Legendary Broadway Choreographer, Master Tap Teacher: Dr. Henry LeTang
June 19, 1915 - April 26, 2007
Henry LeTang is a native of New York who began his dancing career at age seven. Having fully polished his own technique by age seventeen, he opened his studio in 1937. His first big star student was Betty Hutton. Henry's inimitable style transformed and emphasized the importance of choreography for nightclub performers, thereby establishing him as one of the country's foremost motion stylists. Another beautiful hopeful came to Henry for direction and made it big, her name was Lena Horne.
Dr. LeTang choreographed the movies Tap and the Cotton Club. His Broadway credits include the smash hit Sophisticated Ladies, staring Gregory Hines and Judith Jamieson, which earned him a Tony nomination and the Outer Critic Circle Award for outstanding tap choreography on this show and also Eubie.
Henry won a Tony in 1989 for the Broadway musical Black and Blue. Some of Mr. LeTang's students and protégés include: Gregory Hines, Debbie Allen, Maurice Hines, Bette Midler, Milton Berle, Lee Marvin, Harry Belafonte, Joey Heatherton, Chita Rivera, Lola Falana, George Kirby, Nancy Wilson, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Billie Holiday. His fine work was represented on Broadway by his students and stars of Bubbling Brown Sugar, Guys and Dolls, and My One and Only, and Tap Dance Kid. The legendary Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, who summed up his choreographing talent, "That young man's staging is really copasetic." - Tap Heritage.com
Henry LeTang has taught, the famous and novice, choreographed for Broadway Shows, Television and Movies for over five decades, and received numerous awards. The following is a sampling of some of his accomplishments. At 91years he teaches private classes to professional dancers in Las Vegas.
Henry LeTang has taught, the famous and novice, choreographed for Broadway Shows, Television and Movies for over five decades, and received numerous awards. The following is a sampling of some of his accomplishments. At 91years he teaches private classes to professional dancers in Las Vegas.
Awards
2003 - American Choreography Award
2002- Honored at Oklahoma City University, School of American Dance and Arts Management and The Robert L. Reed Tap Heritage Institute - presented an honorary doctorate - Doctor of Performing Arts in American Dance.
Established the Tap program at Oklahoma City University;
Received "A Living Treasure in American Dance" Award
Outer Critics Circle Award for outstanding Tap Choreography
for "Sophisticated Ladies"
Drama Critics Award for "Eubie"
Drama - League Award: for "Stardust" starring Gloria Loring, (Days of Our Lives) at the International City Theatre, in San Francisco, directed by Tony Award winner Henry LeTang.
Flo - Bert Award: 1995 recipient for the advancement of the art of Tap through teaching and choreography.
Broadway Musicals
The Wiz: choreographed the " Tin Man " "Slide Some Oil To Me"
Black & Blue: 1989-1991 Tony Award Winning Musical
with Ruth Brown, Linda Hopkins, Carrie Smith, Bunny Briggs, Savion Glover (partial listing of cast)
Eubie: 1978-1979 (Tony nominee) with Gregory & Maurice Hines
Ethel Beatty, Terry Burrell, Alaina Reed (partial listing of cast)
Crazy With The Heat, My Dear Public, Dream With Music
Shuffle Along: 1952 Revue with Eubie Blake, Noble Sissle
MOVIES
TAP: 1989 Directed by Nick Castle, Starring Sammy Davis Jr. Gregory Hines, Suzzanne Douglas, Sandman Sims, Bunny Briggs,
Savion Glover. Arthur Duncan, Jimmy Slyde, Steve Condos, Harold Nicholas, Dianne
Walker.
Cotton Club: 1984 Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring
Richard Gere, Gregory Hines Maurice Hines, Laurence Fishburne, Nicolas Cage, Lonette McGee
Bojangles: 2001 Showtime Emmy Nominee with Gregory Hines
Television
Staged shows for George Balanchine, Olson and Johnson, Milton Berle.
There was a Nebraska farmer who grew award-winning corn. Eachyear he entered his corn in the state fair where it won a blue ribbon... One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. "How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?" the reporter asked. "Why sir," said the farmer, "didn't you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn." He is very much aware of the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor's corn also improves. So it is in other dimensions. Those who choose to be at peace must help their neighbors to be at peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others to find happiness for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all.
The lesson for each of us is this: if we are to grow good corn, we must help our neighbors grow good corn.
There was a man played piano in a bar. He was a good piano player. People came out just to hear him play. But one night, a patron told him he didn't want to hear him just play anymore. He wanted him to sing a song.
The man said, "I don't sing."
But the customer was persistent. He told the bartender, "I'm tired of listening to the piano. I want that guy to sing!"
The bartender shouted across the room, "Hey buddy! If you want to get paid, sing a song. The patrons are asking you to sing!"
So he did. He sang a song. A piano player who had never sung in public did so for the very first time. And nobody had ever heard the song Mona, Mona Lisa sung the way it was sung that night by Nat King Cole!
He had talent he was sitting on! He may have lived the rest of his life as a no-name piano player in a no-name bar, but because he had to sing, he went on to become one of the best-known entertainers in America.
You, too, have skills and abilities. You may not feel as if your "talent" is particularly great, but it may be better than you think! And with persistence, most skills can be improved. Besides, you may as well have no ability at all if you sit on whatever talent you possess! The better question is not "What ability do I have that is useful?" It is rather "How will I use whatever ability I have?"
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Thinking of you on your Birthday... Remembering the ones we spent together... Keep Tappin' in Heaven Darling Henry... Oh Boy-Yeah Yeah! Miss you ALWAYS... Saz and SiMMi
I just finished live performance [Tribute to Henry LeTang] in Tokyo Japan. It was wonderful moment. Me, 10 students and 5 kids danced Henry's 18 numbers. I will donate this profit to Henry foud. And all my students gave me huge Henry picture's tapestry !! I love you and miss you.
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