Tap Dance

Contemporary Tap Dance is a dance that elaborated from Master Juba, who was “the most influential performer” and also “the initiator and determinant of the form”in 19th Century”.(Winter, 39) The original development of step dance was due to the prohibition of the use of musical instruments such as drums and horns for Negro dance which helped to produce other substitution tools such as “hand clapping and foot beats”(Winter, 40). Rhythms, the spirit of African American Dance, and foot beats, the substitutions for the musical instruments, are the two basic elements of modern tap dance.

In the nineteenth century, Black Dance field was dominated by white performers. One of the most famous stage acts was the Jim Crow, which was basically white minstrels wearing blackface.

William Henry Lane, who was best known as Master Juba, however, was an exceptional who had great achievements in white minstrel shows. What’s more, as i mentioned before, Master Juba was also “the initiator and the determinant” of tap dance.

After the Civil War, there was a huge migration of Negroes from South to North. Even though the church in South at time banned banned dancing, still black people continued to dance. And also under the influence of World War I, more and more Southern Negroes moved to Northern cities especially Harlem. With the combination of the local culture and the Southern Negro culture, new dances started to emerge: the Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, Shag, Suzi-Q, Camel Walk and Truckin.

Also, during the period of post World War I which was named as “Harlem Renaissance”as well, “essential nationwide movement of artistic exploration and exhilaration occurred among Black Americans”.(Long, 21) In 1921, the great hit of Shuffle Along in Broadway brought Negro musicals to the field. Shuffle Along was considered to be ” responsible for the beginning of popularity for real tap dancing”.(Emery, 224)