Praise House book Gullah Spirituals brought me here. Great that you have this memory and you can share it as well.

Thanks, Suzanne, so good that my videos are helping you in your tap dance studies!

Thanks, there are also other Mattox class videos and exercises on my channel.

Thanks, Brandy. Not at the moment, I’ve been having knee problems. Maybe soon!

Yes, it takes regular practice for increased improvement and mastery!

Yes!

Thank you!

What a coincidence, I choreographed the updated version of Annie Get Your Gun at Sierra Rep in 2004, I believe. The small stage in a state park that looks like a Mississippi steamboat theatre?

I've been associated with Matt since 1986, as a student and dancer in his choreography. We became good friends, and I have documented his life after he granted me substantial personal interviews. I also asked for his permission to teach his technique and he approved. No one can be Matt, and no one should try to be him. One can only interpret his ideas through that person's body and experience. I have no desire to be a Mattox clone, nor do I try to be. I am also friends with Gianin and Geraldine as well as Martine and the deceased Babeth, having taught beside them at Rick Odum's jazz dance stages in Paris. As you say, I do have a desire to maintain and spread his work. But since you feel that you are an authority on interpreting Matt's work, I eagerly look forward to seeing videos of you posted online, teaching and performing his technique.

@@bboross ​ @bboross ​ @bboross Anyone who experienced Matt as a teacher back in the 60's and 70's knew the rigor with which he conducted the classes. He was almost intolarent. He used to get mad if too many of us were not getting it just right. For example: We, as the scholarship group, werre doing a ballet enchainment. We were about eleven years old. He kept stopping us and finally threw us out before the class had ended. Mind you we traveled from far to get to the school. We all left in shame and tears. Another time, a girl wasn't quite executing properly at the bar exercise; he threw his long stick down onto the bar and it broke in half. All this sounds dramatic, but we understood that there was a level of excellence needed to be achieved in order to persue a life with dance. His enchainments were always just a tad above our capabilities. By the end of a class, perhaps we mastered it. The other dancers whom I have already mentioned (trained at Theatre du Chatelet) can verify that. The outlying characteristic of the style that he taught in the above mentioned years - is of a powerful, sharp, crisp dynamic. That is what I do not see in the videos. Perhaps he changed his style in later years to a softer form. I no longer am equipped to present classes.

Thanks so much. Yes, that's how I often work, setting the movement to closely reflect the rhythmic patterns in the music. And then to manipulate the groupings in a way that unfolds with ease.