This research examines how race and gender shaped tap dance performance during Hollywood’s Golden Age through the careers of Eleanor Powell and Jeni Le Gon. The thesis reveals how MGM appropriated Black performance traditions while suppressing Black performers themselves, demonstrating that dance and performance are deeply political cultural practices.

Career paths and life patterns are often transmitted across generations not through explicit instruction but through embodied habits and daily behaviors. Analyzing a play about intergenerational military service, this research shows how subconscious routines shape identity, highlighting how recognizing these patterns allows individuals to consciously break cycles or build new legacies.