Skip Cunningham

Skip Cunningham is a tap dancer and master entertainer who has worked in virtually every venue of the show business industry for his entire life. He has been featured on dozens of television shows including the Steve Harvey Show, the Smothers Brothers, Sanford and Son, the Richard Pryor Show, and the Merv Griffin Show where he appeared as a guest artist 32 times. On Broadway he was featured performer in Eubie, Golden Boy, George M! and Evolution of the Blues. Working with directors Francis Ford Coppola, Nick Castle and Richard Brooks he was featured in the movies The Cotton Club, Tap, and I'll Do Anything. He has worked as an actor/singer/dancer in theatres such as the Drury Lane in Chicago and the Sacramento Civic Light Opera. He has worked in nightclubs on every continent from Australia and the Philippines to Europe, England, Japan, South America, and of course the U.S. As a tap dancer and teacher he has been featured at many jazz and tap festivals all over the U.S and Israel. Born in Chicago on April 24, 1936 Skip's first dance teacher/mentor was the venerable Sadie Bruce. By the age of ten, he had already interacted on stage in some of Chicago's top theatres with the great band leaders Noble Sissle and Walter Dyett. As a child, he won almost every contest he was involved in and this encouraged him to choose show business as a career. After serving in the United States army, he joined the Billy Williams revue which took him to Las Vegas and the Riviera Hotel and many other famous nightclubs in the U.S. When night clubs were king, Skip honed his craft in the best of them around the world. He has shared the stage with the likes of Lionel Hampton, Pearl Bailey, Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Merv Griffin, Johnny Carson, Donald O'Connor, Joan Crawford, Regis Philbin, Nat King Cole, Steve Harvey, Gregory Hines, Sammy Davis Jr., Cab Calloway, Bill Cosby, Redd FoxX, Flip Wilson, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Ed Sullivan, Francis Ford Coppola, and many more. He has worked with many famous musicians: Clark Terry, Doc Severensen, Milt Hinton, Ray Brown, James Moody, and many more. Interacting with these famous personalities shaped Skip's career, making him the consummate entertainer that he is. As a tap master Skip has been awarded the Chicago Human Rhythm Project Juba award, Rhythm Tap Hall of Fame Master Tapper Award, and the LA Tap Festival Leonard Reed Longevity Award, to name a few. Skip's long and varied career has made him one of our last great song and dance men.