Rusty Frank
Encyclopedia
Rusty Frank is an American tap dancer, producer, writer
, choreographer, lindy hop
per, historian
and tap-dance preservationist
.
. At age six, she was inspired to start taking tap dance lessons after watching her first Shirley Temple
movie on TV. Frank studied under such tap-dance notables as her mentor Louis DaPron, Fayard Nicholas, Miriam Nelson, Gene Nelson, LaVaughn Robinson, Bob Scheerer, Lou Wills, Jr., Brenda Bufalino, Steve Condos, Dorothy Toy, Katherine Hopkins-Nicholas, Leonard Reed and Jon Zerby. Frank attended the University of California, Santa Cruz
, where she majored in Environmental Planning
and Public Policy
and graduated with double honors. She then attended the University of San Francisco
, where she received her Master’s degree in Public Administration
.
She has tap danced professionally over the years with The San Francisco Tap Troupe, Six Feet a Tap Trio (Wayne Doba, Rodney Price), Pedal Extremities (Walter Freeman, Mark Mendonca, Michael Rainey), Tapology (Patti Meagher), The Rhythm Rascals (Walter Freeman), Mulligan and Whitmore "Tops in Taps" (Chester Whitmore), The Rhythm Pals (Alfred Desio), and with Greg Gast.
In 1989, 1990 and 1991, Frank produced, directed, and danced in an all-star tap revue Jazz Tap! featuring the Nicholas Brothers
, Savion Glover
, Arthur Duncan
, Jeni LeGon and Brenda Bufalino
. The show was performed at Kimball's East and the Sun Valley Lodge (where the movie "Sun Valley Serenade" took place).
In 1998, she began learning the lindy hop
after she saw the English dance group The Jiving Lindy Hoppers perform. She partnered with world-renowned English lindy hopper Simon Selmon and moved to the United Kingdom
for two years. She and Selmon made many appearances on television, in movies, on the radio, at festivals and special events. The team's high point came when they toured fifty-one European cities as the dance act for the big band stage show In The Mood - A Tribute to Glenn Miller.
In the US, Frank has performed at such prestigious venues as Broadway
’s 42nd Street
, at the Hollywood Bowl
, at Disneyland and at the world-famous Derby in Hollywood.
Currently, she regularly performs her tap dance routines at downtown Los Angeles's 1920s-themed nightclub Maxwell DeMille's Cicada Club, housed inside the historic 1928 art deco
James Oviatt Building
. She teaches private and group dance lessons in Los Angeles and at international dance camps, works on her tap documentary and produces instructional dance DVDs.
In May 2011, Rusty Frank will take a series of master classes in Melbourne
, Australia. This is in celebration of National Tap Day, with events hosted by Glamour Puss Studios Tap Dancing Academy
.
. Actor and tap dancer Gregory Hines
wrote the foreword to the book, for which she interviewed 30 tap-dance luminaries, including Ann Miller
, Shirley Temple
and Donald O'Connor
. She has contributed to the Smithsonian Institution
's Jazz Oral History project, along with the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Oxford Encyclopedia of Dance, The American National Biography
, the Great Danish Encyclopedia, the jazz history Jazz: The First Century, published by William Morrow and Company, and Discover Jazz, published by Pearson.
Rusty is producing a one-hour television special, TAP! Tempo of America. She was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts
grant
to aid in making this dance documentary. She has also appeared in numerous dance documentaries, including the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
box set documentary for Warner Home Video
, the BBC
's Fascinating Rhythms - The Story of Tap, and This Joint is Jumpin for Bravo.
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, choreographer, lindy hop
Lindy Hop
The Lindy Hop is an American social dance, from the swing dance family. It evolved in Harlem, New York City in the 1920s and '30s and originally evolved with the jazz music of that time. Lindy was a fusion of many dances that preceded it or were popular during its development but is mainly based...
per, historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and tap-dance preservationist
Preservationist
Preservationist is generally understood to mean historic preservationist: one who advocates to preserve architecturally or historically significant buildings, structures, objects or sites from demolition or degradation...
.
Early life
Rusty Frank was born in Hollywood, California and raised in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. At age six, she was inspired to start taking tap dance lessons after watching her first Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
movie on TV. Frank studied under such tap-dance notables as her mentor Louis DaPron, Fayard Nicholas, Miriam Nelson, Gene Nelson, LaVaughn Robinson, Bob Scheerer, Lou Wills, Jr., Brenda Bufalino, Steve Condos, Dorothy Toy, Katherine Hopkins-Nicholas, Leonard Reed and Jon Zerby. Frank attended the University of California, Santa Cruz
University of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz, also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC, is a public, collegiate university; one of ten campuses in the University of California...
, where she majored in Environmental Planning
Environmental planning
Environmental Planning is the process of facilitating decision making to carry out development with due consideration given to the natural environmental, social, political, economic and governance factors and provides a holistic frame work to achieve sustainable outcomes.-Elements of environmental...
and Public Policy
Public policy
Public policy as government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and...
and graduated with double honors. She then attended the University of San Francisco
University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco , is a private, Jesuit/Catholic university located in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1855, USF was established as the first university in San Francisco. It is the second oldest institution for higher learning in California and the tenth-oldest university of...
, where she received her Master’s degree in Public Administration
Public administration
Public Administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. As a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope" its "fundamental goal.....
.
Dancer
While attending college, Frank began dancing in stage productions, and her first show was "Stan Freberg Presents The United States Of America." In 1978, she moved to San Francisco, California and by the early 1980s was appearing regularly in musical shows, including: "Dames At Sea," "Babes In Arms," "42nd Street" with Diablo Civic Light Opera (DLOC), "5,6,7,8," and "Mack And Mabel."She has tap danced professionally over the years with The San Francisco Tap Troupe, Six Feet a Tap Trio (Wayne Doba, Rodney Price), Pedal Extremities (Walter Freeman, Mark Mendonca, Michael Rainey), Tapology (Patti Meagher), The Rhythm Rascals (Walter Freeman), Mulligan and Whitmore "Tops in Taps" (Chester Whitmore), The Rhythm Pals (Alfred Desio), and with Greg Gast.
In 1989, 1990 and 1991, Frank produced, directed, and danced in an all-star tap revue Jazz Tap! featuring the Nicholas Brothers
Nicholas Brothers
The Nicholas Brothers were a famous African American team of dancing brothers, Fayard and Harold . With their highly acrobatic technique , high level of artistry and daring innovations, they were considered by many the greatest tap dancers of their day...
, Savion Glover
Savion Glover
Savion Glover is an American tap dancer, actor, and choreographer. As a learning prodigy, he was taught by notable dancers from previous generations. Glover is currently interested in restoring African roots to tap...
, Arthur Duncan
Arthur Duncan
Arthur Duncan is a tap dancer, known for his stint as a performer on The Lawrence Welk Show from 1964 to 1982; which made him the first African-American regular on a variety television program....
, Jeni LeGon and Brenda Bufalino
Brenda Bufalino
Brenda Bufalino is an artist of the tap dance world. In a career spanning several decades, she has worked with many influential artists. Bufalino founded the .-External links:**...
. The show was performed at Kimball's East and the Sun Valley Lodge (where the movie "Sun Valley Serenade" took place).
In 1998, she began learning the lindy hop
Lindy Hop
The Lindy Hop is an American social dance, from the swing dance family. It evolved in Harlem, New York City in the 1920s and '30s and originally evolved with the jazz music of that time. Lindy was a fusion of many dances that preceded it or were popular during its development but is mainly based...
after she saw the English dance group The Jiving Lindy Hoppers perform. She partnered with world-renowned English lindy hopper Simon Selmon and moved to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
for two years. She and Selmon made many appearances on television, in movies, on the radio, at festivals and special events. The team's high point came when they toured fifty-one European cities as the dance act for the big band stage show In The Mood - A Tribute to Glenn Miller.
In the US, Frank has performed at such prestigious venues as Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
’s 42nd Street
42nd Street
42nd Street may refer to:*42nd Street *42nd Street **"Forty-Second Street", title song from the film*42nd Street -New York City Subway:...
, at the Hollywood Bowl
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheater in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States that is used primarily for music performances...
, at Disneyland and at the world-famous Derby in Hollywood.
Currently, she regularly performs her tap dance routines at downtown Los Angeles's 1920s-themed nightclub Maxwell DeMille's Cicada Club, housed inside the historic 1928 art deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
James Oviatt Building
James Oviatt Building
The James Oviatt Building, commonly referred to as The Oviatt Building, is an Art Deco highrise in Downtown Los Angeles located at 617 S. Olive Street, half a block south of 6th St. and Pershing Square. In 1983, the Oviatt Building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places...
. She teaches private and group dance lessons in Los Angeles and at international dance camps, works on her tap documentary and produces instructional dance DVDs.
In May 2011, Rusty Frank will take a series of master classes in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia. This is in celebration of National Tap Day, with events hosted by Glamour Puss Studios Tap Dancing Academy
Glamour Puss Studios Tap Dancing Academy
Glamour Puss Studios Tap Dancing Academy was established in 1997 and is a Melbourne tap school specifically for adults and specialising in adult beginner tap dance...
.
Historian
In March 1995, Rusty’s book TAP! The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and Their Stories, 1900-1955, was published by Da Capo PressDa Capo Press
Da Capo Press, is an American publishing company with headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1964 as a publisher of music books, as a division of Plenum Publishers. it had additional offices in offices in New York City, Philadelphia and Emeryville, California...
. Actor and tap dancer Gregory Hines
Gregory Hines
Gregory Oliver Hines was an American actor, singer, dancer and choreographer.-Early years:Born in New York City, Hines and his older brother Maurice started dancing at an early age, studying with choreographer Henry LeTang...
wrote the foreword to the book, for which she interviewed 30 tap-dance luminaries, including Ann Miller
Ann Miller
Johnnie Lucille Collier, better known as Ann Miller was an American singer, dancer and actress.-Early life:...
, Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
and Donald O'Connor
Donald O'Connor
Donald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor was an American dancer, singer, and actor who came to fame in a series of movies in which he co-starred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule...
. She has contributed to the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
's Jazz Oral History project, along with the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Oxford Encyclopedia of Dance, The American National Biography
American National Biography
The American National Biography is a 24 volume biographical encyclopedia set containing approximately 17,400 entries and 20 million words, first published in 1999 by Oxford University Press under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies. A 400-entry supplement appeared in 2002...
, the Great Danish Encyclopedia, the jazz history Jazz: The First Century, published by William Morrow and Company, and Discover Jazz, published by Pearson.
Rusty is producing a one-hour television special, TAP! Tempo of America. She was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
grant
Grant (money)
Grants are funds disbursed by one party , often a Government Department, Corporation, Foundation or Trust, to a recipient, often a nonprofit entity, educational institution, business or an individual. In order to receive a grant, some form of "Grant Writing" often referred to as either a proposal...
to aid in making this dance documentary. She has also appeared in numerous dance documentaries, including the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were the most famous dance team in motion picture history. From 1933–1949 and until today they are known as one of the greatest dance pairs, in any art form, who ever lived...
box set documentary for Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...
, the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Fascinating Rhythms - The Story of Tap, and This Joint is Jumpin for Bravo.
Awards and honors
- National Endowment for the Arts grant (for her in-progress documentary TAP! Tempo of America)
- 2008 - "The Tap Preservation Award" from New York's American Tap Dance Foundation
- 2008 - Inducted into the California Swing Dance Hall of Fame
- 2007 - "Tradition In Tap Award" for Outstanding Achievements and Significant Contribution to the Art and Tradition of Tap Dance
- 2002 - "The Historic Preservation Award" from The Art Deco Society of California
- 1992 - "Soul of Shipley" award from National Association of Dance & Affiliated Artists (NAADA)
- 1991 - "Dance in Action" award for Contribution in Dance