It is all about tapping!
Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by a tapping sound that is created from metal plates that are attached to both the ball and heel of the dancer’s shoe. These metal plates, when tapped against a hard surface, create a percussive sound and as such the dancers are considered to be musicians.
History
The influences of tap dancing may include:
* African
o Juba dancing, a very quick and competitive dance involving intricate foot work, stomping, hand clapping and slapping and patting parts of the body.
o Predating tap, here seems to be no historical evidence of percussive (on the heel and toe) dance footwear in this culture.
* English
o Lancashire clogging, a dance using percussive shoes.
* Irish
o Freeform solo Sean-nós dancing.
o Irish stepdancing.
o Step dancing in general.
o Stomp dancing, where the percussion of other objects are used to enhance the percussion of the shoes and feet.
o Masters would often challenge each other to see who would be the best dancer and win students.
* Spanish
o Flamenco dancing.
During the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, the best tap dancers moved from Vaudeville to cinema 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. Prominent tap dancers of this period included Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Eleanor Powell, Shirley Temple, John W. Bubbles, Charles “Honi” Coles, Vera-Ellen, Ruby Keeler, Gene Kelly, Ann Miller, Jeni LeGon, Fayard and Harold Nicholas of the Nicholas Brothers, The Clark Brothers, Donald O’Connor, Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable, Prince Spencer, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, and Jimmy Slyde.
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 and pop 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 dance to become a new form in its own right. Well-known dancers during the 1960s and 1970s included Arthur Duncan and Tommy Tune.
Tap dancers make frequent use of syncopation. Choreography typically starts on the eighth or first beatcount. 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 cappella dancing.
Hoofers are tap dancers who dance primarily with their legs, making a louder, more grounded sound. This kind of tap dancing, also called “rhythm tap”, came primarily from cities or poor areas. Today this is not the case, especially with such a wide variety of styles spreading throughout the world. Steve Condos 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, Savion Glover and Marshall Davis, Jr. The majority of hoofers, such as Sammy Davis, Jr., Savion Glover, Gregory Hines, and LaVaughn Robinson are African American men, although today the art form transcends racial and gender stereotypes. Savion Glover 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, a film about a tap dancing penguin. Another well-known tap film is 1989′s Tap, starring the late Gregory Hines and many of the old-time hoofers.
Early tappers 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. 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.
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 and 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.
