Plenty of Good Women Dancers: African American Women Hoofers from Philadelphia
Plenty of Good Women Dancers is a 53-minute documentary videotape featuring exceptional local African American women tap dancers who "came up" during the 1920s-1950s. Restricted to few roles, often unnamed and uncredited, these women have largely remained anonymous within (and outside) of the entertainment industry and sometimes even within the communities in which they reside. Glamorous film clips, photographs, and dancers’ own vivid recollections provide a dynamic portrait of veteran women hoofers prominent during the golden age of swing and rhythm tap. (View clips).
Plenty brings attention to the voices and experiences of Philadelphia women who worked as dance acts, in the chorus line, and as show producers from the 1930s and 1940s through the 1980s. Speaking candidly, and powerfully, Edith 'Baby Edwards' Hunt, Hortense Allen Jordan and Libby Spencer reveal how buried assumptions about race, class, gender, and color shaped their lives, and affected the evolution and evaluation of an art form. Plenty showcases the creative achievements and distinctly different experiences of a generation of under-appreciated dance pioneers; it tries to give them their due. Read full press release.
Plenty features the late Edith 'Baby Edwards' Hunt, the late Libby Spencer, and Hortense Allen Jordan, with LaVaughn Robinson, Germaine Ingram, the late Delores and Dave McHarris, Kitty DeChavis, the late Isabelle Fambro and the cast of "Stepping in Time," and historic footage of Jeni LeGon, Cora LaRedd, Dottie Saulters, Juanita Pitts, the Miller Brothers and Lois, the Four Covans and others. The documentary was directed by Germaine Ingram, Debora Kodish, and Barry Dornfeld, and produced by Debora Kodish and Barry Dornfeld.
Plenty of Good Women Dancers was first produced in 1994 but due to copyright restrictions is just now being formally released, thanks to Ballard Spahr Andrews and Ingersoll, LLC and the Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. Plenty is produced with the assistance of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
53 minutes. 2004. $24.95 individuals, $65 institutions. ISBN 0-9644937-6-4. Purchase online.
