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Looking at tap as a whole in the present time it is a fairly popular style when you find the right place to train within the style however there are various styles that are pushed in learning and becoming more advanced with training in to then be used to move on into the professional industry with, most popularly commercial and jazz I believe. Tap however is used in the development of dancers to build up their versatility along with all their other curricular skills. By seeing recent West End shows - Anything Goes and 42nd Street, with a variety of tap pieces within them shows to me that the popularity of the style is still around as well as the enjoyment of watching and hearing the style from audiences.
Myself as a dancer I highly enjoy learning within the style despite finding tapping a lot more difficult to master compared with other styles, I enjoy the challenge and being able to finally overcome and master the trickier steps with practice. Hopefully tap stays within the popularity it is with now and continues to help grow the industry and professional world.

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After the Civil War both the white and black performers wore blackface and belittled black people mimicking them as lazy dumb and comical.

White and black dancers typically performed separately and to segregated audiences despite the opportunities arising for African American dancers. Black actors were not allowed to perform with white performers unless they were children.  Master Juba was one of the first black tap dancers to perform for white audiences touring with a white minstrel group. Bill Robinson followed from this and was the first African-American dancer to perform without blackface, as he refused to throughout his career, adapting through the changes of the era.
The first black woman Jeni Le Gon became a tap soloist wearing pants instead of skirts developing an athletic/ acrobatic style involving mule kicks and flying splits.

Racism slowed down the development of tap massively limiting performance opportunities for those black performers and always being viewed as the side parts. As tap began seeing more white performers such as the famous Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire audiences became more tolerable of them, and the development of the genre began to grow.
There was also a lot of gender bias throughout the tap development and black female tappers were not as fortunate in the movies due to racial attitude as opposed to talent.

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Soft-shoe dancing followed on from clog dancing, which is a relaxed dance performed in soft-soled shoes popular in Vaudeville. Buck and Wing dancing was more of a fast-paced flashed dance performed in wooden soled- shoes mixing a combination of Irish clogging, high kicks and complex African rhythms and steps - the shuffle and slide. The term Buck originates from buck dancers who danced with wooden soles purely on the balls of their feet. The term Wing originates from the ballet term pigeon wing - Pistolet and Brise Volet.
Classical Tap was initiated by the Nicholas Brothers also known as flash or swing tap. The style involves upper body, wild leg movements and acrobatic stuns with syncopated footwork.

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Clip of The Artist - Broadway Tap Example

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Clip of The Artist - Broadway Tap Example

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https://youtu.be/A4EnNBQEVXQ

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The two most modern main styles of tap dancing are Broadway and Rhythm Tap.
Broadway tap can be seen more stylised in a musical theatre way whereas rhythm tap is more similar to a percussive musical instrument - alike to playing the drums. It is generalised on the way it sounds compared with Broadway based on the way it looks and is put together for stage.

Broadway Tap is most popular in the Live stage musicals like 42nd Street, Anything Goes, My One and Only and The Artist. It typically incorporates arm movements and artistic body movements alongside the tap across the dance floor.

Rhythm Tap dancing is morally focused purely on the sounds made by the taps along with the aesthetic appearance of the dance. The arm involvement featured less and done effectively on a small tap board incorporating multiple knee drops. The understanding of musical notes - quarter notes, triplets along with bars and phrases and musical theory needs to be understood and studied.

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Adam Garcia's Tap Showcase | Got To Dance 2014

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During the Industrial Revolution, those of the working classes working in clog mines, pits and cotton mills among cobbled streets is where the English tradition of clog dancing arose.
Clogging came around as early as 1400s, and the original completely wooden clogs altered and changed to become leather shoes with wooden soles. It then evolved again into the 1500s where separate wooden pieces were used to attach to make the heel and toe. The term 'heel and toe' was first used in the 19th century Lancashire.
Clog dancing was brought around in the first instance to reduce boredom and warm up in the cold industrial towns. Most usually were the men who danced and would compete professionally in music halls as the popularity grew between 1880 and 1904. Dan Leno won the World Clog dancing Championship in 1883 in which the money awarded would be a source of income for those in the poorer working classes.
Women were also participants however it wasn't until later on that their dancing also began to become popular in music halls. Dancing clogs were made from ash wood, more ornate and brightly coloured, with even some nailing metal to their shoes so sparks would shoot off once they were struck.
A new aspect of the clog was added, illegal fighting or 'purring' in which men would violently kick each other with their clogs whilst being completely naked, all-in aid of trying to settle disagreements.
Clog dancing is creating rhythms and sounds with the striking of the shoe to imitate those made by milling machinery. Due to this in competitions the judges would sit beneath the stage or behind a screen to allow them to purely mark against the sounds made. The arms and torso remain still and it's only the legs and feet that move around.

Clog dancing in music halls became declined as the twentieth century dawned as tap dancing became more apparent, a variety of clog, Irish step and African dance. Clog is still alive now despite the popularity decreasing massively, and performances are often seen at folk festivals - Whitby, Skipton and North Yorkshire.

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Jumpin Jive - Cab Calloway and the Nicholas Brothers

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Tap dancing emerged in 1700s in the southern United States as a fusion of British and West African musical and step dance traditions. The Irish Jig and West African Gioube (stepping dances) mutated into the American Jig and Juba. This was then mixed into a new style known as 'jigging' and was taken up by white and black minstrel dancers in 1800s following with developing tap dancing into a popular nineteenth-century stage entertainment.
The first initial stages of tap concluded of hard-soled shoes, clogs or hobnailed boots and not until late on into the earlier decades of the twentieth century were taps (metal plates) evident on shoes of dancers on Broadway musical stages.
Tap dance was constantly evolving and jazz tap dance began to make its appearance siding to jazz music, elements of swing and structured improvisation.  Following this moving more towards being concertized on musical and concert hall stages as it began to attract a new fierce and multi-ethnical field of male and female dancers who make up the most cutting-edge dance expression in America today. Tap technique is conveyed visually and aurally in a rhythmical exchange between dancers and musicians.

The concept of tap dance as an Afro-Irish infusion fuelled in a battle for skill and authority puts into focus issues of race, racism and race relations in America. As well as this, issues of class were raised with tap being considered in a category of 'low-art' and not worthy of being showcased on the concert stage. The absence of women in early jigging competitions led to a consideration of gender in the evolution of tap dance and so for most of the twentieth century it was considered as 'a man's game'. Women were advised they were 'weak' and lacked physical strength needed to perform rhythm driven piston steps, multiple wing steps, and flash and acrobatic steps in which symbolised the male's skill to finish a routine. Women were not known as competitors but nurturers and as a member of the chorus line rather than a soloist and so did not engage in the tap challenges,

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Adam Garcia is an Australian actor and tap dancer of partial Columbian descent. He studied tap dance at Sydney's Capital Dance Studios. He toured Australia in his first production Musical Hot Shoe Shuffle before moving to London to act in West End Musicals. In the London West End famous Grease Garcia played Doody and also played Tony Manero in the stage version of Saturday Night Fever. 1998-1999. His first leading man role was in Dein Perry's Bootmen of which was based on Perry's experiences and his creation of Tap Dogs. Throughout his role he could demonstrate the manly heavy-metal Tap Dogs style dancing.
Throughout his acting career Adam has been nominated for multiple awards and appeared in various shows, televisions series including 2 ITV dramas, Britannia High and Mr Eleven.
Garcia himself has also worked alongside Kimberely Wyatt and Ashley Banjo as Judges on Got to Dance as well as Australia's dancing with the stars.

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ADAM GARCIA

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GENE KELLY

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FRED ASTAIRE

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NICHOLAS BROTHERS

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MASTER JUBA

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Master Juba the inventor of Tap Dancing  (no date) Master Juba -- The inventor of tap dancing. Available at: https://masterjuba.com/ (Accessed: October 13, 2022).

A , K. (2018) Analyse how tap dancing has been influenced by Fred Astaire as a performer, Acasestudy.com. Available at: https://acasestudy.com/analyse-how-tap-dancing-has-been-influenced-by-fred-astaire-as-a-performer/ (Accessed: October 13, 2022).

Valis, H.C. (2013) Tap Dancing, Tap Dance in America. Available at: https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200217630/#:~:text=Initially%20a%20fusion%20of%20British,the%20American%20jig%20and%20juba. (Accessed: October 28, 2022).

Boston, C. (2018) Cinema @ UMass Boston, Cinema UMass Boston. Available at: https://blogs.umb.edu/cinemastudies/2018/02/01/fred-astaire-the-man-the-myth-the-legend/ (Accessed: October 28, 2022).

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Master Juba original name of William Henry Lane known as the 'father of tap dance' and was the first African American to get top billing over a white performer in a minstrel show. He invented new techniques creating rhythms by combining elements from African American vernacular dance, Irish jigs and clogging.
American slaves came from cultures in Africa in which they heavily relied on drumming as their means of communication and personal expression. They interpreted drumming through the use of their bodies, hand clapping, foot stomping, body thumping and thigh slapping all of which evolved into a dance named 'patting juba'.
Lane began combining the 'patting juba' with other dances like the jig, and other ethnic steps in which he had learnt such as the shuffle, the slide, buckdancing, pigeon wing, and clog into a new dance which became known as tap dancing.
He was proclaimed the greatest dancer of all time by American and European writers as his reputation grew.

Juba competed in dance contests and defeated all competitors even Irishman Jack Diamond who had been considered as best white dancer and were then matched against each other in further staged tap competitions throughout the United States, until he settled down in London to perform with an English Company and open his own dance studio.

Juba's health began to deteriorate from his poor diet, odd working hours, and strenuous physical exertion which finally resulted in breakdown. Henry Lane died at the early age of 27 in 1852.
All tap dancers acknowledge Master Juba as the creator of Tap and celebrate his many contributions to modern dance.

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Nicholas Brothers who are Fayard and Harold Nicholas.
Their first professional engagement together was on a radio show 1931.
Their father refused to enter them into local talent competitions and dance contests but instead used his musical connections and arranged an audition for 'The Nicholas Kids' at the standard where they were finally scouted for the vaudeville famous showcase at Layfayette in New York.
The brothers worked alongside some of the biggest names in jazz; Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Ethel Waltersin featured acts in Harlem's Cotton Club 1932.
Following in the 1940s, the brothers appeared in some of the most iconic 20th Century Fox musical films;
- Sun Valley Serenade 1941
- Orchestra Wives 1942
- The Pirate 1948
- Jumpin' Jive
- Stormy Weather

Despite their extraordinary talent and dedication, they had to fight the systematic racism throughout their career, continuously being overlooked for lead roles, however, still are seen and recognised as masters of the arts.
Fayard and Harold particularly influenced bold tap-dancing routines with acrobatic flips and kicks which always fully embodied the music it followed.

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Gene Kelly is known as the legend of hollywood 'Golden Era'. He was accepted into the University of Pittsburgh Law School. He quit to pursue his career as a dance teacher.

He has been a dancer in Cole Porters 'Leave it to me' in 1938 and was the lead role in Rodgers and Hart's 'Pal Joey'
1940 both choreographed by Robert Alton.

He was in ongoing films and musicals throughout his career some in which being.
-1944 Movie Girl
- 1945 Anchors Aweigh in which he had a duet with Frank Sinatra
Also collaborated with Fred Astaire in 'The Babbitt and the Bromide.
- 1952 Singin in the Rain, in which he was Co-director, Choreographer and Leading man.
2015 inducted into tap dancers, hall of fame, alongside Fred Astaire, Bill Robinson, Nicholas Brothers etc.

Kelly's style was very much low to the floor and an athletic style. He called his own style 'hybrid' with approaching including modern, ballet and tap to his dance. His broadening mix of styles are evident in the way Kelly switches between hoofing, lyrical steps, acrobatics and jazz dance particularly in 'Good Morning' from Singin' in the Rain or the 16-minute ballet sequence from ' An American in Paris'.

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Fred Astaire has done 10 Broadway shows, 31 musical films like Top Hat, Shall we Dance, The Band Wagon and Funny Face.
Fred was famous for combining tap and ballroom dance together where he insisted that his scenes were captured in a single take with a wide camera angle.
His style gradually became more relaxed in his body as he aged, and footwork was no longer intricate and led more into the ballroom style.
In a solo 'One for my baby' from ' Sky's the limit' 1943, Astaire danced as a drunk in a bar and used jazz improvisation as an element. He used his feet to make the sounds opposed to a musical instrument, exploring the qualities of making noise with his taps.
Fred wore brown suede tap shoes from the 1930s and was known for his elegant formal dress.
Fred's 3 crucial performance points he made in his career were:
- His musicality
- His style & posture
- His use of props and surroundings

Musicality is the ability to translate audio to physical, or sound to movement. Astaire's theatrical facials and ability to drastically change his posture allowed him to accomplish musicality easily. One thing that helped benefit Astaire was his vocal performances as the technicality of music helped establish the idea of tap dancing to a type of musical instrument. Tappers create music with their own individual instrument - their feet.
Between 1930s-1950s his style became unique, jumping over walls, dancing in circles around ballroom floors, even dancing on ceilings in his famous 'Ceiling Dance', he never remained under himself.

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- Gene Kelly
- Fred Astaire
- Nicholas Brothers
- Brown Brothers
- Jerome Robbins
- Bob Fosse
- Adam Garcia
- Bill Robinson