Tap dance
Encyclopedia
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
tradition.
History
Tap dance has roots in English Lancashire Clog dancing, Irish step-dancing, and black slave dances such as the Juba DanceJuba dance
The Juba dance or hambone, originally known as Pattin' Juba , is a style of dance that involves stomping as well as slapping and patting the arms, legs, chest, and cheeks. "Pattin' Juba" would be used to keep time for other dances during a walkaround...
. It is believed to have begun in the mid-1800s during the rise of minstrel shows
Minstrel show
The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....
. Irish performers would imitate Southern blacks and satirize their dance forms while incorporating step-dancing. In later minstrel shows, black performers in blackface
Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
would play roles in which they imitated the Irish imitation of black dance forms, further mixing the two. Famous as Jack Oxendine, William Henry Lane became one of the only black performers to join an otherwise white minstrel troupe, and is widely considered to be the most famous forebear of tap dance.
As the minstrel shows began to decline in popularity, tap dance moved to the increasingly popular Vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
stage. Due to the two-colored rule, which forbade blacks from performing solo, the majority of Vaudeville tap acts were duets. This gave rise to the famous pair "Buck and Bubbles," which consisted of John "Bubbles" Sublett
John W. Bubbles
John William Sublett , known by his stage name John W. Bubbles, was an American vaudeville performer, dancer, singer and entertainer.-Life and career:...
tap dancing and Ford "Buck" Washington on piano. The duo perfected the "Class Act", a routine in which the performers wore impeccable tuxedos, which has since become a common theme in tap dance. The move is seen by some as a rebuttal to the older minstrel show idea of the tap dancer as a "grinning-and-dancing clown."
Another notable figure to emerge during this period is Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
Bill Robinson
Bill “Bojangles” Robinson was an American tap dancer and actor of stage and film. Audiences enjoyed his understated style, which eschewed the frenetic manner of the jitterbug in favor of cool and reserve; rarely did he use his upper body, relying instead on busy, inventive feet, and an expressive...
. Well versed in both Buck and Wing dancing and Irish Step dancing, Bill Robinson joined the Vaudeville circuit in 1902, in a duo with George W. Cooper. The act quickly became famous, headlining events across the country, and touring England as well. In 1908, however, the two had an altercation, and the partnership was ended. Gambling on his popularity, Robinson decided to form a solo act, which was extremely rare for a black man at that time. Despite this, he had tremendous success and soon became a world famous celebrity. He went on to have a leading role in many films, notably in the Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
franchise.
During the 1930s tap dance mixed with Lindy Hop
Lindy Hop
The Lindy Hop is an American social dance, from the swing dance family. It evolved in Harlem, New York City in the 1920s and '30s and originally evolved with the jazz music of that time. Lindy was a fusion of many dances that preceded it or were popular during its development but is mainly based...
. "Flying swing outs" and "flying circles" are Lindy Hop moves with tap footwork. In the 1950s, the style of entertainment changed. Jazz music and tap dance declined, while rock and roll and pop music and the new jazz dance
Jazz dance
Jazz dance is a classification shared by a broad range of dance styles. Before the 1950s, jazz dance referred to dance styles that originated from African American vernacular dance. In the 1950s, a new genre of jazz dance—modern jazz dance—emerged, with roots in Caribbean traditional dance...
emerged. What is now called jazz dance evolved out of tap dance, so both dances have many moves in common. But jazz evolved separately from tap dance to become a new form in its own right. Well-known dancers during the 1960s and 1970s included Arthur Duncan
Arthur Duncan
Arthur Duncan is a tap dancer, known for his stint as a performer on The Lawrence Welk Show from 1964 to 1982; which made him the first African-American regular on a variety television program....
and Tommy Tune
Tommy Tune
Thomas James "Tommy" Tune is an American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer. Over the course of his career, he has won nine Tony Awards and the National Medal of Arts.-Early years:...
.
No Maps on My Taps, the Emmy award winning PBS documentary of 1979, helped begin the recent revival of tap dance. The outstanding success of the animated film, Happy Feet
Happy Feet
Happy Feet is a 2006 American-Australian computer-animated family film with music, directed and co-written by George Miller. It was produced at Sydney-based visual effects and animation studio Animal Logic for Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures and Kingdom Feature Productions and was released...
, has further reinforced the popular appeal National Tap Dance Day
National Tap Dance Day
National Tap Dance Day falls on May 25 every year and is a celebration of tap dancing as an American art form. The idea of National Tap Dance Day was first presented to U.S. Congress on September 15, 1988 and was signed into American law by President George H.W. Bush on November 7, 1989...
in the United States, now celebrated May 25, was signed into law by President George Bush on November 7, 1989. (May 25 was chosen because it is the birthday of famous tapper Bill "Bojangles" Robinson). Prominent modern tap dancers have included Brenda Bufalino
Brenda Bufalino
Brenda Bufalino is an artist of the tap dance world. In a career spanning several decades, she has worked with many influential artists. Bufalino founded the .-External links:**...
, Savion Glover
Savion Glover
Savion Glover is an American tap dancer, actor, and choreographer. As a learning prodigy, he was taught by notable dancers from previous generations. Glover is currently interested in restoring African roots to tap...
, Gregory
Gregory Hines
Gregory Oliver Hines was an American actor, singer, dancer and choreographer.-Early years:Born in New York City, Hines and his older brother Maurice started dancing at an early age, studying with choreographer Henry LeTang...
and Maurice Hines
Maurice Hines
Maurice Hines is an American actor, director, jazz singer and choreographer.Born in New York City, Hines began his career at the age of five, studying tap dance at the Henry LeTang Dance Studio in Manhattan. LeTang recognized his talent and began choreographing numbers specifically for him and his...
, LaVaughn Robinson
LaVaughn Robinson
LaVaughn Robinson was an US tap dancer, choreographer, and teacher.A virtuoso tap dancer, Robinson perfected a high speed, low to the ground, a cappella style of dance that was characterized by elegance, precision, and clarity of sound...
, Jason Samuels Smith
Jason Samuels Smith
Jason Samuels Smith is an American tap dance performer, choreographer, and director.-Biography:Jason Samuels Smith, a native New Yorker, was born on October 4, 1980 to professional performing arts parents Sue Samuels and JoJo Smith...
, Chloe Arnold
Chloe Arnold
Chloe Arnold is an American Dancer, Actress, Choreographer, Director, and Producer. She is best known internationally as a Tap dancer.-Biography:As founder of the DC Tap Festival and Co-Director of the L.A...
, and Dianne "Lady Di" Walker
Dianne Walker
Dianne Walker is a tap dancer, also known as Lady Di. Her thirty-year career spans Broadway, television, film, and international dance concerts. Walker is the Artistic Director of TapDancin, Inc. in Boston, Massachusetts.-Career:...
Indie-pop band Tilly and the Wall
Tilly and the Wall
Tilly and the Wall is an indie pop group from Omaha, Nebraska. Their name originated from a children's book called Tillie and the Wall, written by Leo Lionni...
also features a tap dancer, Jamie Pressnall
Jamie Pressnall
Jamie Lynn Pressnall is a musician from Omaha, Nebraska and is a member of the band Tilly and the Wall. She was also in a band with Clark Baechle, Neely Jenkins, and Conor Oberst called Park Ave. and a band called Magic Kiss with Kianna Alarid...
, tapping as percussion.
Characteristics of tap dance
Tap dancers make frequent use of syncopationSyncopation
In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...
. Choreography
Choreography
Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...
typically starts on the eighth or first beat
Beat (music)
The beat is the basic unit of time in music, the pulse of the mensural level . In popular use, the beat can refer to a variety of related concepts including: tempo, meter, rhythm and groove...
count. Another aspect of tap dancing is improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
. This can either be done with music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
and follow the beats provided or without musical accompaniment, also known as acappella dancing.
Hoofers are tap dancers who dance primarily with their legs, in the tradition of sean-nós dance
Sean-nós dance
Sean-nós dance is an older style of traditional solo Irish dance. It is a casual dance form Irish Stepdancing....
, which makes a louder, more grounded sound. This kind of tap dancing, also called "rhythm tap", was part of the dancing of slaves in America. Because the slaves were generally not allowed to practice their own culture and customs, they mixed their form of dancing with Irish step dance to create tap dances that they managed to sneak by slave owners and over-seers. This is the origin of tap and what later evolved into (what most people know as tap now) "show tap" because it uses more arms and tricks and less technique. This form evolved because overall, show tap was thought to be more exciting to watch and became famous when show tap was put on Broadway. Rhythm tap is not well known although the history of it is important to know as rhythm tap is the father of show tap. Steve Condos
Steve Condos
Steve Condos was an American tap dancer. He was a member of the Condos Brothers, with siblings Nick and Frank....
rose out of his humble beginnings in Pittsburgh, PA to become a master in rhythmic tap. His innovative style influenced the work of Gregory Hines
Gregory Hines
Gregory Oliver Hines was an American actor, singer, dancer and choreographer.-Early years:Born in New York City, Hines and his older brother Maurice started dancing at an early age, studying with choreographer Henry LeTang...
, Savion Glover
Savion Glover
Savion Glover is an American tap dancer, actor, and choreographer. As a learning prodigy, he was taught by notable dancers from previous generations. Glover is currently interested in restoring African roots to tap...
and Marshall Davis, Jr. The majority of hoofers, such as Sammy Davis, Jr.
Sammy Davis, Jr.
Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....
, Savion Glover
Savion Glover
Savion Glover is an American tap dancer, actor, and choreographer. As a learning prodigy, he was taught by notable dancers from previous generations. Glover is currently interested in restoring African roots to tap...
, Gregory Hines
Gregory Hines
Gregory Oliver Hines was an American actor, singer, dancer and choreographer.-Early years:Born in New York City, Hines and his older brother Maurice started dancing at an early age, studying with choreographer Henry LeTang...
, and LaVaughn Robinson
LaVaughn Robinson
LaVaughn Robinson was an US tap dancer, choreographer, and teacher.A virtuoso tap dancer, Robinson perfected a high speed, low to the ground, a cappella style of dance that was characterized by elegance, precision, and clarity of sound...
are African American men, although today the art form transcends racial and gender stereotypes. Savion Glover
Savion Glover
Savion Glover is an American tap dancer, actor, and choreographer. As a learning prodigy, he was taught by notable dancers from previous generations. Glover is currently interested in restoring African roots to tap...
is the best-known living hoofer, who helped bring tap dance into mainstream media by choreographing and dancing for the major motion picture Happy Feet
Happy Feet
Happy Feet is a 2006 American-Australian computer-animated family film with music, directed and co-written by George Miller. It was produced at Sydney-based visual effects and animation studio Animal Logic for Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures and Kingdom Feature Productions and was released...
, a film about a tap dancing penguin. Another well-known tap film is 1989's Tap
Tap (film)
Tap is a 1989 film drama written and directed by Nick Castle. It stars Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis, Jr.-Plot:Max Washington, just released from prison after serving time for burglary, is a talented tap dancer...
, starring the late Gregory Hines
Gregory Hines
Gregory Oliver Hines was an American actor, singer, dancer and choreographer.-Early years:Born in New York City, Hines and his older brother Maurice started dancing at an early age, studying with choreographer Henry LeTang...
and many of the old-time hoofers.
Early tappers like Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
provided a more ballroom look to tap dancing, while Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer...
used his extensive ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
training to make tap dancing incorporate all the parts of the ballet. This style of tap led to what is today known as "Broadway style," which is more mainstream in American culture. It often involves high heeled tap shoes and show music, and is usually the type of tap first taught to beginners. The best examples of this style are found in Broadway musicals such as 42nd Street
42nd Street (musical)
42nd Street is a musical with a book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble, lyrics by Al Dubin, and music by Harry Warren. The 1980 Broadway production, directed by an ailing Gower Champion and orchestrated by Philip J. Lang, won the Tony Award for Best Musical and became a long-running hit...
.
Common tap steps include the shuffle, shuffle ball change, flap, flap heel, cramproll, buffalo, Maxi Ford, single and double pullbacks, wings, Cincinnati, the shim sham shimmy (also called the Lindy), Irish, Waltz Clog, the paddle roll, the paradiddle, stomp, brushes, scuffs, and single and double toe punches, hot steps, heel clicks, single, double, and triple time steps, riffs, over-the-tops, military time step, New Yorkers, and chugs. In advanced tap dancing, basic steps are often combined together to create new steps. Timesteps are widely used in tap and can vary in different areas. These consist of a rhythm that is changed to make new timesteps by adding or removing steps. Tap dancing can also be done using an acapella method. Similar to singing without instrumental accompaniment, tap dancers are not dancing to any music but creating a rhythm by using different steps at the same time. In a tap acapella, the steps are normally kept simple (such as the most common steps listed above) and easy to control. The group of dancers must work together to create the sound keeping their steps at the correct speed to match each other.
Further reading
- Constance Valis Hill. Tap Dancing America: A Cultural History (Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
; 2010), 400 pages; Traces the history of tap from its origins in African-American and Irish forms.
External links
- International Tap Dance Association International organization to promote and educate the public about tap dance.
- The Origin of Tap Dance
- United Taps Tap Dance Resource and Guide Tap dance video dictionary, syllabus, classes, and combinations.
- Tap Moves A collection of tap steps and moves on video, free to watch.
- Tap Dancing at the Open Directory ProjectOpen Directory ProjectThe Open Directory Project , also known as Dmoz , is a multilingual open content directory of World Wide Web links. It is owned by Netscape but it is constructed and maintained by a community of volunteer editors.ODP uses a hierarchical ontology scheme for organizing site listings...