Tap Dance By Nellie Fagan
What do you picture when you think of Tap Dancing?
Definition: a type of theatrical dance in which the performer s shoes are fitted with metal taps on their heels and toes, giving off clicking sounds when the shoes hit the floor
Origin of Tap Dance Tap Dance likely originated in the 19th century from African American slaves. They found ways of communicating while working in plantations through rhythms of drums and other percussion instruments, creating sounds and mimicking West Africa s tonal languages. When plantation owners confiscated instruments after learning about this communication, slaves began tapping with their feet to produce communicative rhythms that could not be visually suspected by their plantation owners.
Other Likely Influences These African rhythms that slaves used merged with Irish step dancing and English clogging to create Tap as a new style of dance.
Tap s Peak From the 1910s-1940s, African American tap dance teams, such as Slap and Happy, The Nicholas Brothers, and Stump and Stumpy, created dance routines that incorporated the rhythms and syncopation of tap dance and different acrobatic moves. Leonard Reed, who was a dancer of black, white, and Native American heritage crossed race barriers and united people of all race backgrounds through tap in the 1920s.
Bill Bojangles Robinson was known of the African American tap legend and made tap famous on the big screen.
Tap Dance in Film As Tapping was used more often in film, it began to lose association with African American culture. Fred Astaire, Shirley Temple, and Gene Kelly were the most famous tap dancers that acted in major motion-pictures from the 1930s-1950s. Tap fell out of style shortly afterwards
Tap Revival Film revived Tap to become popular yet again in the 1980s through movies like: The Cotton Club 1984 White Nights 1985 Tap 1989
The Hines Brothers - The Cotton Club Tap
Tap Today After being used in modern day movies, Tap was seen in all forms of entertainment whether it was in commercials, films, children s television shows like Sesame Street, or on MTV.
Savion Glover
Where can you see Tap today? Today, tap is commonly seen in street entertainment combined with hip-hop. Tap also has a heavy presence in Broadway musicals, such as Book of Mormon, pictured below Tap is also still commonly used in TV shows, commercials, music videos, and in film.
WORKS CITED Pojmann, Karen. "Tap Dance." Pop Culture Universe: Icons, Idols, Ideas. ABC-CLIO, 2015. Web. 10 June 2015. Hill, Constance Valis, and Sally Sommer. "Tap Dance." Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. Ed. Colin A. Palmer. 2nd ed. Vol. 5. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2006. 2163-2167. U.S. History in Context. Web. 11 June 2015. "Very Funny 3 Year Old Tap Dancer Steals The Show." YouTube. YouTube, 4 Nov. 2013. Web. 11 June 2015. "Eleanor Powell and Fred Astaire. Tap Dance Duet." YouTube. YouTube, 6 Sept. 2010. Web. 11 June 2015. "Happy Feet!" YouTube. YouTube, 29 Aug. 2006. Web. 11 June 2015. "Bill Bojangles Robinson and Shirley Temple (1935)." YouTube. YouTube, 24 June 2006. Web. 11 June 2015. "Gregory and Maurice Hines in the Cotton Club." YouTube. YouTube, 13 Mar. 2013. Web. 11 June 2015. "TAP Movie Clip 03." YouTube. YouTube, 1 Aug. 2007. Web. 11 June 2015. "Savion Glover." YouTube. YouTube, 25 June 2014. Web. 11 June 2015. "Hip Hop Tap Dancers." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 11 June 2015.