World-renowned tap dancer, named a 'national treasure'

World-renowned tap dancer LaVaughn Robinson, 80, of Philadelphia, died of heart failure Wednesday at Albert Einstein Medical Center.

Born in South Philadelphia in 1927, the youngest of 14 children, Mr. Robinson had said he learned the time step from his mother on the kitchen floor when he was 6.

He went on to tap in Philadelphia and on stages around the world, was named a national treasure, and taught tap at the University of the Arts for 20 years.

During the darkest days of the Depression, the youngster was intrigued by clicking sounds coming from Broad and South Streets, where neighborhood kids tapped. Mr. Robinson joined them, and gave to his mother the coins that gathering crowds had tossed to him.

Mr. Robinson's music was his feet. He danced in the dim glow of streetlights during the heyday of tap dancing in Philadelphia. He recalled in a 1996 Inquirer interview that he had gone busking - tap dancing in bars and on street corners, especially on South Street - and had seen different styles of tap.

He graduated in 1945 from Benjamin Franklin High School, was drafted by the Army, and tapped for veterans returning from war.

Mr. Robinson played the chitlin' circuit throughout the South and in Boston and Chicago. He and partner Henry Meadows spent a lot of time on the road, but often returned to Philadelphia nightclubs. They danced together for four decades.

Mr. Robinson went on to share stages with Charlie Parker, Jimmy Dorsey, Cab Calloway and Billie Holiday.

His dancing was not just the tapping of feet on the floor. He listened to internal music and made dramatic steps in suspension or in glancing contact with the ground.

When tap began losing popularity in the mid-1960s, Mr. Robinson returned to Philadelphia and gave private lessons until he was hired in 1982 by the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts, now the University of the Arts.

"Tap is a self-creating art," Mr. Robinson told his students. "It is highly individualistic, and each dancer differs from the other in a way which is not matched by any other form of dance. It is intricate and very free. Tap comes from the mind."

Mr. Robinson often danced to no music at all. His "close floor work," considered by many the purest form of tap, was his music.

As a master teacher of tap, Mr. Robinson said in a 1996 interview: "An audience and my students know when I come to the end. You dance eight bars and a break. If you have 32 bars of music, you have 32 clear, clean taps. A tune is in my mind which I emulate with my feet."

In 1980, Germaine Ingram, a Philadelphia civil-rights lawyer and former Philadelphia School District executive, became a student of Mr. Robinson's.

"LaVaughn was a natural teacher," Ingram said. "He explained phrasing of tap with authority. He was well-respected in the classroom."

Later, Mr. Robinson and Ingram performed together and toured the United States, Europe, Africa, and Israel. They hoofed at the Smithsonian (twice) and the Kennedy Center in Washington.

"He retired with elegance that characterized his dancing," Ingram said. Failing health forced Mr. Robinson to stop dancing in 2003.

In 1989, the National Endowment for the Arts named Mr. Robinson "a national treasure." As a dancer and choreographer, he was honored with many other awards, including several National Endowment for the Arts Choreographer's Fellowships, two Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Apprenticeship Awards, 2000 Artist of the Year Award by Gov. Tom Ridge, and Pew Fellowships.

Through it all, Mr. Robinson remained loyal to Philadelphia. "I'm sure heaven is a better, beautiful place," he said in 1985, "but I would not leave Philadelphia to go to heaven."

Mr. Robinson is survived by his wife of 55 years, Edna; sons LaVaughn Jr., Gregory and Shelton; two grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; and a sister.

Friends may call after 9 a.m. Tuesday at Church of the Redeemer Baptist Church, 1440 S. 24th St., Philadelphia 19146, where a funeral will begin at 11 a.m. Burial will be in Chelten Hills Cemetery.

Memorial donations may be sent to the church.