Tracy Everitt
started tap dancing at the age of 4. His first teacher was Jack Rand,
the master of the South, in Atlanta,
Georgia. At
5, he had Howard Ferguson, president of Dance Educators of America in
NYC, in tap, and began taking ballet also. At 8, many
teachers in NYC got him in their class: several members of
the famed “Copasetics” and many great Broadway
teachers for jazz and tap. At 9, he was in NYC television in The Ted
Mack Amateur Hour”, a nationally famous show equivalent to
today’s “Star Search”. He
returned as a contestant. At 10, he began with Broadway veteran tapper
and friend of Bob Fosse, Skip Randall. Mr.
Randall took Tracy to renowned tap artist Paul Draper, with whom Mr
Everitt established a lifelong mentor/student relationship.
It was that training which enabled Tracy to do star teaching
assignments in
tap all over the world for many years. He
was accompanied during that time by his present wife, and they lived in
Paris.
From age 14, Tracy began performing in original casts in Broadway
shows.
At 17, he was
discovered in the original
cast of “Bye Bye Birdie”
in the chorus, by Robert Morse, who came
backstage to meet Tracy and insisted he be his understudy in an
upcoming new
Broadway show.
At 19, dancing as well as understudy to lead Robert Morse in
“How to
Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”, he was discovered
and
brought to star in a segment of the “Judy Garland”
show. He
choreographed his own duet with Liza Minnelli, and that dance
“Steam
Heat” is still viewed as a popular visited site in YouTube.
