The percussive dance style called Tap was fashioned over time from bits, pieces, and combinations of cultural traditions into a dazzling and energetic dance convention.

The writer of the history of Tap Dance (give video time to load) on Off jazz.com talks about coalescence; referring to a piecemeal historical process called Creative Synthesis. Combined images become not only different from the original elements but they become more than the sum of the parts from which they were formed.

In the same way, the evolution of artistic movements can be fashioned from bits, pieces, and combinations of different styles over time. The history of Tap has been like this. The process of Creative Synthesis has spanned the 20th Century and now revitalizes in the 21st Century as the art form adapts and attunes to the artistic and commercial cultures within which it thrives.

The Evolution of Tap Dance

Tap Dance evolved as the musical and theatrical culture, the medium itself, and people who danced, changed to suit the idiom of the day.

The characteristic signature of the energetic dance style is “percussive footwork that marks out precise rhythmic patterns.” It is a theatrical type of dance that suits Vaudeville shows and musical extravaganzas.

Where Did The Pieces Come From?

Although Tap Dance is now considered a style of American Theatrical Dance it seem to have originated from Irish Solo Step Dance and the English Clog Dance.

Clog Dance

In Lancashire Clog Dancing was termed 'heel and toe.' The history of the feel and sound of Tap is fascinating. The steps are said to emulate the sound of the shuttle and other parts of the cotton spinning and weaving machinery.

As historians relate the story of dance, there is often a note of human aspiration that weaves through the tales. Particularly in modern times many cultures see escaping from drudgery into the high life of the theatre as attractive. In Australia, this idea is called “Getting Out Of The Burbs.”

“Exponents of clog dancing would often become professional music hall dancers as a route out of the poverty and squalor of living in the crowded and polluted mill towns of that time.“ Chris Brady

African Dance Movements

Tap also evolved from African Dance Movements. Among the slaves in the southern United States, the dance style emerged by the early 19th century into folk styles, the modern descendants of which include Buck-and-Wing Dancing.

Buck dancing is a pre-tap dance routine performed by Minstrel and Vaudeville dancers in the mid nineteenth century. They portrayed the African-American males, known as "Bucks."

“Originally, the Pigeon Wing steps (foot shaking in the air) were a big part of this early folk dance but later separated when variations began such as the shooting out of one leg making a "Wing."Buck Wing Dance Page

Black and White Minstrel

By 1828, slave dances were adapted theatrically and the first blackface minstrel show was born. People called them “Black and White Minstrel Shows,” as by the 19th-century these shows and showboat routines became popular. As well as buck-and-wing, another kind of leather-sole style soft shoe dancing was made famous by George Primrose.

Historical Accuracy

How each strand of dancing influenced and received influence from the evolvement has become blurred by time.

“Unlike square and contra dancing, whose lineage can clearly be traced to England and France, the dance form we know today as clogging probably springs from a blend of several sources, with very little agreement about the extent of the contributions made by different national groups.” Southern California Clogging Association

Different Styles Become Popular

Variations naturally developed.

• John Bubbles popularized a slower, more syncopated style of tap dance.
• Prominent dance teams of the era included Slap and Happy (Harold Daniels and Leslie Irvin) and Stump and Stumpy (James Cross and Harold Cromer).
• Jazz provided further rhythmic complexity and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson became America's most famous tap dancer.

The style became grander and expanded in the 1930s and 1940s.

• Dancers such as Fred Astaire, Paul Draper and Ray Bolger performed in a sleek, flashy manner.
• In the late 1950s, Gene Kelly added movements from ballet and modern dance that infused grace and suavity.
• In the late 1970s and early 1980s, interest in Tap dance underwent resurgence so that today we have a wonderful legacy of dance, theatre and music which has often been made immortal on film and in Broadway Musicals

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