Tap Dance - Characteristics of Tap Dance

Characteristics of Tap Dance

Tap dancers make frequent use of syncopation. Choreography typically starts on the eighth or first beatcount. Another aspect of tap dancing is improvisation. This can either be done with music and follow the beats provided or without musical accompaniment, also known as a cappella dancing.

Hoofers are tap dancers who dance primarily "closer to the floor", using mostly their footwork and not showing very much arm or body movement. This kind of tap dancing, also called "rhythm tap", was part of the dancing of slaves in America. Because the slaves were generally not allowed to practice their own culture and customs, they mixed their form of dancing with Irish step dance to create tap dances that they managed to sneak by slave owners and over-seers. This is the origin of tap and what later evolved into (what most people know as tap now) "show tap" because it uses more arm movement. This form evolved because show tap was thought to be more exciting to watch and became famous when show tap was put on Broadway. Rhythm tap is not well known although the history of it is important to know as rhythm tap is often considered the "father of show tap."

Steve Condos rose out of his humble beginnings in Pittsburgh, PA to become a master in rhythmic tap. His innovative style influenced the work of Gregory Hines, Savion Glover and Marshall Davis, Jr. The majority of hoofers, such as Sammy Davis, Jr., Savion Glover, Gregory Hines, and LaVaughn Robinson are African American men, although today the art form transcends racial and gender stereotypes. Savion Glover is the best-known living hoofer, who helped bring tap dance into mainstream media by choreographing and dancing for the major motion picture Happy Feet, a film about a tap dancing penguin. Another well-known tap film is 1989's Tap, starring the late Gregory Hines and many of the old-time hoofers.

Early tappers like Fred Astaire provided a more ballroom look to tap dancing, while Gene Kelly used his extensive ballet training to make tap dancing incorporate all the parts of the ballet. This style of tap led to what is today known as "Broadway style," which is more mainstream in American culture. It often involves high heeled tap shoes and show music, and is usually the type of tap first taught to beginners. The best examples of this style are found in Broadway musicals such as Anything Goes and 42nd Street.

Common tap steps include the shuffle, shuffle ball change, flap, flap heel, cramproll, buffalo, Maxi Ford, single and double pullbacks, wings, Cincinnati, the shim sham shimmy (also called the Lindy), Irish, Waltz Clog, the paddle roll, the paradiddle, stomp, brushes, scuffs, riffs, and single and double toe punches, hot steps, heel clicks, single, double, and triple time steps, over-the-tops, military time step, New Yorkers, and chugs. In advanced tap dancing, basic steps are often combined together to create new steps. Timesteps are widely used in tap and can vary in different areas. These consist of a rhythm that is changed to make new timesteps by adding or removing steps.

Tap dancing can also be done using an a cappella method. Similar to singing without instrumental accompaniment, tap dancers are not dancing to any music but creating a rhythm by using different steps at the same time. In a tap a cappella, the steps are normally kept simple (such as the most common steps listed above) and easy to control. The group of dancers must work together to create the sound keeping their steps at the correct speed to match each other.