Draper’s Dance

On February 23, 1941, noted tap-ballet dancer and choreographer Paul Draper made his first solo appearance at The 92nd Street Y, New York. In an explosive era of innovation that would come to define the institution, Draper would go on to make invaluable contributions to the “legacy of the fusion experiments that were continually displayed and promoted at [The 92nd Street Y],” writes dance scholar Naomi M. Jackson. In her book Converging Movements, she calls Draper “extremely interested in stylistic mixing.… Such artists consistently demonstrated that far from being associated with one particular style, [The 92nd Street Y] was open to a diversity of expression that screwed the narrow definitions of modern dance.” Flanked by dance legends like Paul Robeson, Pearl Primus, Anna Sokolow, and Martha Graham, Draper would come to be invaluable to tap’s metamorphosis.

After being wrongfully accused of communist sympathies in 1949, Draper and his longtime collaborator, harmonica player Larry Adler, were forced to abruptly conclude a tour — they were taken off the airwaves, and briefly fled the country. Despite having stamped and stomped his way into dance history, Draper’s popularity never quite recovered; upon his stateside return, he would continue to slap, flap, and shuffle into the hearts of adults and children alike on the 92NY stage.