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In 1933 C. B. Cochran invited Buddy Bradley to London to work
on the Rodgers and Hart musical Evergreen. It was the
first time a black dancer had worked on an all white show.
Buddy Bradley was a major force in musicals and revue in Britain
in the 1930s and 1940s. Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1908,
he was mostly self-taught and made his debut as a dancer in 1926
in the Florence Mills Revue in New York. He staged dances
in the great 1920s revues for Ziegfeld, George White, Earl Carroll
and Lew Leslie’s legendary black revue Blackbirds. He
also staged routines for such stars as Eleanor Powell, Ruby Keeler
and Adèle Astaire.
In the 1930s he left New York and danced in London in C. B. Cochran’s
1931 Revue. There was a rumour that he was forced to
leave New York because the Mafia owner of Harlem’s Cotton Club
did not appreciate Bradley teaching his girl friend to dance.
Bradley went on to work with Jessie Matthews and Jack Buchanan
on their major musical shows and films throughout the 1930s. In
1932 he collaborated with Frederick Ashton on a ballet High
Yellow. Bradley had to teach the ballerina Alicia Markova
how to dance with snake hips. He said that the most difficult
thing to teach classical dancers was how to bend their knees.
Until 1967 Bradley ran a dance studio in London. He also continued
choreographing in England, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain.
His choreography mixed classical and modern dance and he also
took movements from ice shows and jazz. When tap fell out of favour
in the 1950s, he concentrated on jazz dance. He became the first
African-American to run a British white company when he formed
his own group to appear in variety shows and television in the
1950s.
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Introduction
Harlem Renaissance
