La Vaughn Robinson - Career - Professor of Tap Dancing

Professor of Tap Dancing

Robinson lived in Boston from 1965 to 1973, then returned to Philadelphia. Robinson started rehearsing at nights in the basement of the Neff Building in Philadelphia with Jerry Tapps, whose daytime job was the building's elevator operator. They developed a routine—Telephone, which was a series of calls and responses exchanged between two dancers. It was Tapps who encouraged Robinson to dance solo and to teach. Tapps inspired Robinson to create his signature solo dance, Artistry in Taps (also known as For Drummers Only). In 1980, he joined the faculty of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Teaching a generation of tap dancers, he taught a series of études that he developed over the course of his career, and he included elements of Telephone in his classes. In this time period, he also danced in a trio with Sandra Janoff, a teacher, and Germaine Ingram, an attorney. Later, he danced in a duo with Ingram. He was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment of the Arts in 1989 and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts for Choreography and Performance Arts in 1992. Robinson performed Artistry in Taps at the awards concert in the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In 2000, he won the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Governor's Arts Award for Artist of the Year. The University of the Arts named him Distinguished Professor in 2005, a title he held until his death. Much in demand, he was a frequent featured performer throughout the U.S., and danced in Africa, Europe, and Russia.