30 years of IDO World Tap dance Championships
What is tap dance?
Most of you reading this history, are deeply involved in tap dance and will not need an introduction. However, to complete a proper introductory part, I would like to add this brief section for those who are not familiar with this dance style. I’m using Nancy Chippendale’s words to start with the simple description of tap dance: ” Tap dance is a type of dance characterized by using the sounds of metal taps affixed to the heel and toe of shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion, coupled with both characteristic and interpretative body movements ” . Tap dance originates in North America and has evolved over about 300 years. This dance style began as a fusion of British and West African musical and tapping dance style traditions such as the Irish jig and the West African globe. The latter represented sacred and secular stepping dances. The jig and the gioube mutated in the 18 th century in the southern United States into the American jig and juba.
In the 19 th century, this combination turned into jigging and was taken up by white and black minstrel-show dancers who developed tap into a popular nineteenth-century stage entertainment.
Early styles of tapping utilized hard-soled shoes, clogs or hobnailed boots. It was not until the early decades of the twentieth century that metal plates (or taps) appeared on the shoes of dancers on the Broadway musical stage. In the 20 th century, the difference between white and black professional dancers became more distinct. Particularly in the 1920s and 1930s, white dancers were educated in dance studios while black dancers developed their dance in their communities by learning from each other. Such a community would be the Hoofers Club in Harlem where dancers shared and stole steps and challenged each other. This segregation led to different tap styles. White dancers performed a so-called Broadway-show style while black dancers excelled in rhythm tap.
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