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Tommy
Sutton
TAP MASTER, CHOREOGRAPHER,
MASTER TEACHER, PERFORMER, AUTHOR
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Prior
to entering a teaching career, Tommy
Sutton experienced a full period of
professional career as a performer and
choreographer. He performed with such
notables as “Duke Ellington, Count
Basie, Fats Waller Cab Calloway, Duke
Ellington and Nat King Cole and many
others. He performed in numerous night
clubs, cabaret and theater revues across
the country, Canada and Europe. As a
choreographer, he produced many revues
and was the dance director for the legendary
Mike Todd in his “Theater Cafe”
and his Broadway production of “Gay
New Orleans” starring Gypsy Rose
Lee. One of his greatest performing
thrills was working with Bill “Bojangles”
Robinson in the Broadway Hit “The
Hot Mikado”.
At this point Tommy’s reputation
soon began to grow and he found himself
very much in demand for his unique teaching
skills. He then opened a studio at 218
So. Wabash in downtown Chicago which
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an immediate success. It
was at this point that Tommy realized that
his own children and the children of his community
were being neglected as to their dance training
and dance education. With this goal in mind,
in 1957 he established Mayfair Academy of
Fine Arts, Inc. on Chicago’s South side
which was the beginning of a new era in the
career of Tommy Sutton and the development
of one of the finest schools in the City dedicated
to the best dance training possible for the
children of his community. It is one of the
largest private schools of its type which
still flourishes today under the direction
of his daughter, Peggy
Sutton. Over the years Tommy has taught
thousands of students and Mayfair Academy
still flourishes today as his legacy, his
teaching methods and techniques are still
influencing thousands of students across the
country and abroad.
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was through Mayfair Academy that he had the
opportunity to choreograph numerous Cotillion
Balls for the Chicago Links and many other
civic organizations which gained him the reputation
of “Chicago’s Cotillion Master”
and led to the production of his own Mayfair
Cotillions. Tommy Sutton has received numerous
awards and recognition throughout the years
and has served with many dance organizations,
such as Chicago National Association of Dance
Master, National Association of Dance Artist
(NADAA), Dance Educators, Dance Masters and
“Take Five”.
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In
1979 Tommy “retired” and moved
to Atlanta, Georgia where he was on faculty
at Spelman College, Atlanta University Dance
Theater and taught various Teachers workshops
all over the country and abroad. While in
Atlanta he wrote and published “Tap
along with Tommy” a technical manual
for the tap dance teacher, in addition he
also produced a videotape, album and cassette
tape. To all those that knew Tommy or even
just crossed his path briefly, he was known
for his charm, personality and charisma. He
has inspired and influenced so many throughout
the years with his persistence in bringing
out the best in everyone. In his later years
he became a much sought after Master teacher
and lecturer on the subject of Tap Dance and
he taught master workshops all over the United
States as well as Jamaica and Europe. Tommy
Sutton was one of the last of the “Red
Hot Hoofers” of our time!
Mr. Tommy Sutton, 76, founder
of Mayfair Academy passed away in his Atlanta
home on Saturday, January 7, 1995. Tommy Sutton’s
teaching career spanned over 50 years, gaining
him an international reputation as a leading
authority on the art of “Tap Dancing”. |
Learn
more about Ms Peggy Sutton |
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