Cora La Redd

Cora La Redd was an American singer and tap dancer born on August 4, 1910, in Jacksonville, Florida, who became an active Broadway performer between 1928 and 1930. Raised on Broome Street in Lower Manhattan, La Redd built her career during the Harlem Renaissance, a period of significant artistic, social, and intellectual activity centered in Central Manhattan.

La Redd established herself as a nighttime performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem, where she worked as both a singer and a tap dancer. The venue, while excluding African American patrons, featured numerous African American performers, and La Redd was among those who appeared there regularly. Her tap dance style was athletic and rhythmically driven, and her open sexuality shaped the character of her performances. During the fall of 1930, she also appeared at the Cotton Club in Brown Sugar – Sweet but Unrefined. She additionally served as lead dancer for Charlie Dixon of the Fletcher Henderson Band.

La Redd's Broadway career included three musicals. She first appeared on Broadway in Say When in 1929, followed by an ensemble role in Messin' Around, also in 1929. In the 1930 production of Change Your Luck, she took on the role of Bandana Babe Peppers.

In 1933, La Redd appeared in a twelve-minute black-and-white short film titled That's the Spirit, an all-African American production in which she sang and danced to a number called Jig Time. Her performance combined a vocal segment with an athletic tap dance routine accompanied by a big brass band. Cora La Redd died on March 21, 1968.