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Tap Dance

Encyclopedia : T : TA : TAP : 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:

  1. African dance to drum rhythms
  2. African welly boot dance
  3. 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
  4. Step dancing
  5. Clogging, for example from Lancashire, where there may be no accompanying music, just the noise of the shoes
  6. Irish Sean-nós dancing (different from step dance)
Contents

History

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.

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.

Characteristics 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. 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.

Steps in Tap Dancing

A simple step is the ball tap, which involves striking the ball of the foot on the floor and releasing it immediately, using an ankle movement. The same can be done with the heel (a heel tap), which involves striking the heel of the foot on the floor and releasing it immediately. A ball dig involves "digging" the ball of the foot into the floor (with or without a change of weight), and can also be done with the heel. Another step is the heel drop, which starts by standing on the balls of one or both feet and then "dropping" the heel on the floor, with or without a change of weight; it can also be done with the ball.

Ball digs and heel drops can be combined to make a cramp roll which produces a rolling sound like a horse gallop or a drum roll. It is performed by doing two ball digs (right then left), similar to two steps on the balls of the feet; it is followed by two heel drops (right then left), releasing the right heel immediately upon completion. In other words, it is performed as "ball (R) ball (L) heel (R) heel (L)" and is counted as "1 and a 2." It may be preceded by a brush (counted as "& 1 & a 2" and known as a flap cramp roll) or done double time, known as a "bite cramproll" and counted as "a & a 1."

Another step in tap dancing is the brush. Standing on one leg (i.e. the left), the other foot is "brushed out" by striking the ball of the foot (i.e. the right) on the floor in a sweeping motion forward or backward. The brush may be turned into a shuffle by combining two brushes, one forward and one backward and is counted as "& 1." Making the step faster must be done by making smaller movements that are closer to the body. There are actually many different ways to perform a shuffle. Broadway-style shuffles use knee movement to swing the foot into a shuffle. Hoofers perform shuffles in 2 different ways. The more common shuffle comes from movement in the upper leg and hip. The first sound of the shuffle is almost like a drop, while the second sound is the foot being pulled up. The other type of Hoofer shuffle is from the ankle. This is used in more impressive, fast tap dancing. The difference in the sounds of the brush and the pull back is almost none; this shuffle is more of a "double tap".

Another simple tap step is the flap. The flap involves a brush forward and a step (which is striking the ball of the foot on the floor with a change of weight; similar to a walking step, only done on the ball of the foot--the heel does not touch the floor). The flap is counted as "& 1." It is similar to the shuffle, but instead of brushing the ball back after the brush forward, the dancer steps (i.e. brush step instead of brush brush, as in a shuffle). Both the shuffle and the flap make two sounds.

All tap dancing steps are a combination of simple movements that build upon each other. Most movements, simple and complex, include "taps," "brushes," "drops," "brushes" (including shuffles and flaps), and "steps." For example, "shuffle ball change" is a shuffle followed by a ball change. A ball change is a combination of two "steps" (right then left), with an accent done on the second step (and must be done on the balls of the feet, as steps are only done on the balls). Tap dancing steps may be learned and mastered by children and adults alike and are a good way to express/learn rhythm, dance, and percussion.-- 04:40, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Famous tap dancers

See also

Dance - Jazz dance

External links

 

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