The Dance Historian Is In: The Legendary Tap Master Carnell Lyons

For this month’s Dance Historian Is In, Kurt Albert, Klaus Bleis and Max Pollak present on the life and legacy of tap dancer Carnell Lyons. Born in 1917 in Kansas City, Missouri, Lyons was famous for his “Paddle & Roll” tap style, and is the dancer that brought Rhythm Tap to Germany. Becoming known during the 1930s and ‘40s with his tap trio “The Businessmen of Rhythm,” Lyons’ popularity rose with the tap and acrobatic act “Jesse, James & Cornell” in the 1950s, performing with show business greats like Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Josephine Baker, and all the famous jazz orchestras like Ellington and Basie. In the mid ’50s he relocated to Europe and started the German tap comeback in 1979 teaching his unique Kansas City tap style all over Germany and Austria.