The Global Trickeration Project
In 2019 to celebrate Norma Miller’s 100th birthday this video was produced by dancers worldwide through a call from Adam Brozowski. More info can be found on the Global Trickeration page on ILHC in the Wayback Machine.
Here’s the overview of the Trickeration from that page which is now removed:
The Trickeration routine as it was taught by Norma, is a routine that Norma “borrowed” from the chorus dancers at Harlem’s Apollo theatre probably in the mid to late 1930’s. The piece of the routine that Norma uses and teaches is only a part of a larger original routine that has been lost to time. Norma would use the routine similarly to the way tap dancers use the BS chorus, to fill in spaces in her choreography and as a go to for classic Jazz steps. She used it as an audition piece for the Norma Miller dancers and also used pieces of this intermixed with other Lindy and Jazz choreography. Frankie even used one of the steps classically in a sequence he also referred to as “Trickeration.” And in 2016 a routine was commissioned by Norma with the help of Chazz and Chester which has many Trickeration steps in it sometimes confused with the original routine. Although not a lot is technically known about the exact origins of the routine, it’s easy to assume that it may have had a connection to the Cotton Club. The House band there was Cab Calloway who in 1927 had a song called “Trickeration.” Dancers from the Cotton Club may likely have also worked at other venues throughout the years bringing the routine along with them and this may be the origin of how Norma came to know it. Norma referred to this piece of the routine as “the last example of the great true jazz done by the chorus girls of Harlem” and it has earned its rightful place in the cannon of iconic jazz dances associated with our beloved legends of the Savoy and Harlem. Speculation exists about the structure of the routine. While many feel the choreography may be structured to a blues format the original Trickeration tune by Cab in 1927 is a 32 bar swing song. The use of the song “Jive at Five” by Count Basie became globally linked with the routine after Norma taught master classes in New York City for several years bringing Trickeration back into common knowledge of Jazz dancers around the world. The routine will be taught at ILHC in honor of Norma’s life and legacy by Adam Brozowski, a close friend who worked with Norma for the last 15 years producing her master classes and promoting and co-teaching the routine with Norma around the world.
Long Live the Queen!