Tap is an American percussive dance in which metal taps on the heels and toes make the dancer a musician. It grew from the meeting of West African rhythm, African American buck-and-wing and juba dancing, and Irish and English step dancing in the 19th century.
William Henry Lane, known as Master Juba, amazed audiences in the 1840s by out-dancing Irish step dancers. In the 20th century Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson, John Bubbles, the Nicholas Brothers and Gregory Hines turned tap into virtuoso art on vaudeville stages and in Hollywood; women like Ann Miller and Eleanor Powell starred in film. Tap lives in the ‘hoofer’ tradition — improvised, close to the floor, in conversation with jazz musicians — and in Broadway tap with kicks and big smiles. Today Savion Glover and Michelle Dorrance push the form forward, and the American Tap Dance Foundation’s Tap City festival fills New York each July.
