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• David "Tula" Gilmore

From:

• Performing Arts Encyclopedia
• Tap Dance America

Place of Birth: Charleston, South Carolina

David Gilmore, tap dancer, drummer, and choreographer known as "The Metaphysician of Tap," grew up listening to the melodious and soulful sounds of the South. He found his musical outlet in his hometown high school marching band and a jazz quintet. Arriving in New York City in 1957, he jammed with the best of the cool jazz musicians, sharing conversations with such jazz artists as trumpeter Miles Davis and tap dancer Charles "Honi" Coles. He developed a style of paddle-and-roll dancing that was fluent, rhythmically percussive, and articulate. In his illustrious career, he has shared the stage with Peg Leg Bates, Chuck Green, James Buster Brown, Gregory Hines, Savion Glover, and Jason Samuels Smith.

He was a featured in such shows as The Majesty of Tap (1992) at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall with Jimmy Slyde, Karen Callaway, Van Porter, and Bunny Briggs; and A Tribute to Steve Condos: The Tap Fraternity Honors a Master (1990). In 2004, he performed in the Percussive Festival of the Feet, at the American Dance Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina, with Roxanne Butterfly and Jason Samuels Smith. In 2005, he began hosting Thursday night jam sessions at the Showman's Café in Harlem. In 2010 Gilmore received the prestigious Flo-Bert Award by the New York Committee to Celebrate National Tap Dance Day at its annual Tap Extravaganza, and continued to host his own show, David Gilmore's Tap Extravaganza at various venues in New York City.

In the millennium, Gilmore has performed regularly with jazz pianist Barry Harris and a 150-piece orchestra. Gilmore remains one of few veritable rhythm-tap masters to remind next-generation dancers-- who want nothing but to load the bar-- of the beauty and precision of his cool, sophisticated, and succulent style of paddle-and-roll tap dancing.

[Source: Constance Valis Hill, Tap Dancing America, A Cultural History (2010]