He headlined venues including New York's Palace, the Apollo, Radio City Music Hall, Cotton Club, and London Palladium.
[1] As a result, he met and saw a number of acts including Ethel Waters, Butterbeans and Susie, Runnin’ Wild, and Lucky Sambo as a young child.
[1] Cook was a founding member of the Copasetics, a group of tappers and performers dedicated to preserving the memory of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson in 1949.
[24] He was “given hell” by the other members of the Copasetics for passing on tap steps to white girls, most notably Jane Goldberg.
He was noted to have created several dances for the two of them, to songs including “Let’s be Buddies” and“The Jitterbug Waltz.” In 1978-79, under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, which provided jobs to artists, Goldberg and Cook performed together at nursing homes, schools, libraries, and small theaters throughout New York City.
[5] In 1978, Goldberg received a choreography fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and created It's About Time, a lecture-demonstration that Cook was an integral part of.
The lecture-demonstration ended up evolving into a full show featuring Cook and other artists, known as Goldberg’s "Changing Times Tap Dancing Company".
The show was incredibly well received and toured all over the United States including Cincinnati, Seattle, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, as well as performing at George Wein's Kool Jazz Festival, a festival at NYU,[25] Harvard, and at the Merrill Lynch Dance Series at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.
[28] One of their shows was entitled “Shoot Me While I'm Happy: An Evening of Jazz Tap Dancing,”[28] and as per tradition, they invited members of the audience on stage for the finale.
He appeared in films including “Cotton Club” (1984), and “Great Feats of Feet,”[10] a 1977 documentary about the Copasetics funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
[18] He choreographed “Fancy Feet” at the Smithsonian Institution,[5] and served as assistant coordinator for “Sisters,” an all female jazz performance.
[1] He also danced at the Gershwin Gala,[10] has performed at Carnegie Hall,[35] and was the subject of “Cookie’s Harlem,” an exhibit about his life.
[18] His students included Pat Cannon, Heather Cornell, Susan Goldbetter, Constance Valis Hill, Katherine Kramer, and many more.