Tap dance

Tap dance (or tap) is a form of dance that uses the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion; it is often accompanied by music. Tap dancing can also be performed with no musical accompaniment; the sound of the taps is its own music.

It is an American artform that evolved alongside the advent of jazz music. Tap is a type of step dance that began with the combination of Southern American and Irish dance traditions, such as Irish soft-shoe and hard-shoe step dances, and a variety of both slave and freeman step dances. The fusion of African rhythms and performance styles with European techniques of footwork led to the creation of tap dance. This fusion began in the mid-17th century but did not become popular until the mid-19th century.

There are two major versions of tap dance: rhythm (jazz) tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses on dance; it is widely performed in musical theater. Rhythm tap focuses on musicality, and practitioners consider themselves to be a part of the jazz tradition.

The sound is made by shoes that have a metal "tap" on the heel and toe. Different shoes may differ in their sound.

Tap dance is an American dance form with roots that go back 300 years to Irish and West African musical and step dance traditions, which themselves have medieval and ancient roots. During the 17th – 19th centuries, it was primarily developed from European step dance forms, such as jigs and clogs. These dances were brought to the American continent by immigrants and eventually grew to incorporate African rhythms and styles. These fused and evolved into a form of dance called "jigging", which was taken up by minstrel show dancers in the 1800s. Tap dance then became a popular stage entertainment.

As minstrel shows began to decline in popularity, tap dance moved to the increasingly popular Vaudeville stage. Due to Vaudeville's unspoken "two-colored rule", which forbade blacks to perform solo, many Vaudeville tap acts were duets. One such duo was "Buck and Bubbles," which consisted of John "Bubbles" Sublett tap dancing and Ford "Buck" Washington playing a piano. The duo performed a "Class Act", a routine in which the performers wore tuxedos, effectively distinguishing them from the older minstrel show concept of tap dancers as "grinning-and-dancing clowns."

Another notable figure during this period is Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, a protégé of Alice Whitman of The Whitman Sisters around 1904 (then known as "Willie Robinson"). Well versed in both Buck and Wing dancing and Irish Step dancing, Robinson joined the Vaudeville circuit in 1902 in a duo with George W. Cooper. The act quickly became famous, headlining events across the country, and touring England as well. In 1908, the partnership ended and Robinson began dancing solo, which was extremely rare for a black man at that time. Despite this, he had tremendous success and soon became a world-famous celebrity. He went on to have a leading role in many films, notably in the Shirley Temple franchise.

Shortly thereafter, the Nicholas Brothers came on the scene. Consisting of real life brothers Fayard and Harold, this team wowed audiences with their acrobatic feats incorporated into their classy style of dancing. A notable scene in the movie "Stormy Weather" features the pair dancing up a staircase and then descending the staircase in a series of leapfrogs over each other into a full split from which they rise with no hands. "Stormy Weather" was a six-minute performance performed in one go with no retakes. The Nicholas Brothers danced on pianos and many other structures during this performance.