Matt mattox technique

Marc platt dancer
Russ tamblyn
Jack cole

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Jazz Dance Legend: Matt Mattox

“I went home, I sat down, and I drew one line on a blank piece of paper. The body is a straight line and you can do everything with it. Then, there was a Life magazine photographer who was experimenting in the early 1950s by shooting a man holding two lamps, which he moved against a black background. When the photo was developed, all you saw were these curving lines of light. And I thought, ‘That’s the way the body should move.’ ” – Matt Mattox, on the beginnings of his dance style

Think of classic movie musicals, and what comes to mind? Perhaps Gene Kelly leaping onto a lamppost in his iconic “Singing in the Rain” scene, or Fred Astaire tapping in perfect time with Ginger Rogers. But there is one dancer to grace the stage and screen of the time that must not be overlooked – one whose colleague Jacques D’Amboise described as “one of the greatest male dancers that ever was on a performing stage” and “up there on Mt. Everest with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly.” That talented man is Matt Ma

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Matt Mattox

American dancer (1921–2013)

For the American football coach, see Matt Mattox (American football).

Matt Mattox (August 16, 1921 – February 18, 2013^[1]) was an American jazz and ballet dancer. He was a Broadway performer and a specialty dancer in many Hollywood musicals. His best-known film role was as Caleb Pontipee in the 1954 film Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

After his Broadway and film career, Mattox moved to Europe, where he became a well-respected dance teacher.

Birth and career

Mattox was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and became a protégé of the legendary jazz dance pioneer Jack Cole, with whom he worked on Broadway in Magdalena: a Musical Adventure (1948). His other Broadway credits include creating and performing the role of the Jester in the original production of Once Upon a Mattress (1959), and Harry Beaton in the 1957 revival of Brigadoon.^[2] Mattox also performed concert engagements with his own dance company. His brief career as a Broadway choreographer included Jennie and Say, Darling.

Mattox used his b

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Matt Mattox (1921-2013)

One of the most sought-after jazz dancers in Hollywood, Matt Mattox also had a significant career as a choreographer and teacher in Europe. He died on Feb. 18 in France.

Mattox created a movement vocabulary that infused a mix of ballet, modern, tap, and flamenco with a propulsive energy. He preferred to describe his method as “freestyle.” During the 10 years he was part of the Hollywood scene, he appeared in almost 20 films, including Seven Brides for Seven Brothers—in which he dazzled viewers with his death-defying leaps in the barn-raising dance—and The Band Wagon.

Mattox began studying ballet, tap, and ballroom dance at age 11 at the Fox Figueroa Theater in Los Angeles. Among his teachers were tappers Willie Covan and Louis DaPron, whose lessons Mattox credited as helping form the foundation of his freestyle technique. His ballet teachers included Ernest Belcher, Eugene Loring, and Nico Charisse. It was Charisse’s wife, Cyd, who helped Mattox get his start in Hollywood after he returned from a stint in the Army Air Forces duri