Tap dance biography

Type of dance involving percussive shoes

Tap dance (or tap) is a form of dance that uses the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion; it is often accompanied by music.^[1] Tap dancing can also be a cappella, with no musical accompaniment; the sound of the taps is its own music.

It is an African-American artform that evolved alongside the advent of jazz music.^[2][3] Tap is a type of step dance that began with the combination of Southern American and Irish dance traditions, such as Irish soft-shoe and hard-shoe step dances,^[4] and a variety of both slave and freeman step dances.

The fusion of African rhythms and performance styles with European techniques of footwork led to the creation of tap dance.^[5] This fusion began in the mid-17th century but did not become popular until the mid-19th century.^[6]

There are two major versions of tap dance: rhythm (jazz) tap and Broadway tap.

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