Clayton "Peg Leg" Bates: Monoped master of the art of tap dance

Clayton "Peg Leg" Bates developed as one of tap dance's most important artists during the period 1920 through 1960. This paper will address the relationship between socio-economic and cultural changes in the Black American community in New York and Washington, D.C. and the nature of Bates' creative pioneering as a disabled tap dancer. Bates' life illustrates the development of tap dance as one of America's few indigenous art forms, the development of the Black Broadway Vaudeville Circuit, the empowerment of the Black businessman, and the creative potential of handicapped people. A critical analysis of the life and work of Bates documents new material related to the history of tap dance and its development in the twentieth century. Bates is acknowledged as one of tap's most creative and heroic pioneers. He is considered an inspiration for handicapped artists, a dissolver of cultural barriers between races, and a model for Black business entrepreneurs. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).