for their shows; various engagements including a Florida gig with Calloway; the sister-like bond that developed between her and Goodson; their gig on a three-month cruise to Scandinavia in 1992 including an anecdote about the ship's band not being able to play Oxley's charts; touring with Calloway in Europe; reminiscences of Calloway as an artist and as a person; how she defines a "class act"; Valis Hill comments on the concept of the class act including the precision and synchronicity of the dancing as well as how rare female class acts were; Mitchell speaks about her and Goodson's determination to continue the legacy of the class act in their own act; more on Calloway including performing at his memorial service at [the Cathedral Church of] St. John the Divine; the factors that led to her founding the New Jersey Tap Ensemble including her feeling that it was time for her to pass on the legacy of what she had learned from the great masters; clarifies that the Rhythm Queens was founded in 1983 and that the duo still exists and occasionally performs; the factors that drew her to base the company in New Jersey; her desire to provide a showcase for tap dancers, both young and old; the rigors of touring as another factor in her decision; recruiting dancers for the new company including the first audition; her chagrin at the fact that most of the applicants were children and moreover had been taught tap at ballet schools; their unfamiliarity with rhythm tap, as taught to her by Bubba Gaines, LeTang, and other past tap masters; her determination to pass this legacy on to young people; rhythm tap as characterized by the dancer's responding to (live) music as contrasted with the step-based technique of tap her students had learned; her goal to have a company that would showcase rhythm tap dance; Valis Hill reads aloud a description (provided to her by Mitchell) of the New Jersey Tap Ensemble, including the names of the original members of the repertory ensemble [NJTAP] and apprentice company [NJTAP2]; Mitchell speaks about how Oxley helped her, in particular with the teaching of stop-time; displays a photograph of dancers in her first company and speaks about sourcing costumes for the company; her realizing that running a dance company is a costly business; the first concert, Tap, Tophat, and Tails, at which Oxley conducted and provided the musicians and charts; the second concert Rhythm is our Business, which was reviewed in the Newark Star Ledger; her inclusion of tap dance history in every concert and her pride in the company's highly-trained and sophisticated dancers; her insistence on certain standards on tour including a wood floor and rehearsal time for the band; her insistence on top quality music; the show Duke Ellington and the Harlem Renaissance, in which Mercedes Ellington was the narrator; the number "Daybreak Express" including its critical success; at Oxley's suggestion and with his collaboration, recording the music for about ten numbers; how presenters almost always underestimated her dancers' level of artistry and sophistication and were consequently surprised upon seeing them perform; a show in which company members danced side by side with ballet dancers; her goal of creating a repertory of "glorious" works for tap dance companies, which led to her work Cindy; showcasing part of Cindy at Town Hall in 1999 [part of Tap in: One Fabulous Night of American Tap Choreography]; her disappointment that Noise and Funk [Bring in da noise, bring in da funk; Savion Glover's 1999 Broadway show] did not become a tap repertory standard; lack of funding and creators' reluctance to relinquish control as typical obstacles to a piece becoming a repertory work; the development of funding sources for the Ensemble; the large educational component of the Ensemble; the learning curve she experienced with respect to the managing and funding of the Ensemble; Mitchell and Valis Hill discuss how racism has disadvantaged Black-directed companies in particular with respect to funding; Mitchell's belief that the situation has improved since she started her company thanks in part to the fact that the malign influence of racism is now openly acknowledged; her uncertainty regarding the company's future due to the uncertainty of funding; the continuing struggle of rhythm tap to be considered "respectable" and how this adversely affects establishing and maintaining a tap dance company; her company's relatively small size and the challenges it faces; her fight to have tap dance recognized by the arts council [New Jersey State Council for the Arts] as a technique; her efforts to bring Black children into the [Ensemble] school including the offering of scholarships; recent changes in the management of the Ensemble including her belief that one must adapt and incorporate the new in order to stay fresh; more about dealing with racism over the years including its effect on her personally; her "wish list" for the Ensemble including its own building with performance and rehearsal spaces, a school, and a museum as well as a resident photographer and the making of a documentary about the Ensemble; the role the Ensemble has played in educating and fostering so many rhythm tap dancers active today; other items on the "wish list" including the ability to put her dancers on salary; how she views her legacy to her former students including the lessons she has tried to teach them; love of the tap dance as her motivating force; the unwavering support of her husband for almost 40 years and the help she received from so many other people as the foundation of her career; her strong faith and her feeling that she has been blessed.

Alternative title

1. Dance Oral History Project.
2. Dance Audio Archive.

Subject

1. Mitchell, Deborah, 1947- > Interviews
2. Le Tang, Henry
3. Bradford, Alex
4. Gaines, Bubba
5. Bufalino, Brenda
6. Walker, Dianne
7. Segovia, Claudio
8. Orezzoli, Héctor
9. Ellington, Mercedes
10. Lee, Mable
11. Nicholas, Harold
12. Nicholas, Fayard
13. Manning, Frankie
14. Atkins, Cholly
15. Briggs, Bunny
16. Oxley, J. Leonard
17. Calloway, Cab, 1907-1994
18. Glover, Savion
19. Copasetics
20. New Jersey Tap Ensemble
21. Nicholas Brothers
22. Cotton Club (Motion picture : 1984)
23. Revues
24. Dance costume
25. Racism against Blacks
26. Jazz tap
27. Women tap dancers
28. Tap dancing > Study and teaching
29. Tap dancing > Production and direction
30. Dance > Economic aspects
31. Racism and the arts
32. Tap dancing > New Jersey

Genre/Form

1. Video recordings.
2. Oral histories.

Call number

1. *MGZMT 3-3488

Note

1. Interview with Deborah Mitchell (in Monroe Township, New Jersey) conducted remotely by Constance Valis Hill (in Riverdale, New York) on November 9, 10, 12, 13, and 16, 2020, for the Dance Oral History Project of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
2. For transcript see *MGZMT 3-3488
3. As of March 2023, the video recording of this interview can be made available at the Library for the Performing Arts by advanced request to the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, dance@nypl.org. The video files for this interview are undergoing processing and eventually will be available for streaming.
4. Title supplied by cataloger.

Access (note)

1. Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.

Funding (note)

1. The creation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by the bequest of Carl Schlesinger.

Author

1. Mitchell, Deborah, 1947- Interviewee.

Title

1. Interview with Deborah Mitchell 2020/ Conducted remotely by Constance Valis Hill on November 9, 10, 12, 13, and 16, 2020; Producer: the Dance Oral History Project

Imprint

1. 2020

Playing time

1. 101600

Type of content

1. spoken word
2. two-dimensional moving image
3. text

Type of medium

1. unmediated
2. video
3. computer

Type of carrier

1. online resource
2. volume

Digital file characteristics

1. video file

Restricted access

1. Transcripts may not be photographed or reproduced without permission.

Event

1. Recorded for for the Dance Oral History Project of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 2020, November 9, 10, 12, 13, and 16 Monroe Township, New Jersey and Riverdale, New York.

Funding

1. The creation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by the bequest of Carl Schlesinger.

Connect to:

Added author

1. Hill, Constance Valis, Interviewer.

Research call number

1. *MGZMT 3-3488
2. *MGZDOH 3488