Tap dance is a unique, percussive type of dance performed with hard sole shoes. It developed in America’s melting pot of cultures and has since become an important part of American history. Tap dance has evolved over a span of 300 years, with origins in African cultures. Tap dance is also used to distract people from the events going on around them, and to make them feel hope and joy. Tap dancing has an intriguing history, flourished in the 1920s, and has experienced a rise in popularity since the 1980s. Tap dancing has an intriguing history. “Slave trade in the United States of America resulted in a rhythmic collision of cultures” (Holmers). Originally, slaves used drums to communicate with each other, but fearful of revolt, slave masters …show more content…
This slow resurgence of tap began with musicals like 42nd Street and Black and Blue, but is mainly credited to the studios of those who had seen tap dance at its height. “Tap, which in the 1970s had seemed a dying art, emerged in some ways stronger than ever”(Frank). Savion Glover entered the tap scene at 10 years old in the Broadway show The Tap Dance Kid, and instantly became famous. “The style and innovation of artists such as Glover made tap appealing to a new generation at the dawn of a new century” (Frank). A tap dance battle at the 1997 Grammy Awards between Savion Glover, a jazz tap dancer, and Colin Dunn, an Irish step dancer, helped show the evolution of tap. Tap dance has roots in Irish step dancing, but has branched out a lot, as viewers could see. In conclusion, tap dance is about community, sharing experiences, and joy. Tap dance, as you can see, has an intriguing history, and is still practiced today. It was used to spread hope and joy during the Great Depression in the 1930s, with help from stars like Shirley Temple, and tap dance’s resurgence in the 1980s led to its popularity today. Tap dance and its evolution created a connection between people from all over America. America’s diverse collection of cultures led to the development of tap
The fast foot work in both Black Bottom and in tap dancing showed the similarities of the styles of dance. Although tap dance is less about the upper body, unlike Black Bottom and dances like the Charleston, and more about the movement of the feet and sound of the taps, there were obvious similarities between Black Bottom and tap. Tap dance and Black Bottom are fairly similar, only by adding metal plates to the bottom of shoes, creating “tap shoes”, the new style of dance was born. This style of dance however, focusing on the lower body movements and the sounds the tao shoes are making when they stick across the floor, is less about the movement of the arms and upper
According to dancemotionusa.org tap dance originated from the West African dances and certain influences from the British Isles. All throughout the 20th century tap dance began to gain popularity. It seems that tap dance started as something that slaves did to express themselves. Dancemotionusa.org stated that, “White slave masters banned the use of drums, which they considered a tool for organizing revolution. This led to people into making rhythms with their bodies-specifically, their feet.” Another way we know that tap dance has evolved is that before they would attach pennies to their heels and soles in order to retain the rhythmic sounds of their dance (pg.81). Now, tap shoes have a metal attached to the heel. Tappers do not have to attach pennies to the bottom of their shoes anymore. Tap dance has also adapted new moves and expanded into other forms of dance. An example, countless of people have combined ballet and tap dance together—creating a flawless routine. In addition, some of today’s upcoming tappers are: Michelle Dorrance, Anthony Morigerato, Daniel Leveille, Aaron, Alexis, and Curtis. Overall, tap dancing has come a long way and in my opinion it has not lost its meaning.
The freedom of the American life and culture of the 1970’s overflowed to make a major impact on music and dance during this period. American culture flourished. The events of the times were reflected in and became the inspiration for much of the music, literature, entertainment, and even fashion of the decade. Choreographers wanted to motivate the dancers to leap into the unknown and experience the contact of dance in their own way.
Irish Step Dance is a percussive style of dance that comes from traditional Irish dance. It has fast paced intricate foot work with a ridged upper body. Riverdance is a performance of Irish Step Dancing that really got Irish Step Dancing recognized by the world.
When you think of famous tap dancers one of the first performers that comes to mind is often Fred Astaire. He is one of the most famous tap dancers, performers, choreographer, singer, actor and musician of his time. He will forever be remembered in the industry and his movies will also be written in history.
Origins are a blur, but evidence points to the ancient Egyptians. However, the use of this dance form is most commonly paired with the Middle Easterners.
Another form that influenced modern tap dancing is the African Juba dance. This style of dancing was very quick and full of competition with stomping, clapping, and intricate foot work. This form of dance was the result of the slave trade and there seems to be no historical evidence of percussive foot wear as bare feet were traditionally used (“Tap Dance” par. 2).
Learning about Dance: Dance as an Art Form and Entertainment provides visions into the many features of dance and inspires scholars to keep an open mind and think critically about the stimulating, bold, ever-changing and active world of dance. Learning about Dance is particularly useful for those who do not have a wide and diverse dance contextual, such as students in a preliminary level or survey dance course. This book consists of twelve chapters. Chapter one dance as an art form focuses on the basic structures of dance. Dance is displayed through the human body, it has the control to communicate and induce reactions. Dance can be found in many different places, it enables the participants and seekers to touch and knowledge the joy of movement. Dance is discovered as being one of the oldest art forms worldwide. Dance existed in early cultures was recognized in a sequence of rock paintings portrayed dance. Since this discovery of rock paintings, several other forms of art have been found that depict dance. People used rituals in order to worship the gods and believed that the rituals held magical and spiritual powers. During the ancient period civilizations sentient decisions began to be made with regard to dance. Other periods that had an impact on dance were the medieval period, the renaissance period, and the contemporary period. Chapter two the choreographer, the choreographer is a person who comes up with the movements created into a dance routine. The choreographer expresses themselves through choreography because this is their way of communicating with the audience. In order to be a choreographer you must have a passion for dance. Each choreographer has their own approaches and ways of making up a routine. Choreographers ...
The Northern Territory is known for its culturally diverse population and some would say it is the ‘multicultural hub’ of Australia. With all of these cultures comes distinctive customs and traditions. Throughout history dance has been used to help people develop a sense of identity, the younger generations are also taught social patterns and values through the different dances. The significance of these traditional dances was to reinforce and celebrate cultural law and practices including the celebration of the passage from child to adulthood or spiritual worship. The predominantly Western culture in Australia often causes minority groups to struggle for recognition regarding their beliefs and traditions. This is parallel to the Australian dance industry, where many cultural dance groups feel they have to justify who they are and are often
Belly dancing is thought to date back into the third millennium BCE in the Middle East, with evidence of solo improvised dance seen in Egyptian paintings, figurines, and tombs (Shay & Sellers-Young, 2005: 3). There are now several different versions of this dance in the Middle East, for example, the shikhat in Morocco, the ciftetelli in Turkey, and the raqs sharqi in Egypt (Shay & Sellers-Young, 2005: 2). While these dances are similar in movements, the dance’s meanings differ in each culture. Here in the United States, we adopted and renamed belly dance in the late 1890’s from the Middle East, but based our understandings of the dance off of mistaken notions we assumed to be true in those countries. The meanings of belly dance in the United States have been shaped by orientalist views, and therefore are misrepresentative of the true connotations. Several contradictions exist between what Americans see belly dance as and what is actually true in the Middle Eastern culture, such as the implications of the dance, the dress and context of the dance, who actually dances, and spiritual significance.
Hip hop dance was important to African American culture because it allowed them to create their own culture, their own music their own style. When watching Flex is Kings, there are many young men in a video demonstrating what hip hop dance culture has evolved to in the 21st century. They are a contemporary urban dance movement. One can see the emotion and the “seriousness” in their movements. Hip hop dance is these people’s lives’(“Flex Is Kings”). Flex is a type of street dance, sometimes is called “bone breaking” due to their moves looking like a person either has no bones or that they are literally breaking them to create the skin cringing dances they create(“Flexing”). Dancers such as Storyboard P have mastered the art of flexing. He mentions in one of his interviews that when dancing one is revealing who they are (“Storyboard P”). African American people lean on this particular art form to elaborate how, as a race we have been able to display our culture to mainstream America. Mainstream is basically a majority of people (Mainstream).
DANCE IN PUBLIC SCHOOL CURRICULA Dancing is a form of art that allows many children to express themselves through body motion while developing many skills. Children throughout the world have been dancing since the day they began walking. When a child takes their first steps and puts together the simplest combination of movements, that would be considered as dancing. Music also plays a major role in the development of children understanding dance, because it can be used as an accompaniment, and can help children get a better feel for the rhythm in dance. Over the past century, educators have come to the conclusion that dance serves as a form of art, and should be taught in public schools and colleges to help the growth of children of all ages both physically, mentally, and academically.
History: The origin of line dancing remains unclear, however it has been around for many years in various county’s and cultures. The first line dance instructions were found in a book in the 1650’s in Europe. Line dancing has originated in Europe and came to America through emigrants from Europe. Line dancing since then has evolved and developed to the country line dancing that we know today.
Have you ever thought about the history of dance, or how long human life has known it? Dance has been here longer than we actually think. We can take dance back all the way to 600 BC to Now. Dance has made very big changes overtime. It went from doing it in honor for only the dead or religious situations to now just doing it for fun. The way or different moves have also changed over this big course in time. It ways and moves have changed, and the outfits used to perform these different types of dances. There has been clean and dirty dancing all along, some of things in those dances have stayed, others haven’t. Dance has been a very great thing and will stay being a great thing during human life because it expresses a lot. It expresses itself, and a person can express their feelings, in the different kind of moves. It does take time to get to know the moves but you can get through.
Folk dance is also a popular types of dance. Folk dance is a variety of dances that reflect a certain culture. There are many types of folk dance including aboriginal dance, clogging, irish dance and square dance. Folk dancing started in the 18th century, the steps were then passed through the generations. Many children songs and games today come from folk