Are you ready to talk about a new dance style today or the Diwali sweets still too heavy for a discussion? Well maybe the topic will help us in digesting in all the indulging that we did during the holiday.
As we talk about one form of dancing with the sole motive to be little more knowledgeable, we move back to the western dance after covering “Kathak” last week. Today we shall talk about “Tap Dancing”. Tap dancing is great to watch to and I personally feel is an art. We will find many forms of dancers everywhere probably in every other home but you will not find that many tap dancers due to the fact that it is not only tough but also requires great amount of talent.
What is Tap Dancing? Tap Dancing is more popular as an American Dance where it is fondly known as American theatrical dance. It is a dance that is distinguished by percussive footwork that is basically done by precise and in rhythmic pattern on the floor. It can further be categorized by different steps such as Brush, Flap, Shuffle, Ball change and Cramp Roll.
History of Tap Dance:
Tap Dance is seen originating in different dancing styles of various countries. It can be seen in Irish Solo step dance, the English clog dance and also in African dance movements. It was originated in the early 18th century. It was more popular in the southen United States among the slaves. It further merged as 19th century folk dance where the modern descendants took the dance to a new level which included buck and wing dancing and southern United States clogging. Both the dancing styles were performed wearing leather soul shoes. This slave dance was adapted in theatres in 1828 and it gave a new meaning to tap dancing. Thomas “Daddy” Rice was the first one to make it popular as a theatre dance. Later in 19th century it was part of showboat routines and minstrel shows where two techniques were mainly popularized as fast style of dancing in wooden sole shoes and later the same was replaced with a smooth leather sole style and made it more famous by George Primrose. These styles later coalesced and in 1920’s saw metal plates or taps been added to the leather soled shoes.
Tap dance became very popular in 1920’s and in 1930’s among the black dancers and they contributed to the development towards this new style of dancing. Black dance teams became immense popular and also consisted of acrobatic movements in their tap dancing. John bubbles later popularized a more slower and syncopated style of dancing.
Some of the popular dancing teams that belonged to that era were Harold Daniels and Leslie Irvin who were more popularly known as Slap and Happy, Stump and Stumpy were James Cross and Harold Cromer. The music later accompanied was jazz and it provided rhythmic complexity. Bill Bojangles Robinson became America’s most famous tap dancer. Gene Kelly added movements from ballet and modern dance to it in 1950’s.
Different forms of Tap Dancing:
Clogg Dance – Clogg dance is the original form of tap dance where they danced with wooden “Clogg” shoes.
English Style - A very light and elegant dancing style that is more classical in its way.
Soft Shoe dance – Engles style of dance but without the taps. It is often danced with wooden taps.
American Style – It is very jazzy dance and more down into the floor with lots of heel work and strongly syncopated.
Sand Shuffle – This style of dancing is throwing a bit of sand on the floor and dances on it. The working technique is quite different as it is based on hits and slides.
If you are not a Tap dancer and would like to learn the basic tap dancing method then here are some basic steps that you can practice:
Step1 - Put on your tap shoes and some cool music.
Step2 - Start by tapping your toe to the beat. Do this faster and faster to build strength.
Step3 - Brush the ball of one foot forward and then back to shuffle.
Step4 - Step back on the ball of your right foot and step on your left (or vice versa) to do the ball change.
Step5 - Brush forward with the ball of your foot and step on the ball of it for the flap.
Step6 - Do a cramproll by jumping up and landing with your feet. Do this in the following order: Land first on the ball of your right foot, then the ball of your left foot, followed by your right heel and, finally, your left heel.
Step7 - Step with your right foot and touch your left toe behind it for the step toe.
Step8 - Learn the stomp. It’s similar to stepping, but you hit your foot on the ground to stomp and then lift it off (placing no weight on the foot when you stomp).
Step9 - Perform the shuffle hop. Do the basic shuffle with your right foot and, leaving your right foot in the air, jump up.
Here is a must watch video - Enjoy!
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