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Generations:
Grandma, Vaudeville & Me
In Generations: Grandma, Vaudeville & Me, Bob E.
Thomas tells poignant and entertaining stories and performs traditional
tap dances from Vaudeville.
Bob
describes how his grandmother, a consummate storyteller, and Joe
Stirling Beath, a 1930's Vaudeville Tap Dancer, inspired him,
both as a person and as an artist.
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As
part of Joe the Vaudeville dancer's story, Bob performs
several Vaudeville dances, including a Buck & Wing and
a Softshoe dance.
Bob
E. Thomas grew up in rural Pennsylvania in a small town
called Manheim, just north of Lancaster, PA, smack in the
middle of Amish country. Years later, Bob is now a nationally
known performer, telling--and showing--how he became a dancer
and storyteller.
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Bob's
grandmother was born in 1887 and she grew up on a Pennsylvania
farm where her family grew vegetables and raised pigs and cows
for sale at the Lancaster farmers' market, ten miles away. In
the story Grandma and Hank the Horse Bob tells how his grandma
told him a story that he's always remembered.
Bob's
grandmother say: "You see, when I was about ten I would go
with my father to the Lancaster [PA] Market where he'd sell vegetables
and meat. To get there at dawn, we had to leave at midnight. And
there was this one night that we had quite an adventure!"
In
the second story on the program, Bear Hunt, Bob follows a storytelling
tradition involving audience participation he learned from his
grandfather. In the story Bob brings children on-stage and leads
them on a journey of the imagination... through impassable corn
fields, over great mountains, down steep cliffs, across deep cold-water
lakes, and, finally, up a great old tree where they find a great
smelly... Bear!
In
Vaudeville, the third story, Bob explains, "I learned to
dance the Buck-and-Wing [tap dance] from Joe Stirling Beath in
the 1980's. Joe himself learned it in the 1920's from an old Irish
Vaudeville dancer who'd first learned it in the 1880's."
As part of the story Bob performs a Soft-Shoe, Buck-and-Wing and
Jazz Tap Dance.
"You
don't learn tap dancing from a book," Bob says in the program,
"someone has to teach you." He adds, "And when
Joe taught me to tap dance, he included me in a tradition. And
when he did that, he made me a part of history."
For
schools and when there are children in the audience, Bob brings
a dozen or so childen on-stage to learn and perform a dance done
to modern Hip-Hop music. Only, as it turns out, the "hip-hop"
dance steps are from the Charleston and the 1930's Big Apple dance!
For programs in senior centers and Councils on Aging, Bob asks
seniors in the audience to share their stories from the past with
him and each other.
Reviews
of Bob's other storytelling/monologue and dance shows:
- “A
marvelous dancer and mime, he is also a brilliant storyteller.”
--Vue Magazine (Canada 1997)
- “He
takes his audience to a place that is so honest and true
only someone with a heart of stone couldn’t be moved.”
See Magazine (Canada)
- “Intimate
and straightforward... he alternated tap with stories from
his life that were sweet and funny in a low-key way.” The
Boston Herald
- “An
appealing storyteller whose dancing recalls Steve Martin”
Orlando Sentinel, April 1997
- “Bob
Thomas offers the most dance value for the buck”
The Boston Globe
- “Bob
E. Thomas finds a warmly entertaining off-the-wall energy somewhere
between Mr. Rogers and Robin Williams.” --Edmonton Journal
(Canada)
- “Charming
and evocative... a philosophical softshoe with snappy dancing.”
The Orlando Sentinel
Bob
is well known for his dance work. With his dance partner Idy
Codington, Bob has performed his MCC-approved historical dance
show, Roots of American Dance: 1850-1940 throughout New England.
Bob and Idy also danced on The Artie Shaw Orchestra Asian Tour,
with the Boston Pops on July 4th 1995 for national TV, and to
standing ovations with the Houston Symphony, San Antonio Symphony,
Jacksonville Symphony, and New Mexico Symphony Pops as a featured
concert on their annual subscription series.
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