As
young boys, Jimmy Malone and Dixon
teamed up and started dancing at Stag parties doing Schottisches,
Buck and Wings etc. for very low pay. While traveling with Malone,
Dixon saw George Primrose and his Minstrels which influenced him
greatly and upon meeting him and getting an audition, he was headed
for New York. Upon arriving in New York, Dixon got a few odd jobs
waiting for Primrose to return. In 1906 Primrose hired Dixon and
Malone for $15 dollars a week and were off to New Jersey for their
first rehearsal.
While on the road with the
Primrose Minstrels for a year
and a half, Dixon watched Primrose and worked out a new style,
based upon Primrose except he basically would do the exact opposite,
almost a comedy version of Primrose. Primrose was upright, Dixon
slouched, Primrose had straight legged movements and on Dixon
they were bent etc. His style had allot of jaunty upper body and
shoulder movements as well.
In 1907 Dixon left Primrose's
Minstrels and started touring on his own with the Dockstader's
Minstrels. Upon this tour he was impressed by a Jig dancer
by the name of Jimmy Monahan who
he says he stole allot of his moves from. He got many of his hand
gestures from dancer Henry E. Dixey.
Dixon could and did copy everyone he saw and modified the movements/
steps a little to make them his own. However he did create some
unusual steps of his own such as his Shoulder Twists and Knee-Snap
which was to become used by most of the dancers of the day.
In 1908 Dixon gave up his
wooden shoes for split shoes and received a better offer to dance
on the Orpheum Circuit, Dockstader was said not to be very happy.
Dixon was now teamed up with dancer Jack
Corcoran and finally working for a small time in Burlesque
up to about 1912 when he teamed with Jimmy
Doyle, now dressing in Top Hats and Tails, headed for the
Broadway Theatre . After a few brief but successful appearances
on small Broadway shows they appeared in Broadway to Paris doing
what was called "Character dances" which was becoming
the vogue at the time. They would sing, dance and do a version
of a Challenge dance offering contrast to their routine. Dixon
would do a step and Doyle would do it differently etc. One of
their skits was the exchanging of hats, Doyle's head was much
bigger than Dixon's, and after they swapped hats during a split,
they would come up with odd looking expressions with hats that
didn't fit. Dixon and Doyle danced together for a total of nine
years, with Dixon leaving to dance on his own.
Dixon had a knack for the
character dances and imitated them all; Indian, Irish, Russian,
Chinese, Negro, Coon, Constable, Tramp, City Slicker etc. As Tap
dance and Vaudeville went out of style due to Radio and Films,
Harland headed to Hollywood where he would do some Dance Direction
and choreography. He was even James
Cagney's dance instructor for awhile. He was still dancing
up till his death in 1969 in Jackson Heights, New York, USA.
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