Tap History

Influenced primarily by cultural roots and incredibly opportunity, Dunham had the luxury of studying in the West Indies as well as anthropological study of other cultural style dances. The West Indian experience changed forever the focus of Dunham’s life and caused a profound shift in her career. This initial fieldwork began a lifelong involvement with the people and dance of Haiti. And, importantly for the development of modern dance, her fieldwork began her investigations into a vocabulary of movement that would form the core of the Katherine Dunham Technique. Though many of Dunham’s primary influences lies within her multicultural experiences, Mark Turbyfill also seemed to play a large role in her future dance career, giving her private lessons despite his doubt in the opening of her student company (Kaiso! 187). Katherine Dunham has been list as an influence to “everyone from George Balanchine to Jerome Robbins, Alvin Ailey, Bob Fosse and Twyla Tharp. American dance, including ballet, modern dance, Hollywood and Broadway, would not be the same without her” (Aschenbrenner 226).

“Stripping the Emperor: The Africanist Presence in American Concert Dance”, and excerpt from Moving History/Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader, was written by Brenda Dixon Gottschild. Gottschild is a well-known author, dance historian, performer, and choreographer as well as a professor of dance studies at Temple University. She has also written multiple books including The Black Dancer Body, Waltzing in the Dark, and Digging. In her article “Stripping the Emperor: The Africanist Presence in American Concert Dance”, Gottschild explores the similarities and differences in the characteristics of Africanist and European technique, and how they draw from each other.

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.

Irish step dancing has existed since the 1700’s, over 300 years. Families in Ireland have passed down Irish step dance from generation to generation as a way of preserving their culture. While the meaning of the dance remains the same, the performance and showmanship has changed dramatically. From girls and boys with pale skin and natural hair to girls with fake tanned skin, huge curly wigs, and thousand dollar dresses and boys with fake tanned skin and outlandish outfits. Irish dance has become more of a spectacle—such as “Riverdance” and “Lord of the Dance.” Those dances are some of the most enjoyable and respected around the world. Over time this type of dance has taken on a life of its own and changed

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.

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

“Stripping the Emperor: The Africanist Presence in American Concert Dance”, an excerpt from Moving History/Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader, was written by Brenda Dixon Gottschild. Gottschild is a well-known author, dance historian, performer, and choreographer as well as a professor of dance studies at Temple University. She has also written multiple books including The Black Dancer Body, Waltzing in the Dark, and Digging. In her article “Stripping the Emperor: The Africanist Presence in American Concert Dance”, Gottschild explores the similarities and differences in the characteristics of Africanist and European technique, and how they draw from each other.

Throughout Blair’s dance career, she has been involved in six different dance styles: ballet, tap, jazz, gymnastics, hip-hop, and lyrical – which are a lot of styles for someone who is only twelve years old. Throughout my ten years of dancing, I have done four styles: ballet, jazz, tap, and gymnastics. Honestly, it was too much for me, so I cannot fathom how Blair takes all of these classes. Each style is similar in

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

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

Dancing is a recreational activity that has been enjoyed by millions of people for centuries. There have been countless styles of dance and thousands of memorized steps that have been performed in front of people or even just simply enjoyed alone without and audience. When a handful those thousands of steps come together, it creates a routine. Even though there are countless dancers that are breathtaking when they perform the routine in front of and audience, most dancers cannot be proficient without someone to assemble those countless steps together to create something awe inspiring, beautiful, and entertaining to watch. Dance is a world of constant change due to the want of awe, the need to produce something unique, and the necessity to catch the audience’s attention. Although many people believe some dance styles have not changed for centuries, innovative choreographers flip dance styles upside down with their unique approaches.

The origins of jazz music and dance are found in the rhythms and movements brought to America by African slaves. The style of African dance is earthy; low, knees bent, pulsating body movements emphasized by body isolations and hand-clapping. As slaves forced into America, starting during the 1600’s, Africans from many cultures were cut off from their families, languages and

Dance is an ever evolving form of art; in much the same way that one can categorize and differentiate between eras and styles of architecture one can also do so with dance. These eras at times have sharp delineations separating them from their antecedents, other times the distinction is far more subtle. Traditional forms of dance were challenged by choreographers attempting to expand the breadth and increase the depth of performance; preeminent among such visionaries was Seattle born dancer and choreographer Mark Morris. Mark Morris' began as one of the millions of hopeful individuals attempting to simply make a career in dance; he not only succeeded but managed to have a lasting effect on the entire landscape of dance.

A trait that all the famous tappers that we have learned about over the semester, have in common is their creative and original style. Which is something I find amazing and interesting. I like the approach that Savion Glover has towards tap, his delivery is so free but at the same time structured and also rhythmic. My favorite part about tap dance and the arts in general, is that you have the opportunity to express yourself and let creativity flow through your work.

Hence, it is quite simple to achieve. In fact, better dance floor manufacturers will construct the dance floor in small panels, roughly the same size as a half-sheet of plywood. Ideally, this means, depending on how large individuals would like to practice floor to be, they can simply purchase the number of panels they want and install them. Moreover, they also work well over carpeted floors. Eventually, they provide the same safe dancing surface that individuals will find in quality dance studios. In a fundamental manner, the installation of this type of dance floor is very simple and easy. Nevertheless, authentic dance floors suitable for a tap dance floor that can be found that utilize foam blocks sandwiched between the subfloor and the new dance floor, which might be a sizzling dance floor covered in vinyl. Moreover, it offers the required resiliency needed to protect the dancers while tap dancing. In addition, better floors of this type, including a sizzling dance floor with a common occurrence with flooring panels that do not fit together well, as well as some floors, even allow individuals to adjust the tension for resiliency offered. Hence, that can have an impact on the sound the taps make on the