User:Dgorny3/Tap dance

Article Draft Tap dance

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A teen tap dancer performs a tap step known as a "toe stand" onstage.

During the 1930s and the 1940s, the nation was able to watch tap dancers perform on live television. However, Black tap dancers found it extremely difficult to be a part of these White films because segregation was extremely prominent in America. This led to the creation of two different styles of tap dance: White tap dancers formed a Broadway style and Black dancers continued to evolve with the traditional rhythm based style. Broadway tap dance was performed in mainly Broadway musicals and film, and it did not emphasize classic jazz rhythms. Rhythm tap integrated more of the classic African roots of tap dance, and it emphasized jazz rhythms, musicality, and improvisation. Musicality is the dancer's understanding of the music they are performing to. Improvisation is where a dancer makes up the movement as they perform, and the choreography is not prepared beforehand.

There was also the "two-color rule," which made sure that Black tap dancers were not able to perform solos onstage. This led to some tap dancers performing comedic tap duets. There were stereotypes placed on Black Americans such as the "Uncle Tom" stereotype, and many tap dancers were forced to wear "black-face" onstage in order to perform. One of the first Black tap dancers to be acknowledged by America was Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, who performed duets with Shirley Temple. However, Bill Robinson's career was reduced to "minstrelsy," which can be defined as White performers using makeup to mock Black culture or using Black stereotypes in a performance. Black Americans joined these minstrel performances where they would be forced to act on Black stereotypes in their performances. Overall, White Americans never denied African American culture, but they would showcase African American culture to White audiences unethically.