 Before going on stage, he read Dance Magazine in the "New York Times" in order to teach himself dance.In the early 1940s, he met Pearl Primus at the National Youth Administration and became her first dance partner before studying dance with Syvilla Fort and Katherine Dunham.After serving in World War II, he returned to New York in 1946 first performing on Broadway in "Show Boat", and in London in "Finian’s Rainbow".