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Section 4 - Evaluative Blog of My Tap Experience

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Section 4 - Evaluative Blog of My Tap Experience

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Prior experience in tap:
Before training at Addict Dance Academy, I had taken weekly tap classes for 9 years. I did not take tap grades, however I was still taught the foundations of tap technique based on an IDTA syllabus. I danced at a local dance school called Gemini Dancers in London, where I would do 1 hour each week. The classes began with a tap based warm up, followed by corner work (travelling phrases), short phrases in the centre and finally ending with learning choreography for an on-going routine.

My strengths within tap have are definitely performance based. I have always adored being on a stage and using my facial expressions as a way of enhancing my dancing. However, I do struggle with the technical elements at times. I find it hard to pick up choreography quickly at times, because with tap steps you are unable to copy the movements in a mirror if I am unsure of what they are. I find that the reasoning for this is because the footwork is often very fast and intricate, meaning that it can be hard to replicate the correct sounds if any of the movements aren't exactly right. When watching back my assessment back, I noticed that I need to be more grounded. I think this is because the majority of exam board based technique is lifted in the body and light, rather than relaxed with bent knees. Secondly, my arms were also very weak and not placed. I was so focussed on the choreography for my footwork that I didn't think as much about what my arms were doing, so they looked limp and like I was uncertain of where they should be. To make improvements to my tap skills, I am going to continue to push myself in classes by not only making sure that my footwork is correct, but also that my arms are held with tension, so that they are not swinging about as I dance. By making this change, it will enhance the performance aspects of my dancing due to the focus on my arms also helping my posture. The reasoning for this is because it will create space, opening up my chest and pushing my shoulders down. As well as working on my arm placement, I am also going to try to practise exercises outside of class which are based on helping to loosen my ankles. I hold tension in my ankles because of my background in ballet where my ankles need to be secure and strong, meaning movements such as wings or flaps aren't executed properly. However, by training my body to relax the muscles in my ankles, I can adapt this and improve over time.

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Section 3 - Diversity of Tap Practitioners 

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Section 3 - Diversity of Tap Practitioners 

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Tap dancing began due to slavery of the black Africans and Irish. This meant that the majority of early influential tap dancers were black. As the years went on, white practitioners began to take on the style and move it away from its roots of black African and Irish slavery. Segregation and racism was extremely relevant in America until the Civil Rights Act of 1964, where any laws promoting segregation were banned. This meant that white and black dancers would not ever be seen dancing together and each race had their own theatre to attend, as white and black people mixing was not allowed. During the era where segregation was still occurring, white dancers started to show a heavier interest in tap, it began to gain more popularity by audiences, this can especially be seen through the introduction of Minstrel shows.

As previously stated, in the 1600s tap started out due to the slavery of black Africans and Irish people. They lived lives where they were often forbidden to speak, so they used dance as a way of keeping themselves happy and also a way of communicating with one another. An article states that ‘the dance was the music, its sound as important as movement in expressing the emotion and telling the story.’ (Crawford, no date stated). Their basic movements majorly consisted of stamping and tapping of the feet. Very few things from black African and Irish culture survived through the slave trade, however dance was one of them. Therefore, the early tap practitioners were mostly black because it came from their ancestry, meaning that white people were not interested in the style during this era.

By the 1800s, there was still many black tap practitioners, for example, Master Juba who was a free black man. He had learnt to dance from his Irish neighbours and from this he explored dances from other cultures. These included: the shuffle, the slide, buckdancing, pigeon wing, and clog dancing. By combing all of these styles of dance together, he formed tap dancing. However, many white performers then began to take over tap as a style and introduce it to white audiences. This was done through the introduction of Minstrel Shows, where white performers would paint their faces black and perform on stage pretending to be black themselves. It was a horrifically racist show and Thomas Dartmouth ‘Daddy’ Rice was one of the first minstrel show performers. He performed as a character 'Jim Crow' who he had based off a physically disabled black man whom he had previously seen. The performers often used tap as one of their dance styles, meaning that white audiences who came to watch the shows were now being exposed to tap and it was becoming far more popular within the white community. Previously to this, it was seen as a style only for black and Irish people.

Carrying on into the 1900s, white performers were majorly the most well-known tap practitioners, for example, Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Fred Astaire. Similarly to the 1800s, not all of the practitioners were white, there was still a few black tap dancers who made a name for themselves, for example, Bill Robinson. He was one of the most established Black-African American tap practitioners throughout the 1900s, as well as being the best paid. His parents died when he was very young, so to make a living for himself, he began dancing for money at the age of eight. From this, he then began dancing in vaudeville shows and eventually he began working with Marty Forkins, which was where people started to recognise him as a performer. From this, he was able to perform multiple lead roles in black musicals.

In the modern day, the Syncopated Ladies are a female tap duo who have become famous by posting videos of their tap combinations online. The rise of social media in recent years has boosted their careers, as it enables anyone around the world with the internet to have access to their choreography. Female tap practitioners are still lacking in the industry and it has only been far more recently that we have had any well-known female tap dancers at all. In the past, it was always seen as a dance genre thats performed by men. Through the increase in feminism, female performers have gained popularity and it has made it easier than it would have been 100 years (or longer) ago for them to make a name for themselves. Examples of the increase in feminism (equal rights for men and women) is shown through these acts: The Equal Pay Act (1970 in Uk, 1963 in USA), Women's Liberation Movement (1960s), civil Rights Act (1964). By introducing these equal rights, it has given women the platform to express themselves in however way that they wish.

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1800-1990

There are 5 main early influences on tap that occurred between 1800 and 1900. The Irish Jig was a popular form of Irish folk dance that includes repeated hops, shuffles and steps. According to Love To Know ‘An Irish jig is done to jig fiddle music, which often has a beat of 6/8.’ (Hanson, no date stated). The quick and intricate footwork helped to influence the evolution of tap dancing.

Secondly, Clogging was also a significant influence on the development on tap. It is a European folk dance, which were brought to America by the British. It is based on the use of clogs, which are shoes with thick wooden soles and occasionally also have a “buck tap”, which is a piece of metal that covers the toes. Clogging is less complex than tap, as it uses a basic, straight rhythm, whereas tap uses slightly more advanced ones such as a jazz-triplet. Clogging is performed by hitting the floor with the toe or heel of the shoe to create a sound, keeping in time with a set rhythm. This consequently helped to develop the introduction and progression of tap shoes and their noise making abilities.

Cake walking was a social dance performed by black slaves to imitate their white masters. The reasoning for its name is because the prize for the winner was an extravagant cake. Minstrel shows were racist performances including dancing, acting and music, where white American men would paint their faces black with burnt cork makeup (black face) and impersonate black Africans. Thomas Dartmouth ‘Daddy’ Rice was a white American actor and hornpipe dancer, who combined Irish Jig with jump and shuffle. By blending these styles, he was an early inspiration for the development of tap movements, such as shuffles. He popularised ‘Jump Jim Crow’, which was a minstrel show based on a physically disabled black man that he had seen. The minstrel shows became popular amongst the entire white community and were an extremely prominent form of entertainment.

1900-1930

Minstrel Shows were growing in popularity and became the trendy form of entertainment to watch in the 1900s. Blackface performers are, "the filthy scum of white society, who have stolen from us a complexion denied them by nature, in which to make money, and pander to the corrupt taste of their white fellow citizens." (Frederick Douglass, no date stated). They were spilt into three parts with the first half consisting of a ‘walkaround’, which is where the performers march on stage whilst singing and dancing. The cake walk was a popular walkaround, however the audience members were unaware of its origins having come from black slaves. Next, the performers would sit in a semi-circle and play instruments. The second half of the performance used vaudeville type scenes. The most vital part of this section was the stump speech, which was a racist, derogatory mimicking of black slaves. The actor giving the speech would often muddle up his words and speak in a comical voice to enhance the humorous aspects of the act. Lastly, part three was a one-act play portraying the cheery, happy lifestyle that the black community had.

Vaudeville is a form of entertainment, where it is made up of various comical acts either consisting of dancing, singing, acting or comedy acts. Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corporation was the owner of many vaudeville theatres under the chain ‘The Orpheum Circuit’, which was founded in 1886 and continued under this name until 1927 when it was combined with the Keith-Albee Theatre chain. Their productions were for white audiences and mostly used white performers, however also occasionally including black African American performers, but only those with remarkable talent. In contrast to this chain of vaudeville theatres, the Theatre Owner’s Booking Association (T.O.B.A) was for black African American audiences. It was founded in 1920 and consisted of primarily black performers. By the 1930s, tap became a popular style of dance to be performed in vaudeville, which meant that it was becoming more well-known by audiences. By this point tap had begun to properly form as a form of dance and had set steps, which were often named after the dancer, location or sound. An example of this is the ‘Shim Sham’, which is a tap movement that was named after a club where Leonard Reed and Willie Bryant often performed the move as part of their duet.

1930-1940

Tap became a very trendy form of dance to now be seen in Hollywood films (musicals) in the 1930s, due it’s on going link with jazz music. ‘Forty Second Street’ (1933), directed by Lloyd Bacon was one of the first well-known musicals that used tap as its main form of dancing. It starred Ruby Keeler, which was also a big step forwards in the development of tap, because the style was predominantly male based. Another tap dancer who was widely known for their features in Hollywood films was Fred Astaire. Before making his debut in Hollywood, he was known for his vaudeville acts that were performed with his sister Adele Astaire, who then retired in 1932. He is still to this day one of the most famous, established tap dancers in history. His parts in these various Hollywood films allowed him to make his name and face known to general audiences, no longer just people within the tap industry. This is a clear example of how these Hollywood films expanded the audiences of tap and gave it recognition as a style that it has never had before. Prior to this, the dance styles seen within films was often jazz or ballet, so by including tap, it increased the style’s popularity.

1990-2000

The 1990s had major influences from music, such as hip hop, R&B, funk, rock, electronic and soul. These new forms of music allowed tap to be fused with different forms of dance, for example, ‘Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk’ (1996) was a tap piece that explained black history and its developments from the slave trade to the present day, using funk, hip hop and R&B music. They wear baggy clothing to compliment the music styles and also use drums that are being played upstage, which is to represent their symbolic nature of rebellion during the era of slavery. Another key influence on tap during this decade was the fusion of international dance genres. ‘Riverdance’ (1996) blends Irish Jig with tap through the inclusion of question and answer. One section of the piece has three Irish male dancers performing next to two black American male dancers in a horizontal line on stage. The section begins with the black American improvising in New York with another man playing the saxophone to emphasise the key influence of jazz music. Three Irish dancers then enter the stage and begin to tap, but their style is fused with Jig. Later, all five men are dancing next to one another in a battle type scene, where they are trying to out-dance the other men. As the scene develops, the men start tocombine each other’s movements together, highlighting how Michael Flatley merged these two cultures to form tap.

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1700s: Early roots of tap came from the African and Irish communities. They would use different rhythms and sounds as a way for slaves to communicate and interact with one another. They had to use their feet and clapping because drums were banned after being seen as a form of rebellion.

1800-1900: The influence of the Irish Jig, Clog dancing, Religious dances, Cake walking and early touring Minstrel shows.

1900-1930: Minstrel shows began to develop and there was an introduction of early vaudeville shows.

1930-1940: Tap dance in Hollywood films began to incorporate tap into them as their main form of dance.

1950-1970: Tap dance began to decline in popularity due to the increase in popularity of other styles such as jazz.

1980: Tap dance renaissance – it began to regain its popularity and get its reputation back for being a well-known and enjoyed form of dance.

1990-2000: Other styles began to highly influence the development of tap. There was a key influence of music and international dance styles, such as the Irish Jig.

2000-Present day: Global tap dance communities began to form and social media became a platform for tap dancers to gain popularity and recognition of the style. An example of this is the Syncopated Ladies, as they use social media as a way of posting their choreography and gaining popularity from various different audiences.

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- Gene Kelly was born on 23rd August 1912 in Pittsburgh (America) and was one of five children in his family. He died on 2nd February 1996. He taught at a local dance school whilst he was studying at college as a way of self funding his education.
- He is most famous for playing the lead role of 'Don Lockwood' in Singin' In The Rain (1952).
- Kelly was widely known for his athletic style, because his choreography was always very energetic and exciting to watch. His previous ballet training also allowed him to incorporate balletic movements into his choreography. An example of this can be scene in one of the sections of the Dream Ballet in 'An American In Paris' (19510, where Jerry and Lise are dancing in the market and performing a ballet pas de deux. Another one of his popular ballet influenced pieces was 'On the Town' (1949), which was a ballet where the dancers were dressed up as sailors. Although Kelly's choreography in this work was predominantly ballet, he also included gestures that would be done by sailers on ships in  real life. His biography states that 'He brought dance into real life in his movies, performing largely in regular clothes and in common settings' (Gene Kelly Biography, no date stated.
- By the 1930s, Kelly began to perform small roles on Broadway, before obtaining a lead role in Pal Joey, which was a musical comedy. During this role, he was spotted by an executive from MGM (one of the biggest film studios in America) who then offered him a film contract.

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Section 2 - Gene Kelly - His style of tap and His Influence

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Section 2 - Gene Kelly - His style of tap and His Influence

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- Gene Kelly's style of tap was Musical Theatre tap. This is a style of tap that is seen in musicals and is often combined with other styles of performing arts such as jazz dance, singing and acting. It focuses a lot on the performance aspects of the dancing as well as the technique. The style is often very energetic and lively.
- Gene Kelly had an immense impact on the development of tap. He created tap pieces that were
- Musical Theatre tap became popular during the 1940s once there had been an increase in Hollywood films using tap dance. A well known film to fuse tap with musical theatre and star Kelly was Singing' In The Rain (1952). He was featured as the main character 'Don Lockwood' as well as choreograph the entire film. The song 'Fit as a Fiddle' is a vaudeville scene where Don and Cosmo are tap dancing on a theatre stage. This use of tap dancing within a musical theatre film helped to expose far more people to MT tap and broaden its popularity.
- Another characteristic that made him popular was his fusion of styles. He often combined ballet, jazz and tap, which had not often been seen before.

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Section 2 - Chloe and Maud Arnold - Their style of tap and Their Influence

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Section 2 - Chloe and Maud Arnold - Their style of tap and Their Influence

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- The Arnold sisters' style of tap is Rhythm Tap. This is a style that focuses closely on the creation of complex, intricate rhythms made through the sound of footwork (tapping), instead of the focal point being the aesthetics of the upper body. It uses grounded work, for example heel drops rather than toe taps, because these are heavier and have a stronger connection with the floor.
- The Arnold sisters helped to gain back popularity for tap in recent years after it became a less-favoured style of dance. Due to the rise of social media, styles such as commercial have gained a much larger following and slightly declined in popularity. However, the Arndolds began to also use social media as a platform for their work. They first gained a large following on YouTube after Beyoncé reposted a video they had created of them dancing to the song 'Formation'. It was featured on Beyonce.com, which meant that their work was now being watched by people all over the world and exposing them to tap as a style of dance. As audiences began to watch these videos, they were/ still are influenced to take tap classes themselves and also to buy tickets to come and watch the Syncopated Ladies perform in concert. Due to their extensive increase in popularity within the dance community, they have also released their own tap shoe line with Bloch. By doing this, it means that each time someone is seen wearing their shoes, they are advertising the Arnold sisters as performers as well as a brand.

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Section 2 - Chloe and Maud Arnold - Background

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Section 2 - Chloe and Maud Arnold - Background

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- Chloe and Maud Arnold are sisters, who perform as an American tap duo and have an all-female dance company called the Syncopated Ladies.
-Chloe is the Emmy Award nominated choreographer of their company and Maud is the producer.
- The Syncopated Ladies performed on So You Think You Can Dance in 2011, which was where they gained a lot of recognition for their tap dancing and made their names known within the industry.
- They post videos on social media of their tap choreography, which are viewed by thousands of people around the world. The company have also done TED Talks, where they use both tap and poetry to voice their feelings and views regarding feminist issues.

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Chloe and Maud Arnold - Beyoncé Concept Video

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Chloe and Maud Arnold - Beyoncé Concept Video

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Tap Into Empowerment  | Syncopated Ladies | TEDxPaloAlto

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