Place of Birth: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Louis Madison, African-American female rhythm tap dancer of exceptional skill who, it was claimed, "was to women dancers as Baby Lawrence and Teddy Hale were to the men," was born around World War I and raised in Philadelphia. Such North Philadelphia dancers as Charles Honi Coles regarded her as supremely talented. Coles, who was a personal friend, remembers that she taught him his first five-tap-wing; in one version of that step, the dancer executes two side shuffles before landing on the supporting foot. "She wasn't a woman dancer because she surpassed all tap dancers," Coles told Cheryl Willis. "She danced like a boy, and that was unusual to tap like a man in that days," Coles told Constance Valis Hill in an interview.

Jewel Pepper Welch claimed that Madison was the dancer that "all the fellows and the women respected her . . . She was a gifted dancer. She was to women dancers as Baby Lawrence and Teddy Hale [were to the men]. She could out dance any of us." Said Mildred "Candi" Thorpe, "There's no accolades to describe her. That girl was out of sight."

Despite the acclaim, very little is known about Madison's career. She performed at the Apollo Theater (25 December 1933) in the beginning run of Blackbirds (1933-1934); the show starred Edith Wilson, John Madison, Eddie Hunter, and Blue McAllister, and featured Madison in the musical number "Tappin' the Barrel." Ludie Jones, who was in the London production of Blackbirds (1935-1936) as a member of the chorus line, remembers Madison as an outstanding tap dancer who starred in that production.

In a photograph of Madison that appears in Dancing Female: the lives and issues of women in contemporary dance, edited by Sharon Friedler and Susan Glazer and that inscribed to Ludie Jones in 1934 while performing in Blackbirds in London, we see a petite dancer, arms outspread like she was performing wings, knees bent at the waist, looking up at the camera with a gleaming smile. The photo captures her lightness, speed, and get-down grace that dancers so often spoke about her. She also shows confidence as a solo dancer, which was rare in the period.

Philadelphia tap dancer LaVaughan Robinson remembers going to the Cotton Club in Lawnside, New Jersey, to see Madison dance. "Louis Madison was one of the greatest of women tap dancers," he told Cheryl Willis, "She danced like a man, she was a terror. She was tougher than any man, and wore white tails and top hat . . . even the men went to her to learn steps." In the 1940s, Robinson remembers having the privilege of performing with Madison at the Apollo Theatre and bestowed the ultimate praise:

"Louise Madison surpassed [all]. She would eat up Gregory Hines. There are no accolades to describe her. She was a gifted person. She didn't pursue it. That girl wouldn't care about Bunny Briggs, Gregory Hines-- none of them cats. They would have to bow to her. That girl was out of sight. That's the only way I could say it. Out of sight!

[Sources: Cheryl Willis, Tap Dance: Memories and Issues of African-American Women Who Performed between 1930-1950, Phd. diss. (1991), Itabari Njeri, "Hoofing It: The Hidden History of Black Women in Tap" The Village Voice (July 28, 1998, vol. XLIII, No. 30, 38-41), Honi Coles, interview with Constance Valis Hill (29 March 1991), Dancing Female: the lives and issues of women in contemporary dance, ed. Sharon E. Friedler and Susan B. Glazer (1997), Constance Valis Hill, Tap Dancing America, A Cultural History (2010)]