A tap-dancing legend, though you may not have heard of him, Baby Laurence comes almost as an enigma, blowing in on the tips of his feet, tapping with a sincere airy-foot.
Footage might be rare but the surviving film does show an amazing dancer who can tap like it's no body's business. He was an influential figure of dance in the 1940s and adapted tap to bebop.
As The New York Times calls it, "the Charlie Parker of the feet" was never really famous. He in fact has maintained a pretty obscure relevance somehow. Maybe it was the short documentary filmed shortly before his death in 1974 but the rest of the media on him has slipped away to a dying physical age.
He rides an easy swing, he taps like there's wind blowing underneath his heels. He's like a musician but a more physical kind of artist, not unlike a dancer but not entirely like one either.
Sammy Davis Jr. introduces him as a "the greatest tap-dancer in the world," and he just might be but a newcomer of a more contemporary nature, Thomas Wadelton, takes a step.
Wadelton can replicate, shape-shift, contort and swing just like the ol' boy himself.
Check out a video of the newbie below, and as tap fades into the distance, there are certain performers who refuse to see it kick the bucket.
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