About Tap Dancing
Tap dancing was once the premier dance form in the United States, and for good reason. Tap dancing embodies a musical spirit like few other art forms can, allowing for song and dance to be produced in a single creative act. Although tap dancing's golden years have long since passed, the future of this dance form has more potential than many people realize.
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Features
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At its most basic, tap dancing uses the feet as percussive instruments. Tap dancing relies heavily on syncopation (a deliberate disruption of an anticipated rhythm) and improvisation. A tap dancing routine takes dozens of simple steps--the ball tap, the brush and the shuffle, to name a few--and layers them on top of one another into a progressively complex score.
History
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Modern tap dancing was born in the 1830s, in one of the most notorious slums in history: Five Points, Manhattan. In the racial mix of the city's poorest neighborhood, the collision of Irish jigs and minstrel shows gave rise to a novel form of "tap dancing," culminating in a dance-off between minstrel performer Master Juba and Irish jigger John "Jack" Diamond. Tap flourished in vaudeville performances in the early 1900s, and evolved so in tandem with jazz music that it gave birth to a new dance known as "jazz dancing." The introduction of sound to film further popularized tap dancing, which Fred Astaire was famous for. But by 1955, tap dancing and the stars it produced faded away.
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Types
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The earliest form of tap dance was known as the "buck and wing," which originated from popular minstrel shows. But over time, tap dance developed a variety of distinct forms, many of which are still taught . Vaudeville performances sometimes closed with a shoulder-shaking "Shim Sham Shimmy," and the New Orleans-borne, torso-gyrating "Black Bottom" dance unseated even the Charleston in popularity. "Soft shoe" began as an Irish clog dance without wooden heels, which evolved into a delicate form of tap dance.
Geography
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Tap dancing has taken several forms throughout the world. Early flamenco dancers hammered nails into their shoes, to highlight the rhythm of their individual steps. Irish clog dancers actually formed the first dancing troupe in the United States. Even as late as the 1970s, South African gold mine workers developed gumboot dancing as an elaborate step dance.
Potential
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Decades after the end of tap dancing's heyday, tap dancing began to enjoy a resurgence. In 1995, the off-Broadway musical "Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk" sought to present black history in tap dancing form. Its choreographer, Savion Glover, quickly become known as one of the greatest tap dancers in the world. A few years later, Glover starred as Mumbles, the footloose penguin in Pixar's "Happy Feet." Pixar built Glover's dancing into the film, via motion-capture technology.
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Resources
- Photo Credit Image: Happy Feet (2006)
