20th Century Tap Dance History

During the nineteenth century, variety shows, or vaudeville in the United States, became popular. One of the main attractions of vaudeville was tap dancing, or a fusion of the English clog dance, the Irish jig, and the foot-stamping dances of Africa. Originally developed by black Americans, tap dancing combined free body movements characteristic of black dance with the intricate footwork found in Irish dance. Tap dancing was mainly for men, either performing in a duet or in a solo. Years later, tap steps were put into dance routines for choruses of female dancers, such as the Radio City Rockettes. However, there were some individual women tap dancers who showed that liberated modern women could be as energetic and stylish a “hoofer” as a man (Van 36). Thanks to the growth of

Many new dances emerged in the twentieth century and were based on the music and rhythms of ragtime, Jazz, swing, and Latin America. Twentieth century dances were also based in animal movements. For example, the Foxtrot was introduced by Henry Fox and was based off of the movements of the fox. Another new dance form was the Charleston, a bouncy dance that involved swiveling footwork and kicks to the front and the side. The Tango also emerged during the twentieth century, born in the run-down neighborhoods of Buenos Aires. Tango underwent considerable polishing, but still remained the most erotic dance of the popular Latin American dances in Europe and North America. Even though this is true, one of the most popular Latin American dances in the twentieth century was the rumba. The basic step of the rumba was a simple box, a step found in many earlier twentieth century dances. In the 1930s and 1940s, a new dance form came about, commonly referred to as “black dance.” “Black dance” brought about the lindy hop and the