Early Life
- Gregory Hines was born on February 14, 1946, in Harlem, New York
- Began tap dancing at age 2, semi-professionally at age 5
- Studied with choreographer Henry LeTang
- He and his older brother Maurice performed together as the Hines Kids, and later The Hines Brothers
- Performed with legend tappers The Nicholas Brothers, Howard Sims, and Cab Calloway
Career
- Made his mark in over 40 films and 7 Broadway shows
- Made his Broadway debut in The Girl in Pink Tights (1954)
- Shared Sammy Davis Jr's last performance in the movie Tap (1989)
- Starred in his own sitcom, The Gregory Hines Show (1997-1999)
- Played Bojangles in the film by the same name (2001)
- In 2003, he died of liver cancer at the age of 57
Legacy
Tap dance originated around the turn of the 20th century in America. Many of the original greats were big in the 1900s to 1940s. Gregory Hines inherited the tradition of this original 'hoofer' style, emphasing rhythm over pomp.
Hines was a big part of the revival movement in the 1980s and promoting tap in America. In 1989, Hines petitioned to get National Tap Dance Day created. On May 25, the day Bill (Bojangles) Robinson was born, the world celebrates the art of tap dance. Many get together and dance the Shim Sham Shimmy.
You can read more about this amazing man on his Wikipedia entry.
"He sweeps about gently, and then lets loose with cataclysmic force; he takes big leaps and then tucks in his wings for a dazzling display of terpsichorean precision. The man is human lightning, and he just can't be contained."
— Frank Rich, 1981
"He purposely obliterated the tempos, throwing down a cascade of taps like pebbles tossed across the floor. In that moment, he aligned tap with the latest free-orm experiments in jazz and new music and postmodern dance."
— Sally Sommer, 2003