One of Bermuda's most popular entertainers celebrates 50 years in showbiz this month.

It was back in 1948 when Bryan Butterfield, fresh from extensive dance training in the US, began a long career as a leading performer in Bermuda's nightspots and also as a Bermuda ambassador during many years of annual Tourism `Briefings' when the Island's attractions were showcased up and down the east coast of the United States.

Today, with his own Convention Show, he still lights up the night for a large proportion of Bermuda's visitors as they watch the Fire and Voodoo Dance, sway to the rhythms of the Calypso and Bamboo Dance, thrill to the spectacle of the Broken Bottle Dance -- and get into action themselves as his famous Limbo sessions get underway.

Looking back on his life as an entertainer, Mr. Butterfield, who has worked with some of the biggest names in show business, observed, "When I was working in the States I was doing two or three shows a day and I decided to come back here because I only had to do one show a day, although it was seven nights a week, even on Christmas Day. Now, I wish I had one night a week! The only work that's available these days is a few conventions at the two Princess Hotels.'' Disillusioned by the fact that very few establishments now offer any kind of entertainment at all for tourists, Mr. Butterfield commented, "The hotels have to be licensed by Government. This tells them how to operate, how not to operate, as in Club Med, for example. So why can't the licences stipulate that there has to be some form of entertainment for our tourists? The only entertainment they are given is TV. There could,'' he added, "be gambling in the hotels tomorrow. All the hotels have to do is to say, "Gambling -- or else we're closing down.'' A drummer from "a very young age'', Bryan Butterfield's life changed at 15, with the arrival of an American dancer, Gregory Gordon, on the Island. "He started up a dance class in Rudolph Joell's house on Brunswick Street. About 50 or 60 of us used to go. He actually put on a performance of `Swan Lake' once, at the Old Colonial Opera House -- with me as the lead dancer! He also did a thing called `The Sign of the Cross'. He was actually a ballet dancer but he went to work in the hotels and places like Angel's Grotto, which was actually a nightclub.'' Deciding to pursue his studies in New York, Mr. Butterfield confessed, "I didn't really like ballet. So I moved to the School of Modern and Cultural Arts, run by the great black dancer Katherine Dunham. I got to know her well, also Pearl Primus who was also famous as one of the first black dancers. As a young boy I had been very athletic and had a good jump. Gregory had taught me to be a good `catcher' (partnering the female dancers) so I had two things going for me!'' During that time, he worked with Dunham, dancing at schools and universities across America, as well as on TV shows. Then, in the 1950's, he found himself working with Nat `King' Cole whom Mr. Butterfield describes as "a very nice, quiet man. A wonderful singer -- he's still my favourite.'' On the whole, though, Mr. Butterfield avoided the fast world of VIP's, entertainers and movie stars. "Yes, I did meet a lot of people but I was never one to to mix with the audience because my father always used to tell me, `Don't spend your money where you make it'.'' He also studied at Fred Astaire's School of Dance. "That's where I learned Latin dancing - stuff like the rumba and the tango because, by that time, I knew I wanted to dance on the hotel circuit in Bermuda and I wanted to be as versatile as possible.'' During that time, he also danced with Dunham's experimental National Dance Group of Harlem, doing mainly Afro-Cuban work. "I was always interested in that because of Katherine Dunham and all she did in that direction. We were also doing calypso, which they were really pushing at that time. The steps were the same - it was just the calypso music that was different.'' When he finally returned to Bermuda after spending five years on 134th St. in New York's Harlem, Bryan Butterfield said, "The most amazing thing was that I couldn't sleep. It was too quiet here! I was used to the sounds of ambulances and fire trucks.'' Once he had accustomed himself to the gentler night noises of Bermuda's singing tree frogs, the young dancer joined the Gulf Stream Revue and Holiday Island Revue, both with the late Don Gibson. For many, this represented the `golden age' of entertainment in Bermuda.

By the late 1950's, he was well established, his principal dancer (also his first wife) being Erma Washington. Although she is now ailing, Mr. Butterfield remembers her vivacity as a dancer. "She was one of the best girls I ever worked with.'' Besides his work in Bermuda, Mr. Butterfield has performed in eight other countries and presented his own show at six of Jamaica's leading hotels.

Besides appearing on American TV, he has appeared in three films and two TV travel documentaries.

When Mr. Butterfield met his present wife Sandy, she was employed by the Bermuda News Bureau (forerunner of the Tourism Department). A well known model, she subsequently danced in his shows. Today, she is even better known as the tireless executive director of `FOCUS', a walk-in facility for recovering addicts and the homeless on Hamilton's Union Street. "She's a white Bermudian and for us to have considered marrying at that time was quite something! We got married in New York and then called our families in Bermuda to tell them the news. We've been married now for 35 years. I think,'' he reflected, "that we have lasted because it was never `supposed to be'. We were told by everyone that it wouldn't work. And I have to tell you, there was as much prejudice about our marriage among the blacks as there was among the whites. But we've been very happy.'' With three adult children, and 50 years in a physically punishing career, Bryan Butterfield could be forgiven for thinking about a quieter life. But that is not on his agenda. "I'm not going to give up. As long as I can jump up and click my heels, I can dance!'' LEAPING HIGH -- Bryan Butterfield, photographed in 1948.