Task 3
Questions 11-15
Read about Samuel Mennard. For questions 11-15, complete the form with one or two words in
each space.
Write your answer only here in this exam booklet.
There is an example at the beginning (0).
Samuel Mennard’s tap-dancing
We talked to tap-dancer Samuel Mennard in his San Francisco home after his dance performance for the Oscar ceremony this spring. The dance was called Gene-tic. It was his task to honour the memory of the great dancer Gene Kelly. While Gene Kelly used to be presented as the Hollywood Smile, Samuel, known as Rap-Tapper, is a product of the rap culture: when he dances his eyes are closed, his body moves like a puppet and his arms follow a different rhythm to that of his feet.
He started taking dancing lessons at the age of ten, after seeing his first musical, Funny Face, by his favourite composer Ira Graves. Twelve years later, Samuel’s talent seems to be at its peak. He’s appearing this year on Broadway in his native New York in the show Start Dancing, the first he has choreographed and created with Peter Willis. It’s the same stage that Fred Astaire, his all-time favourite, used to glide on.
The musical records the history of tap-dancing among black Americans. In the 18th century, drums were forbidden on the boats carrying slaves from Africa, so they used their feet to give rhythm to the black rebellion.
Not many people know that he started out as a singer performing in clubs to support his family. Samuel says: “It’s been hard work getting where I am now, but when I dance, when I feel the rhythm in my veins, I know it’s been worth it.”
0 Surname: Mennard