Eduardo Corrochio was a Spanish

Spanish people

The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....

-born dancer who won the first Tap Dancing

Tap dance

Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sound of one's tap shoes hitting the floor as a percussive instrument. As such, it is also commonly considered to be a form of music. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses more on the...

 Championship in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in 1890.

Early life

Eduardo Corrochio was born in Spain in 1869, the only son of Miguel and Regina Corrochio. His mother Regina was half English, having been fathered by a British Colonel. His early life has been poorly documented. It seems that his family was part of the poor farming class that lived on the shrinking agricultural land that bordered the city of Madrid. He was accepted into Spanish gymnastics school at the age of seven, where he caught the eye of an instructor by the name of Damiano Tutador. Damiano saw the makings of a great dancer in young Eduardo. Eduardo was accepted into The Capablanca school of dance in the centre of Madrid.
To raise money for his entrance his parents Miguel and Regina had to sell their inherited property. A sense of indebtness plagued Eduardo for most of his adult life. He felt chained to his parents by feelings of deep guilt and obligation. This posed a special problem when his dancing ambition eventually brought him to the United States of America to study under the tap dancing legend Bernie Howard. Eduardo's immigration to America alienated him from his parents, something he writes about in his auto-biography "Soul of a Tap Dancer".

Career

1890- Corrochio entered the Tap Dancing Championship in New York city. The only non-American in a field of two hundred invited participants, he defeated Henry Rogers to become the first tap dancing champion of the world.

1894- Corrochio successfully defended his title at another Tap Dancing Championship in Chicago Illinois. Three hundred participants gather this time, twenty of them non-Americans, mostly from Britain and Germany.

In pop culture

Eduardo Corrochio's name surfaced more recently on the television program Seinfeld

Seinfeld

Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...

as Elaine Benes

Elaine Benes

Elaine Marie Benes is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Elaine's best friend is her ex-boyfriend Jerry Seinfeld; she is also good friends with George Costanza and Cosmo Kramer...

' imaginary boyfriend who is a matador

Matador

A torero or toureiro is a bullfighter and the main performer in bullfighting, practised in Spain, Colombia, Portugal, Mexico, France and various other countries influenced by Spanish culture. In Spanish, the word torero describes any of the performers who actively participate in the bullfight...

 in "The Good Samaritan

The Good Samaritan (Seinfeld episode)

"The Good Samaritan" is the thirty-eighth episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. It is the 20th episode of the third season, and first aired on March 4, 1992. This is the only episode of Seinfeld to be directed by one of the show's stars, Jason Alexander, who played George Costanza.Within this episode are...

", an episode that aired in its third season in 1992.