Gregory Hines - One of the Most Celebrated Tap Dancers

DSA
Nov 14, 2020
2 min read

Hello Dancers! Hope you guys have been doing some self care for yourselves with the craziness of the end of the year approaching! This week's dancer is Gregory Hines! He is most known for being an extremely talented tap dancer and performing on Broadway!

Gregory Hines was born in New York City on February 14th, 1946. He began to study dance at a very early age, he actually began to tap dance when he was two years old! Not only did he dance, but he sang, and acted too! He and his older brother Maurice performed together and studied with Henry LeTang. The two brothers were known as The Hines Kids, making nightclub appearances at venues in Miami, Florida, with Cab Calloway. They were later known as "The Hines Brothers." When their father joined their act as a drummer, the group name changed again to Hines, Hines, and Dad. Hines mainly improved tap sounds, tap rhythms, he would usually wear loose fitting clothes to resemble his free movement. In 1973, he left Hines, Hines, and Dad to form a jazz-rock group called Severance. But the smooth-as-silk tap dancer soon returned to New York where he launched a distinguished Broadway career that won him a Tony award in 1992 for the headlining role in George C. Wolfe's musical tribute Jelly's Last Jam. Throughout his career, Hines wanted and continued to be an advocate for tap in America. In 1981, Hines landed his first film role, as a Roman slave in Mel Brooks' History of the World-Part 1, as a last-minute replacement for Richard Pryor. That role proved a stepping stone in Hines' film career, and he went on to star in a range of movies. He also successfully petitioned the creation of National Tap Dance Day in May 1989, which is now celebrated in forty cities in the United States, as well as eight other nations, including Canada! His glory days unfortunately came to an end when he passed away from liver cancer on August 9th, 2003.