Billy Wilson and A Night at the Cotton Club 1989

Billy Wilson was a director for a musical titled A Night at the Cotton Club, a hit show in Amsterdam with three of his dancers. He later hired his daughter, Alexis Wilson as a featured dancer in that show and she later took over as dance captain.” A Night At The Cotton Club tells the story of Black artists who are not forgotten in the memory and who will be resurrected on stage tonight. The music of Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller to name a few, the showgirls and the ‘Harlem Orchestra’ welcome you tonight at the Cotton Club, once Harlem’s most exciting address and now its hottest new musical show [ …].”- (Summary from the program booklet of the German premiere)

Sources:
Dancing « ALEXIS WILSON
Billy Wilson, Not So Black and White
A Night At The Cotton Club (1989, CD) – Discogs
Production of The Cotton Club | Theatricalia
A Night At The Cotton Club — Musicallexikon

More About A Night at the Cotton Club

Cotton Club is a building at the corner of Lenox Avenue and 142nd Street in Harlem. In the 1920s, the Cotton Club was a Harlem nightclub that hosted the best jazz musicians of the era. The Club was decorated with the idea of creating a “stylish plantation environment” for its entirely white clientele while entertainers and most of the staff were African American. Exceptions made in the case of prominent white entertainment guest stars and the dancers. Dancers at the Cotton Club were held to strict standards; they had to be at least 5’6” tall, light skinned with only a slight tan and under twenty-one years of age.
Sources:
A Night at the Cotton Club: Music of Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen & Cab Calloway
Cotton Club of Harlem (1923- )

Daisy Rosalez