Sanding (dance) the box of rosin before matches to improve his grip. Sims' popularity as a tap dancer and career at the Apollo certainly made him one of the most if not the most influential sand-dancer of all time. Sand dancing was also used by the popular comedic vaudeville trio, Wilson, Keppel and Betty. They spread sand over the stage in one of their most well-known numbers, "Sand Dance". In their performance, there was no allusion to African American heritage; rather to the sandy environs of Egypt, a clear inspiration for their number. In spite of this deviation from the African American
New York Percussion Trio United States. In the 1960s, a Boston, Massachusetts-based group called the New Boston Percussion Ensemble, also comprising two percussionists (James Latimer and Everett Beale) and a pianist (Allen Barker), was formed. This group also performed programs for the Young Audiences organization and performed some of the same repertoire as the New York Percussion Trio. New York Percussion Trio The New York Percussion Trio was a three-member musical group consisting of two percussionists and one pianist, active in the New York City area from the early 1950s until the mid-1970s. The group was originally formed in 1954 as the Dance-Percussion Trio,