Jeni Legon

I danced like the boys, she recalled in an interview with The Globe
and Mail of Toronto in 2009. I could do the girls splits, but I used the
boys splits because you could get up faster.

Born in 1916 and raised near the south side of Chicago, her
musical talents were developed on the street in neighborhood
bands and musical groups
She was one of the first African American women in tap dance to
develop a career as a soloist
She was not a high-heeled dancer in pretty skirts, she was a lowheeled dancer performing toe-stand in pants, and her rigorous
combination of flash, acrobatics, and rhythm dancing proved you
didnt have to be a man to dance like a hoofer
At the age of thirteen she landed her first job in musical theatre,
dancing as a soubrette in pants, not pretty skirts.
By the age of sixteen, she was dancing in a chorus line backed
by Count Basie Orchestra, and soon after touring as a chorus line
dancer with Whitman Sisters, the highest paid act on the TOBA
circuit
It was while working in Los Angeles, where she was stopping the
show for her flips, double spins, knee drips, toe stands, that
LeGon got a part in the 1935 MGM musical, Hooray for Love, as
dance partner to Bill Robinson, who she says was a patient
teacher and a perfectionist.
Back in Hollywood, LeGon appeared in over sixty films. Often
portraying stereotypical roles, Jeni played every kind of maid
from an Egyptian hand servant to singing and dancing in a
French maid outfit. However, LeGon did have the opportunity to
play lead parts in several black films where she got to be the
heroine and even have men fight over her and as Jeni says
thats what its all about.
In the 50s, she started her own show Jazz Caribe, which toured
around the world. Touring finally landed her in Vanouver where
she had always been reluctant to visit because of the snow and
igloos. However, when she arrived she ran into some colleagues
and former students she had taught in LA. They convinced her to
stay and she quickly set up a dance studio.
In a 1999 documentary, Fayard Nicholas narrates and reveres
LeGon as a star performer and a gifted teacher who could do it
all. LeGon says that she sees teaching as a natural extension of
her performing Ive had a dance school all my life.

Legon died on Dec. 7, 2012 in Vancouver at the age of 96.

http://www.westcoasttapdance.com/taptalks/legon-jeni.html
http://www.atdf.org/awards/legon.html
Dr. Jeni LeGon
performs at the Tap
Extravaganza 2004
(below)
with Savion Glover
(left)

Jeni LeGon with Bill Bojangles Robinson, in

the 1935 RKO musical comedy Hooray for
Love. (above) Jeni Legon performs in her
trademark male-inspired ensemble (right)