Singing In The Rain: Tap Dance

Tap dance is an uniquely American dance form. The percussive use of one’s feet combined with the use of rhythms and amplification of sound, has a complex history that involves the intercultural fusions of English, Irish and African musical and dance traditions. The evolution of tap dance in America is further complicated by issues of race, class and gender. Unlike ballet with its formal technique, tap dance emerged from people listening to and watching each other dance, in a variety of settings, where steps were shared, stolen and reinvented. Through its metamorphosis the dance form has progressed from local entertainment, to Vaudeville shows, to Broadway shows, to the Silver Screen and to Concert Halls across the world. The legacy of the art form is characterized by the rise, fall and reemergence of popularity. Savion Glover, a 21st century American dancer, is credited with bringing tap into a new era of popularity as he has wowed the masses with his unique style focusing on African American rhythms. Tap dance, uniquely American in that it is a true melting pot of dance forms, is a dance form rich in rhythms, sounds and amplifications and has transcended social and cultural barriers.

The reason that the traditional dance has remained apart of the world is because of the teachers and students. But in order to dance the students required movements, steps, and music to put them to. The dance masters—teachers of the 18th and 19th centuries—all had the same original dance steps, while they invented their own steps on top the original ones. There are two different roots, which

Rick Bragg’s “French Quarter’s Black Tapping Feet” takes place in New Orleans in the year 1998. The story talks about young children and their tap dancing feet. Many of the children come from very little and they have learned how to make a living by tap dancing to support their families. People think that it is a way to exploit children and have them work at such a young age for so little, but others think that it is a way that the children enjoy themselves and it is another way to keep the French Quarter tradition alive. Rick Bragg wanted to shed light on the children and stories about having to do such a grown-up thing like supporting their families at a very young age. The author uses personal stories from the children, including how they feel about tap dancing and the backgrounds in which the children were brought up, to educate people on the subculture and tradition, and he brings in professors from two different schools to get professional views of the children tap dancing to support their families.

Dance has been around for a long time, it is older than many other popular sports we have. It takes on the physical capacity to be labeled as a sport, and yet in most cases, it is not. It is one of the few activities that is both a sport and an art, but it is given very little respect as a sport. Dance has evolved in a number of ways throughout time, but it has always been through a meaning. Whether that be dancing for love or faith, or dancing for first place.

Both tap and ballet are equally important. If you look at ballet, it’s the foundation of all types of dance. From hip hop to tap and all around. Ballet helps you with your posture and strength. Not just abdominal strength, but a whole variety of stronger bodily parts. You work on arm and leg strength with your combinations and positions. From your developes to your high first. Every part of your body is working and getting stronger. The same goes for tap. It strengthens your ankles and works with your musicality. The accents and speeds are varied so you stay attentive. In today’s modern world, we tend to fly through things and go fast. Which is why ballet it so important. If we go too fast our bodies could get seriously injured. Ballet teaches

One of the primary ways in which Tap, swing and jazz dance deviate completely from ballet are how the styles organically developed into social dances. Ballet started as a social court dance however at it’s inception was segregated from it’s roots as something purely performative. Jazz dance forms on the other hand such as tap dance kept many of the swing vernaculars which created them in their performance. That is to say that when watching a tap dancer perform on stage (with a traditional deportment) and then watching a swing dancer in a dance hall, one can see the similarities in movement qualities and even certain steps (such as the “shim sham” or “Attack Annies”). From this it can be argued that Tap dancers (as well as all vernacular jazz dancers of the day) question what dance is by keeping its social roots alive even after it had transitioned onto the stage. The fact that tap dance was a part of the vernacular dance of the day (and still had a casual culture about it) allowed that the Nicholas Brothers to learn to dance without ever taking a class (Frank 67). Where as a ballet dancer may spend long hours training at the bar and in class Fayard Nicholas learned to tap dance purely through watching

Back in the ninteenhundreds this was the time period where different styles and techniques of dance were created among people with different backgrounds and experiences. During this time period dance styles like tap and Jazz were created and had many people to influence this kind of dance in order for this style of dance to become as popular as it did. However, people have a controversy whether if jazz or tap dance is considered an art or an entertainment. In society, people viewed Jazz either as art or entertainment because where and when people performed there and how their personality is shown in the dance and what interpretation people get out of the performance. Tap on the other hand people had the same views as they did for jazz and most people say tap and jazz relate to each other because many of the techniques are very similar and they are all American dances that eventually evolved into different styles and how it's portrayed on the dance floor. Therefore even though these both dances have different significance in style, they both have the same journey of beginning as a form of entertainment to an art, but still having that aspect of entertainment in mind.

After hundreds of years of evolution and development, tap dancing has become a truly authentic American artform. However, no two people can agree on exactly how or where the discipline began. Emmy-award winning tapper Jason Samuel Smith still holds an enormous amount of respect for the history of his artform. “Tap culture is all about celebrating the past and accumulating its vocabulary over time,” he says. “If we don’t maintain our history, we lose what is valuable about tap.” Despite the questionable and often debated origin of tap, the discipline stems directly from African roots due to articulate rhythmic and stylistic patterns of African dance, techniques consisting of gliding, shuffling and dragging steps, and the introduction of

In the documentary, Mad Hot Ballroom, viewers follow New York City students and their journey to learn about ballroom dancing and dance competitions, the ups and downs of child/adolescent development, and the overall influence dance lessons have on them. Throughout the documentary it switches between showing the students learning about the dances and talking to the

Who is dancing and why is he tapping those toes, is it Grant Gustin, a national tap champion with those tippity tapping toes. He can travel back in time when he hits that beat hard. he is tippity tapping along the floor and fighting crime as tap man. By day he is mild mannered pharmaceutical sales man grant and by night he is tapman, First he distracts them with his tap skills and then throws sand right in their eyes. His main villain is break dance man because he keeps converting people to break dancing on the streets instead of tapping in the studio, but they will eventually have to come together to form the snazzercide squad to stop ballet girl and irish stepdance woman because no one likes ballet or step dance. Then in a flurry of dance

With the creation of music there comes dance along with it. This dancing brings freedom a step forward and allows for individual expression. In the 18th and 19th century we begin to see the social effect of suppression. You can only imagine what it would be like to be a slave and what the effects would have had upon your psych. A way to let it all out on top of song is dance. The dance that becomes to be really expressed how they were feeling. This was also a way to keep a part of who they are still in tack, keeping thy self close to heritage was and still is crucial. Today 's depiction of the dance that took place then is a slow step by step/twisting dance. This motion personifies a sad person. Also, the conditions were harsh and the labor was back breaking. From their heritage though, their song and dance that originated from Africa had a very different kind of vibe. African Folk music which was mainly played by drums which had an expression of energy & togetherness. The drums there could be a representation of their hearts. They enjoyed life, lived at a fast rhythm with time flying by. In America, time went slow, the work and the slavery conditions bogged everything down. With dance, they were able to keep close to what was formally

The likes of Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson became instant hits in Hollywood as they were able to deliver the essence of a Broadway show on the screen to broadcast internationally. Cutaways were used in the early dance numbers from the actors to dancers where there would just be close-ups of the dancer’s feet or faces until Fred Astaire came forward. Fred Astaire was the first dancer who demanded there to be few cutaways and that the camera would follow him for the whole number, this set for the next three decades how tap dance was captured for film.

MY THINH CAO December 19, 2014 Dance Appreciation DA-101-01 Research Paper Prof. Catherine Baggs Gene Kelly and his Contributions to Dance Dance is the only artform of expressive body language to inspire viewers. There are many different dance genres that people can freely choose depending on their preferences. Jazz dance is one which is popular worldwide today. In the1950’s-1970’s, there were many choreographers who contributed to the development of jazz, particularly Gene Kelly, a talented and creative choreographer, whose famous dance movie “Singin’ in the Rain” helped him emerge as a star choreographer with aptitude and abundant creative capacity.

Just when social dancing was at its height, World War 2 put a stop to its popularity. Lack of attendance, plus the intricate rhythmic patterns of modern jazz music, which were too complex for social dancing, led to the closing of dance halls and ballrooms. With the demise of social dance, the growth of jazz dance as a professional dance form began. During the 1940’s, jazz dance was influenced by ballet and modern dance. By blending the classical technique of ballet with the natural bodily expression of modern dance, jazz developed a sophisticated artistic quality. Unlike early jazz dance, which was performed by talented entertainers without formal training, modern jazz dance was performed by professionals trained in ballet and modern dance.

TAP Is there a type of dance that allows one to follow the rhythm of not just music, but sound as well? There is, and it is known as tap dancing and is popular dance form that was popularized during the jazz age of the 20th century. This dance form is the main theme of the film Tap where a majority of the characters are familiar with the dance. The main character, Max Washington's own take on the dance form is that it is all in the matter of rhythm and states how that in itself influences the steps one creates.