Pam Raff

Last updated

Pamela Joan Raff (January 13, 1952 - November 20, 2009) was a British-American tap dancer. Raff performed, developed choreography and taught dance mainly in the Boston area.

Contents

Biography

Pamela Joan Raff was born on January 13, 1952, in Oxford and grew up in Morristown, New Jersey. [1] At the age of three, she started tap dance lessons and later learned ballet, modern dance and belly dance. [1] She briefly attended American University, but dropped out to hitchhike across the United States (US) and ended up in Boston. [1] She worked in malls around the US as a "dancing Magoo" and when she returned to Boston, she started to study dance in 1978 with Leon Collins. [1] [2] Raff also worked on dance choreography. [3]

Raff and Collins founded Collins & Company in 1982 and Raff taught and developed dance curriculum at the Leon Collins Dance Studio. [2] She and others kept the studio running after the death of Collins in 1985. [4] In 1994, she released the "first full-length digital recording of jazz tapping," called "Feet First." [5] It was favorably reviewed by critic, Patricia Myers, writing for JazzTimes . [4] Raff started teaching dance in her own studio in 1995. [5] She also performed at the Boston Center for the Arts' Black Box Theater in 1995, where Diane C. Grant wrote in the Boston Globe that her performance "belies just about every tap dance stereotype." [6]

Raff died in her home in Upton, Massachusetts, on November 20, 2009. [2] [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tap dance</span> Type of dance involving percussive shoes

Tap dance is a form of dance that uses the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion; it is often accompanied by music. Tap dancing can also be a cappella, with no musical accompaniment; the sound of the taps is its own music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leon Collins</span> American actor

Leon Collins was an American tap dancer.

Dianne Walker, also known as Lady Di, is an American tap dancer. Her thirty-year career spans Broadway, television, film, and international dance concerts. Walker is the artistic director of TapDancin, Inc. in Boston, Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston Police Department</span> Municipal police department in Boston, Massachusetts

The Boston Police Department (BPD) is the primary law enforcement agency of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1854, the BPD is the oldest municipal police department in the United States. It is also the 20th largest law enforcement agency in the country, with 2,713 sworn and unsworn personnel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jimmy Slyde</span> American tap dancer (1927–2008)

James Titus Godbolt, known professionally as Jimmy Slyde and also as the "King of Slides", was an American tap dancer known for his innovative tap style mixed with jazz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brenda Bufalino</span> American tap dancer and writer

Brenda Bufalino is an American tap dancer and writer. She co-founded, choreographed and directed the American Tap Dance Foundation, known at the time as the American Tap Dance Orchestra. Bufalino wrote a memoir entitled, Tapping the Source...Tap dance, Stories, Theory and Practice and a book of poems Circular Migrations, both of which have been published by Codhill Press, and the novella Song of the Split Elm, published by Outskirts Press.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Coles</span> American actor and tap dancer (1911–1992)

Charles "Honi" Coles was an American actor and tap dancer, who was inducted posthumously into the American Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2003. He had a distinctive personal style that required technical precision, high-speed tapping, and a close-to-the-floor style where "the legs and feet did the work". Coles was also half of the professional tap dancing duo Coles and Atkins, whose specialty was performing with elegant style through various tap steps such as "swing dance", "over the top", "bebop", "buck and wing", and "slow drag".

Samantha Jo "Mandy" Moore is an American choreographer, dancer, producer, and dance instructor. She is known for her work on the United States reality television series So You Think You Can Dance, having appeared on the show every year since the third season, and Dancing with the Stars. She choreographed the 2016 film La La Land and has also worked on commercials and various musical productions such as Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour. She has created dance numbers for the Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Emmy Awards, and Grammy Awards ceremonies. She has been nominated seven times for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography, winning in 2017 for her work on Dancing with the Stars, in 2018 for her work on So You Think You Can Dance, and in 2020 for Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist.

Sonya Tayeh is a New York City-based choreographer. She has worked nationally and internationally across the worlds of dance and theater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crystal Pite</span> Canadian choreographer and dancer (born 1970)

Crystal Pite is a Canadian choreographer and dancer. She began her professional dance career in 1988 at Ballet BC, and in 1996 she joined Ballett Frankfurt under the tutelage of William Forsythe. After leaving Ballett Frankfurt she became the resident choreographer of Montreal company Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal from 2001 to 2004. She then returned to Vancouver where she focused on choreographing while continuing to dance in her own pieces until 2010. In 2002 she formed her own company called Kidd Pivot, which produced her original works Uncollected Work (2003), Double Story (2004), Lost Action (2006), Dark Matters (2009), The You Show (2010), The Tempest Replica (2011), Betroffenheit (2015), and Revisor (2019) to date. Throughout her career she has been commissioned by many international dance companies to create new pieces, including The Second Person (2007) for Netherlands Dans Theater and Emergence (2009) for the National Ballet of Canada, the latter of which was awarded four Dora Mavor Moore Awards.

Beth Soll is an American dancer. She began training with Romanian modern dancers Iris Barbura and Vergiu Cornea and then continued studying in the European tradition at Essen Volkwangschule, and at the Kreutzbergschule in Switzerland. She received a degree in modern dance from the University of Wisconsin.

Mary Pelloni is an American television producer, director and executive producer, based in Los Angeles, California. She is the executive producer of Discovery +, Travel Channel, The Curse of Lizzie Borden and Ghost Loop, BET's Curvy Style, TLC's DC Cupcakes, Niecy Nash's Wedding Bash and Undercover Princes, and is most known for creating the TV format for television hit reality show Bridezillas. In 2014 Pelloni was hired to produce specials and series for Discovery Studios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melinda Sullivan</span> American dancer, choreographer and actress

Melinda Sullivan is an American dancer, choreographer and actress. She is known for her work on the U.S. version of So You Think You Can Dance, where she was a finalist in the television series' seventh season, and as the 2012 winner of the Capezio A.C.E. Award. That entry, "Gone", debuted in expanded form in New York in August 2013. In 2021, she began a collaboration with jazz pianist Larry Goldings.

Ingeborg Heuser was a German dancer, choreographer and teacher who worked primarily in the Southwest United States. She is credited with popularizing and promoting ballet in El Paso, Texas.

Chyrstyn Mariah Fentroy is an American ballet dancer. She currently dances as a principal with the Boston Ballet and is a former principal dancer at Dance Theatre of Harlem. When Fentroy joined Boston Ballet in 2017, she was the first African-American female dancer to join the company in a decade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sara Mildred Strauss</span> American dancer, educator, choreographer, and writer

Sara Mildred Strauss was an American dancer, educator, choreographer, and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erika Thimey</span> German dancer and dance educator

Erika Thimey was a German dancer and dance educator, based for most of her career in Washington, D.C.

Shades of Harlem: A Cotton Club Musical is an off-Broadway musical theater revue of songs from the Harlem Renaissance. The show debuted in August 1983 at the Village Gate and has gone on to play around the world. The show features jazz music and dancing that would have been popular at the Cotton Club during the Harlem Renaissance. Original performances included dancers from the era, including Ludie Jones and Juanita Boisseau. The show received mixed reviews.

Barbara Duffy is an American dancer and educator. Duffy performs tap dance, teaches dance, and also choreographs dances. Duffy has formed several dance groups in New York City and has appeared on Sesame Street and 60 Minutes.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Pam Raff [biography]". Performing Arts Databases. Library of Congress. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 "Pamela Raff of Upton, Authority on Tap Dance". Boston Herald. 2009-11-29. Archived from the original on 25 April 2020. Retrieved 2020-04-25.
  3. Temin, Christine (1994-06-05). "Leaping Into a Busy Season of Dance". The Boston Globe. p. 230. Retrieved 2020-05-02 via Newspapers.com.
  4. 1 2 3 Marquard, Bryan (2009-12-04). "Pamela Raff, 57; Fused Music, Movement Through Dance". The Boston Globe. pp. B11. Retrieved 2020-05-02 via Newspapers.com.
  5. 1 2 "Transitions". Dance Magazine. 2010-02-24. Archived from the original on 25 April 2020. Retrieved 2020-04-25.
  6. Grant, Diane C. (1995-04-29). "Pamela Raff's Foot Rhythms Bring Jazz to Life". The Boston Globe. p. 28. Retrieved 2020-05-02 via Newspapers.com.