subject: Tap Dancing - A Journey From Jazz To Modernity [print this page] Tap dancing is an American style of entertainment dance which sits prominently alongside such classic styles as jazz, hip-hop and lyrical, which are all form of competitive dancing. The popularity of such dance styles, along with dance sports such as ballroom and latin dancing, have given rise to a number of television programs such as 'Strictly Come Dancing' on the BBC and 'So You Think You Can Dance' in America and have hugely boosted the profile of the sport across the globe. Inspiration for tap dancing may have included imported African dance styles, English clog dance, Irish step dancing and even the Spanish Flamenco dance style.
The style itself is characterised by a tapping sound created from metal plates located on the ball and heel of the dancer's shoe. Tap dancing therefore can be considered as both a form of dance and playing a musical instrument! Depending on the area where the sport originated, the dancers wore either wooden-sole shoes (buck-and-wing in the fast style) or a smooth leather-soled shoes (soft-shoe style). Both the fast and soft-shoe style coalesced and by mid 1920s metal plates (taps) were added to leather-soled shoesmaking the now recognisable tap shoes we all know and love.
Tap dancing became very popular after the 1930s with a galaxy of stars such as Fred Astaire (who provided a more ballroom look to tap dancing), Ginger Rogers, Shirley Temple, Gene Kelly (who incorporated his ballet training into his tap dancing) and Rita Hayworth all regularly treating movie goers with some spectacular tap dancing scenes. After the 1950s jazz music and tap dance made way for the more popular rock and roll and pop music, although jazz dance later emerged and is seen as a hybrid of jazz and tap.
Keep your eyes peeled come May, for in the US George Bush Snr actually signed into law a National Tap Dance Day on the 25th of that month.
