Tap dance
Tap dance was born in the
United States during the
19th century, and today is popular all around the world. The name comes from the tapping sound made when the small metal plates on the dancer's shoes touch a hard floor. This lively, rhythmic tapping makes the performer not just a dancer, but also a
percussive musician.
Its evolutionary grandparents may well have been:# African dance to drum rhythms# African
welly boot dance# Spanish
flamenco, where nails are hammered into the heel and the front part of the dancers' shoes so that the rhythm of their steps can be heard#
Step dancing#
Clogging, for example from
Lancashire, where there may be no accompanying music, just the noise of the shoes# Irish Sean-nós dancing (different from step dance)
From what is known,
Tap dance began in the 1830s in the
Five Points neighborhood of New York City as a fusion of Irish, Scottish and English step dances and possibly the African
Shuffle. Perhaps the most influential of all was the Irish
jig. Dancers from different immigrant groups would get together to compete and show off their best moves. As the dances fused, a new American style of dancing emerged.
Tap flourished in the U.S. from 1900 to 1955, when it was the main performance dance of
Vaudeville and
Broadway. Vaudeville was the inexpensive entertainment before television, and it employed droves of skilled tap dancers. Many big bands included tap dances as part of their show. For a while, every city in the U.S. had amateur street tap performers. At the time,
tap dance was also called
jazz dance, because jazz was the music that tap dancers performed with.
In the
1930s,
1940s, and
1950s, the best tap dancers moved from Vaudeville to the movies and television.
Steve Condos, with his innovative style of percussion tap, created a whole new tap style that he introduced to audiences in Vaudeville, and later to the audiences of film and Broadway.
During the 1930s tap dance mixed with
Lindy Hop.
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 music and the new
jazz 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 to become a new form in its own right.
No Maps on My Taps, the Emmy award winning PBS documentary of 1979, helped begin the recent revival of tap dance.
Tap dancers make frequent use of syncopation.
Choreographies typically start on the eighth
beat, or between the eighth and the first count. Another aspect of tap dancing is
improvisation. This can either be done with
music and follow the beats provided or without musical accompaniment, otherwise known as a capella dancing. Hoofers are tap dancers who dance only with their legs, making a louder, more grounded sound. This kind of tap dancing, also called "rhythm tap", is typically found in cities or poor areas, but this is not always the case especially with such a wide vaiety of styles spreading throughout the world. Steve Condos rose out of his humble beginings in Pittsburg, PA to become a master in rhythmic tap. His innovative style influenced the work of Gregory Hines, Savion Glover and Marshall Davis, Jr. The majority of hoofers, such as Sammy Davis Jr., Savion Glover, and Gregory Hines, are black dancers. Dancers like Fred Astaire provided a more
ballroom look to tap dancing, while
Gene Kelly used his extensive
ballet training to make tap dancing incorporate all the parts of the ballet.
Common tap steps include the (click the links to go to video clips of the steps)
shuffle,
flap,
cramproll,
buffalo,
Maxie Ford time steps,
pullbacks, and
wings.
Tap dance and information about it has spread quickly over the internet.
The Tap Dance Homepage is the currently the most extensive tap dance web site available with information about tap dance events, steps, videos, tap dancers, and anything else you would want to know about tap dancing. The
National Tap Ensemble also has a very extensive site including a huge FAQ section that is quite informative. In terms of video clips, lots of new sites are popping up.
Unitedtaps.com has the world's largest free online tap video dictionary with over 275 steps available for viewing.
TapMoves.com is a new site that allows any tap dancer to upload videos of them tap dancing and to comment on and rate other tappers' videos as well. Also there is a bi-monthly online tap show called
Garage Tap that features guest tappers and interviews, tapping on location, new steps, combinations and tap news. Finally,
Off Jazz Dance World offers video clips of many legendary hoofers and tappers including Jimmy Slyde, Fred Astaire, and Gene Kelly.
*
Astaire, Fred*
Briggs, Bunny*
Bubbles, John (born John William Sublett)
*
Bufalino, Brenda*
Coles, Charles "Honi"*
Condos, Steve (www.stevecondos.com)
* Cromer, Harold
*
Davis, Sammy Jr.*
Duncan, Arthur*
Ebsen, Buddy (Jed Clampett on the Beverly Hillbillies)
*
Ellen, Vera*
Glover, Savion* Green, Chuck
*
Hines, Gregory of Hines, Hines and Dad
*
Hines, Maurice, Jr. of Hines, Hines and Dad
* Hines, Maurice, Sr. of Hines, Hines and Dad
* Janas, Jason
*
Juba, Master (William Henry Lane) of
Five Points*
Keeler, Ruby*
Kelly, Gene*
Miller, Ann*
Nicholas, Fayard of The
Nicholas Brothers*
Nicholas, Harold of The
Nicholas Brothers*
Powell, Eleanor*
Robinson, Bill (aka Bojangles)
*
Rogers, Ginger famous dance partner of Fred Astaire
* Sharp, Erin
*
Sims, Howard "Sandman"*
Slyde, Jimmy is a Jazz influenced tap dancer whose style is reflected in his name ('slide').
*
Tune, Tommy* Waag, Tony
*
Williams, Jamie of
Tilly and the WallDance -
Jazz dance*
Unitedtaps.com - Video clips of over 275 tap dance steps shown slow as well as medium or fast. Also includes some combinations.*
Garage Tap - The internet's first online tap show which airs every 2 weeks. The show includes guest performances and interviews, tapping on location, new steps, combinations and tap news.*
All About Tap Dance: A Hoofer's Notebook*
Tap Dance Homepage*
TapMoves.com - Site that contains video clips of many different tap dance combinations including notes on how to do each step.*
The Legendary Steve Condos
