Pressing “reset” after relentless book research—accompanied by a Puligny-Montrachet.
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
Like grandfather, like grandson, perhaps? Tracing Buddy Bradley’s dynamic, surprising grandfather in the Sumter County Alabama Courthouse. Notice the log books on the left record “colored” marriages, those on the right, white. With equally phenomenal Sumter County historian who can tell the tales and find the bodies.
#buddybradley #tracingbuddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer #historyreveals #storiesofthesouth
Recuperating from research ( by reading Mollie Panter-Downs “London War Notes.”)
#buddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer #tracingbuddybradley #londoncalling #storiesfromthestage #canopybed #litalapolonaise
Contemplating.
#buddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer #tracingbuddybradley #londoncalling #storiesofthewestend
Can you tell a play by its program cover? Perhaps. But what IS beyond a doubt : you can read an era in a playbill. Delving into West End programs for shows Buddy Bradley choreographed, I read 1930s London. Of course, I stray into the tempting editorials as well as ads for restaurants, clubs, and cigarettes, so it’s turning into a prolonged process….what I thought was an afternoon will be, in fact, days.
#buddybradley #tracingbuddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer #talesfromthewestend
Tucked behind the National Gallery and just off Leicester Square—a stone’s throw from the flat where Buddy Bradley lived and listened to jazz with pals Frederick Ashton and Alicia Markova (who reminded him of Florence Mills)—lies the Westminster Research Library. With collections dedicated to theatre, fine arts, and music, the energies of the West End, its open stacks are are a rare nirvana for researchers. Suddenly, unexpected adjacencies of information (revues!! economics of theatre! Costume design! ) broaden Buddy’s own story. And even the location tells a fitting story: Isaac Newton, the man who explained motion, lived here in the 18th century.
Valentine’s Day with choreographer and total charmer Ralph Tobert. Ralph had me and fellow Bradley devotee @annetteuk spellbound by stories of leaving a family business to dance, selling American cigarettes in Covent Garden to pay for lessons with Bradley (when he came up short Bradley let him take class anyway), going to the studio alone, after hours, to practice Bradley’s lightening steps, and insights into Bradley methodology( he taught by demonstration , not words, and was famous for his graduated routines.) He then proceeded to knock off a shim sham.An enchanting afternoon and a new friend.
#buddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer #tracingbuddybradley #myfunnyvalentine #newfriends
Launch pad for London research on Buddy Bradley—awaiting Jane Pritchard , curator of Dance, Theater and Performance at the V&A under the Chihuly.
#buddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer #tracingbuddybradley #victoriaandalbertmuseum @vamuseum #dalechihuly
Sunday afternoon in the office with Buddy Bradley. A little long-legged dancer, painted by my genealogist fairy godmother in Birmingham, stands sentry over my reading. It is as if Miz Alexander is with me at every step of the journey. We both KNOW that Buddy would have loved to teach this long-legged little brown girl and we both hope she comes to know Buddy’s vast story.
#buddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer #tracingbuddybradley #musesandmusings #muses #sundaythoughts
Retracing the path of Buddy Bradley reestablishes our own past. Buddy’s father —a man inquisitive and exploratory like his son—spent his formative years in Gainesville, Alabama a bustling cotton shipping port, financed by Yankee money . When the railroad bypassed Gainesville, it fell into quaint oblivion (as seen here! ) and Robert Epes began his own journey, ultimately reinventing himself as a bricklayer in Birmingham —an apt skill in a city establishing itself as a model of the New ( industrial) South. Strikingly , little has changed in Gainesville since Robert Epes’ childhood circa 1870. One hears the music and rhythms that first prompted Buddy’s feet.
#buddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer #tracingbuddybradley #storiesofthesouth #sumtercountyalabama
#feelthefloor:thelifeandlegacyofjazzchoreographerbuddybradley
Buddy Bradley and I owe so much to two generous guardian angels—Ms Looney and Ms Alexander of the Birmingham African American Genealogy Group—who guided me into the intricacies of resources and realities of Alabama. Not only were they transformative, they introduced me to the Birmingham landmark restaurant, Fife’s, and its smothered pork chops.
#buddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer #tracingbuddybradley #birmingham #birminghamafricanamericangenealogygroup #baag #fifes
Bingo! Found the 1913 Birmingham City Directory in the archives , then found the house in the Smithfield district , mercifully still (just) standing. Thirteen-year old Buddy Bradley lived here in this fetching little house with gingerbread detail with his widowed mother and baby brother with the poetic name, Aurelius Lanier, for one short year.
And happy Martin Luther King day to all. In his own quest to realize his individuality and talent, Buddy left Birmingham at age 15, then New York at 26, to flourish as the preeminent jazz and theatre choreographer in London for 35 years.
#buddybradleyjazzchoreographer #tracingbuddybradley #buddybradley #storiesfromthesouth #smithfieldbirmingham #birminghamalabama
Digging further into the Buddy Bradley story in the resources of the Linn -Henley Research Center for Southern History. I owe so much to librarian @marybethnewbill ( ‘Miz Newbill,’ of course!)for her knowledge and suggestions. The main reading room (swipe) is exceptional too!
#buddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer
#linnhenleyresearchlibrary
#tracingbuddybradley #storiesfromthesouth
Postcards from the research road: Buddy Bradley’s grandfather’s gravesite. Colonel Richard Junius Epes (1813-1865) in the Old Side Cemetery, Sumterville, Sumter County, Alabama.
#buddybradley #buddybradleyjazzchoreographer #storiesfromthesouth #tracingbuddybradley
Tracing Buddy Bradley and his roots in Alabama.
Never a dull moment on the trail of legendary jazz choreographer Buddy Bradley: a tornado (!) today in Birmingham, refuge in the reserves of the Linn-Henley archives @birminghamcentrallibrary, (swipe) and end of day reward : shrimp and grits with Conecuh sauasage at the @Tutwiler Hotel. @thesixsixteen BTW Gulf shrimp are in a category sans pareil!
#buddybradley #tracingbuddybradley #tapdanceamerica #jazzdiaspora
The trail of Buddy Bradley inevitably leads to Broadway. Last night to the effervescent Some Like it Hot. Casey Nicholaw choreography tears up the stage. Marilyn who? Move over for #adriannahicks #jharrisonghee #christianborle ! Buddy Bradley would be thrilled. Exit smiling.
#tracingBuddyBradley #tapdancetreasures #tapdance #somelikeithot #caseynicholaw @somelikeithotmusical
My French connection : Pierre de Grandsaignes of the august Decour finalizing the placement of passementerie for a canopy and its Braquenie lining. Cerise sur le gâteau , Pierre ‘s grandmother was the muse and comrade in arms of Georges Geffroy.
. #georgesgeffroy #decour #decoratinginparis #braquenié #pierrefrey