There is a great variety of styles and techniques in the tap danced by different dancers and that is why there are different ways of naming their steps and different ways of teaching.
The zapateo was always located within the "show business", rather than in the "serious dance" circuit. However, today there are great companies that make seasons in theaters previously unthinkable for tap and their shows are merely dedicated to this dance.
On May 25, the international tap day is celebrated.
The tap was brought to the United States during the nineteenth century, and today it is popular around the world.
The name comes from the sound made by the small metal plates placed on the dancer's shoes when they hit the floor. Tap dance began in the 1830s in the New York City neighborhood as a fusion of Irish, Scottish and English dance and possibly from the combination of African dance. Perhaps the most influential of all was the Irish. The dancers, immigrants from various groups, would come together to compete and to demonstrate their best qualities and movements. In this way, as the dances were mixed, a new style of dance was born, and tap later flourished in the United States. from 1900 to 1955, when it was the principal dance of Vaudeville and Broadway. Many great shows included tap dancing as part of their shows. For a while, every city in the U.S. had fond tap performers on the street. Tap dance was called jazz dance, because jazz was the music used by tap dancers to perform it. In the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, the best tap dancers moved from Vaudeville to movies and television. In the 50s, the style of the show was changeable. Jazz music and tap dance declined, while rock and roll music and the new jazz dance, now called jazz dance, emerged. As jazz dance was developed from tap dance, for this reason both have many movements in common. But, jazz tap developed and continued on its separate path to become a new form in its own right.
Tap Features
Tap dancers make frequent use of syncopation. Choreographies typically begin on the eighth beat, or between the eighth and the first count. Another aspect is improvisation. This can be done with any music and follow the provided beats or without the musical accompaniment, if not known a cappella is danced. Hoofers is one of the tap dancers, who dance only with their legs, making a louder, grounded sound.
