Draper, Paul, 1909-1996

Paul Draper (1909-1996) was a dancer and choreographer, best known for his innovative combination of ballet and tap. Draper was born to a prominent New York family and was encouraged as a student to become an engineer. After only 6 tap dance lessons in the 1930s, he set off for London to find work as a dancer, where he spent a year perfecting his tap routines. When he returned to the United States, he enrolled in the School of American Ballet â€" and from that experience developed his “Ballet-Tap” routines in 1932. This trademark style integrated ballet technique and vocabulary into tap dance routines. Draper often performed tap to classical music.

Draper not only toured the country in a very popular routine with harmonicist Larry Adler, but also choreographed for Broadway, the American Dance Festival, and Goodspeed Opera House. In 1941 he married Balanchine dancer Heidi Vossler.

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