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So if your father is a Baptist and your mother a Methodist, what will you be? My research companion ( Buddy Bradley’s distant cousin) caught me mid-sentence in the historic C.M.E.Daes  Chapel in Clarkesville, Georgia. (Like Bradley’s mother’s people,  the Daes family were also free people of color. )As to religious upbringing, I suspect the religion of Buddy’s more-present mother prevailed, so it is possible Buddy Bradley was christened in this very space. Once again, I feel I am following on sacred ground -the (non-tapping) footsteps of Bradley. BTW it’s called buck dancing in these parts!

Thank you, EDH, for opening this journey for me!

#buddybradley
#meandmybuddy
#buddybradleyjazzchoreographer 
#searchingforBuddyBradley
#tracingBuddyBradley
#daeschapel 
@habershamcountyga @clarkesvillegeorgia

So if your father is a Baptist and your mother a Methodist, what will you be? My research companion ( Buddy Bradley’s distant cousin) caught me mid-sentence in the historic C.M.E.Daes Chapel in Clarkesville, Georgia. (Like Bradley’s mother’s people, the Daes family were also free people of color. )As to religious upbringing, I suspect the religion of Buddy’s more-present mother prevailed, so it is possible Buddy Bradley was christened in this very space. Once again, I feel I am following on sacred ground -the (non-tapping) footsteps of Bradley. BTW it’s called buck dancing in these parts!

Thank you, EDH, for opening this journey for me!

#buddybradley
#meandmybuddy
#buddybradleyjazzchoreographer
#searchingforBuddyBradley
#tracingBuddyBradley
#daeschapel
@habershamcountyga @clarkesvillegeorgia
...

Looking at dance through the lens of an Empire.

#buddybradley 
#meandmybuddy
#buddybradleyjazzchoreographer

Looking at dance through the lens of an Empire.

#buddybradley
#meandmybuddy
#buddybradleyjazzchoreographer
...

A minute in Paris. With new best girl Delphina Hurley.

A minute in Paris. With new best girl Delphina Hurley. ...

The quiet moment before resuming research. The scent of summer in the air. 

#meandmybuddy
#buddybradleyjazzchoreographer 
#tracingbuddybradley 
#buddybradley

The quiet moment before resuming research. The scent of summer in the air.

#meandmybuddy
#buddybradleyjazzchoreographer
#tracingbuddybradley
#buddybradley
...

Westminster Archives now closed for day. Taking stock in Saint James Park. Mapping out tomorrow.

#buddybradley
#buddybradleyjazzchoreographer 
#tracingbuddybradley 
#westminsterarchives
#meandmybuddy

Westminster Archives now closed for day. Taking stock in Saint James Park. Mapping out tomorrow.

#buddybradley
#buddybradleyjazzchoreographer
#tracingbuddybradley
#westminsterarchives
#meandmybuddy
...

The bewitching hour : between lunch and flight. A stroll through the Blaschka glass flowers at the Harvard Museum on Natural History. Commissioned for the study of botany at the turn of the last century of a father and son team of glass artisans, it took 20 meticulous years to complete the collection.

#buddybradley and the byways

The bewitching hour : between lunch and flight. A stroll through the Blaschka glass flowers at the Harvard Museum on Natural History. Commissioned for the study of botany at the turn of the last century of a father and son team of glass artisans, it took 20 meticulous years to complete the collection.

#buddybradley and the byways
...

Running to lunch with my editor and passed Leavitt and Peirce , where we  used to purchase Rothman’s cigarettes—they, of course, conferred instant worldliness! Still charmed with this timeless facade although I and everyone else I know  have long stopped toying with smoking. So how ever does a tobacco store survive?

#inpusuitofbuddybradley #tracingbuddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer

Running to lunch with my editor and passed Leavitt and Peirce , where we used to purchase Rothman’s cigarettes—they, of course, conferred instant worldliness! Still charmed with this timeless facade although I and everyone else I know have long stopped toying with smoking. So how ever does a tobacco store survive?

#inpusuitofbuddybradley #tracingbuddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer
...

Feeling festive on the 159 bus up Regent Street.  Terrific interview, more insights, anecdotes and angles. Buddy Bradley rising from the two-dimensional  page to become a three dimensional being.

#buddybradley 
#buddybradleyjazzchoreographer 
#meandmybuddy
#tracingbuddybradley

Feeling festive on the 159 bus up Regent Street. Terrific interview, more insights, anecdotes and angles. Buddy Bradley rising from the two-dimensional page to become a three dimensional being.

#buddybradley
#buddybradleyjazzchoreographer
#meandmybuddy
#tracingbuddybradley
...

Slipping into the Crush Room at Covent Garden —as iconic as Oliver Messel’s sets for Sleeping Beauty.

Slipping into the Crush Room at Covent Garden —as iconic as Oliver Messel’s sets for Sleeping Beauty. ...

More heavy lifting—with a grand jeté !—at the BFI.  Former Royal Ballet ballerina Professor Geraldine Morris, has analyzed Buddy Bradley’s influence on Frederic Ashton’s choreography. Now  we turn the tables to search for Ashton elements in Bradley’s work. Witness the expansive arms, luxuriant backs, and lush  épaulement mixed with his own signature fast feet. Thank you, Geraldine and Basement Steve, for another great day of research. 

#buddybradley 
#meandmybuddy
#tapdancehistory 
#buddybradleyjazzchoreographer 
#tracingbuddybradley

More heavy lifting—with a grand jeté !—at the BFI. Former Royal Ballet ballerina Professor Geraldine Morris, has analyzed Buddy Bradley’s influence on Frederic Ashton’s choreography. Now we turn the tables to search for Ashton elements in Bradley’s work. Witness the expansive arms, luxuriant backs, and lush épaulement mixed with his own signature fast feet. Thank you, Geraldine and Basement Steve, for another great day of research.

#buddybradley
#meandmybuddy
#tapdancehistory
#buddybradleyjazzchoreographer
#tracingbuddybradley
...

Do you ever feel like the lovelorn Freddy in My Fair Lady?  Tracing Buddy Bradley’s footsteps in London in wonder.

Cut off at the bottom: Regency architecture by John Nash. 
#buddybradley
#buddybradleyjazzchoreographer 
#meandmybuddy
#tracingbuddybradley 
#johnnash #johnnasharchitect #parkcrescentlondon #regencyarchitecture

Do you ever feel like the lovelorn Freddy in My Fair Lady? Tracing Buddy Bradley’s footsteps in London in wonder.

Cut off at the bottom: Regency architecture by John Nash.
#buddybradley
#buddybradleyjazzchoreographer
#meandmybuddy
#tracingbuddybradley
#johnnash #johnnasharchitect #parkcrescentlondon #regencyarchitecture
...

This is the convoluted threading involved to see even 30 seconds of dance footage! But of course it’s perfectly fitting I should be doing this because, in the 1920s, Buddy Bradley, enamored of movies, studied  to be a film projectionist. I had to take a photo as a reminder of how it all worked but by the end if the day I’d nailed it . 
 #buddybradley
#meandmybuddy 
#buddybradleyjazzchoreographer 
#tracingbuddybradley
#dancinginthedark @britishfilminstitute

This is the convoluted threading involved to see even 30 seconds of dance footage! But of course it’s perfectly fitting I should be doing this because, in the 1920s, Buddy Bradley, enamored of movies, studied to be a film projectionist. I had to take a photo as a reminder of how it all worked but by the end if the day I’d nailed it .
#buddybradley
#meandmybuddy
#buddybradleyjazzchoreographer
#tracingbuddybradley
#dancinginthedark @britishfilminstitute
...

Excavating Buddy Bradley choreography footage 
 with my bestie ´Basement Steve,’ who reigns over the BFI screening rooms. It’s a complicated process ( see next post) and I couldn’t possibly manage without Steve’s tutelage. 

#buddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer #tracingbuddybradley #dancinginthe dark @dior @britishfilminstitute

Excavating Buddy Bradley choreography footage
with my bestie ´Basement Steve,’ who reigns over the BFI screening rooms. It’s a complicated process ( see next post) and I couldn’t possibly manage without Steve’s tutelage.

#buddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer #tracingbuddybradley #dancinginthe dark @dior @britishfilminstitute
...

Yesterday the pursuit of Buddy Bradley led to a pub under the white cliffs of Dover where a choreographer and a dancer turned actor, students of Bradley in the 1950s,  told the tales and divulged the details. Some takeaways: Buddy Bradley  thrived in the studio, surrounded by those passionate about dance, imparting his secrets with call-and-response demonstrations, always winding up with a killer combination that confounded his acolytes. What did he wear in the studio? (Yes, my question!! ) Answer: elegant navy suede tap shoes with perfectly calibrated taps and a gray jumper with yellow banding. Confabbing with my two favorite English hoofers and @annetteuk, my comrade in arms in the pursuit of the elusive Buddy Bradley.

#buddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer #tracingbuddybradley #myfavoritehoofers

Yesterday the pursuit of Buddy Bradley led to a pub under the white cliffs of Dover where a choreographer and a dancer turned actor, students of Bradley in the 1950s, told the tales and divulged the details. Some takeaways: Buddy Bradley thrived in the studio, surrounded by those passionate about dance, imparting his secrets with call-and-response demonstrations, always winding up with a killer combination that confounded his acolytes. What did he wear in the studio? (Yes, my question!! ) Answer: elegant navy suede tap shoes with perfectly calibrated taps and a gray jumper with yellow banding. Confabbing with my two favorite English hoofers and @annetteuk, my comrade in arms in the pursuit of the elusive Buddy Bradley.

#buddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer #tracingbuddybradley #myfavoritehoofers
...

Adventures in book research. The  parking lot of my hotel in Livingston, Alabama.

#storiesfromthesouth #tracingbuddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer #buddybradley #adventuresinresearch #openroad

Adventures in book research. The parking lot of my hotel in Livingston, Alabama.

#storiesfromthesouth #tracingbuddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer #buddybradley #adventuresinresearch #openroad
...

Buddy Bradley’s ancestors banked here, in a  two room structure in the Black Belt of Alabama, whose architecture reflects the  New Englanders who flocked to this bend  along a river in the 1830s and turned it into a town. By  1848, the National Bank of Gainesville was so prosperous due to the cotton trade that the US government granted it the right to print money. After Emancipation Buddy’s grandfather turned his talents to trade and eventually obtained a  wholesale liquor license, catapulting him from local merchant to distributor. Today, the town is quiet, Buddy’s people are long gone, and the forgotten bank whispers stories to those who want to hear.

#buddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer #tracingbuddybradley #storiesofthesouth

Buddy Bradley’s ancestors banked here, in a two room structure in the Black Belt of Alabama, whose architecture reflects the New Englanders who flocked to this bend along a river in the 1830s and turned it into a town. By 1848, the National Bank of Gainesville was so prosperous due to the cotton trade that the US government granted it the right to print money. After Emancipation Buddy’s grandfather turned his talents to trade and eventually obtained a wholesale liquor license, catapulting him from local merchant to distributor. Today, the town is quiet, Buddy’s people are long gone, and the forgotten bank whispers stories to those who want to hear.

#buddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer #tracingbuddybradley #storiesofthesouth
...