The History of Tap Dancing

Tap Dance is well known all over the world and was developed in the United States Back in the 19th century. The name was originated by the sound that the metal plates on the bottom of the shoes made when they touch the floor. It has been said that African-Americans used to use drums to communicate back and forth to other slaves. Slave-holders started to get afraid of what they were communicating back and forth so they diminished the use of drums. But the African-Americans found another way to communicate and it was with their feet (by tap dance.) They were known throughout the south as Levee Dancers.

The music that tap dancers performed to was jazz, so tap dance was also named jazz dance because of its music. Tap dance is a mixture of African and Irish dance rhythms that are performed together. In the old days, people used to compete against each other to see who had the best moves. Every time this would happen, they would come up with a new move, which was often put together by both competitors.

Within the following decades, tap dance emerged into a whole bunch of different types of dance. The dances were buck dancing, soft-shoe dancing, and buck-and-wing dancing. Although tap dance did not emerge until around the 1920’s, it has always been known as a typical art form. The dancers that  performed tap dance shaped tap dancing to the way it is today. There have been many tap dancers but the two with the most influence were likely Harland Dixon and Jimmy Doyle.