Obituary

Sandman Sims

Bringing sand dancing back to Harlem

Howard "Sandman" Sims, one of the great characters of the Harlem entertainment scene and superlative "sand dancer", has died, aged 86, in New York. His personality gave him a prominent role among the living tap legends in the Gregory Hines feature film Tap (1989), but this owed more to his stage personality, which he developed over many years at the Wednesday night Apollo Theater talent contests, than his tap dancing skills.

Born in Arkansas, he grew up as part of a dancing family. Despite showing the least promise in comparison with his brothers, he was pushed by his father to become a tap dancer, though he failed initially to turn professional. His other main interest, boxing, ironically led him back to the dance business.

Suffering a broken hand, he began shuffling in the rosin box while resting. The resultant attention led to his trademark sand act, that brought back to life a dance form almost driven to extinction by other performers who objected to having sand scattered over the stage. Sims designed his own box on which he produced a symphony of percussive sounds. He toured extensively with the Lionel Hampton band and made a short movie with Count Basie called Harlem Sandman.

Although sand dancing developed different techniques from those appropriate for rhythm tap dancing, he still worked at it with his characteristic boxer stance, with weight spread out; he taught Sugar Ray Robinson how to tap.

In the 1950s, times were tough for tap dancers and although Sims still found work as a sand dancer, he took up the Apollo manager's offer to help drive the unpopular acts off stage during Wednesday night's talent contest with his horn. Eventually he became the main executioner. He supported efforts to preserve Harlem's entertainment culture, including the founding of Harlem Day to combat the derogatory depictions of the northern part of Manhattan, encouraged new talent and became a prominent member of The Hoofers who helped keep alive the "street-challenge" aspect of rhythm tap.

He featured in the 1978 television documentary No Maps on My Taps, which stirred up a new interest in tap dancing. He came to London in 1980 for a well-received run at Hammersmith's Riverside Studios and in 1984 made a brief appearance in the film The Cotton Club.

In 1986, a play based on him called The Sand Dancer was produced in New York. He returned to Hollywood in 1989 where he re-enacted his real life role as Gregory Hines's tap teacher in Tap and also appeared briefly in Harlem Nights (1989).

He carried on keeping order on Wednesday nights at the Apollo until the takeover by TimeWarner, when he lost his role. He went into decline, and spent a long time in hospital without many of the tap-dancing fraternity knowing where he was.

He is survived by his wife, Solange, two daughters and a son.

· Howard "Sandman" Sims, entertainer, born January 24 1917; died May 20 2003.

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