20th-century American dances {tap dance}| can be for one person, using shoes with taps.
origins
Fast-step dances {clog, dance} in Ireland [400] can use hard shoes and no arm movements. Ireland and England clogs include Lancashire Clog. Irish jig came from clogging. English hornpipes and USA reels are other tap-dance bases. Barney Williams came to USA from Ireland [1840], as did the Irish Clog dancers.
levee dancer
Slaves {levee dancer} danced in rhythm on riverboats or on shore. Minstrel shows used white men with black faces {blackface} as levee dancers [1830]. The Black Bottom was minstrel dance.
musical
In 1866, Black Crook, the first musical, had burlesque, minstrel, and clog dancers. Dancing and singing shows {Shout} {Ring-Shout} depended on camp-meeting hymns and work hollers.
founders
Master Juba or William Henry Lane was clogger. "Daddy" Thomas Rice danced. Zip Coon did the dances Jump Jim Crow and Zip Coon. Barney Fagan was Father of Tap. In 1902, Ned Wayburn used dances {Tap and Step dance} in his Minstrel Misses show. Henry E. Dixey, and other dancers {pedestal dancer}, looking like statues, danced on pedestals.
steps
Steps {wing step} can be like minstrel Pigeon-Wing steps [1900]. One leg {winging leg} is off the floor while the other taps. Winging leg goes up and down {pump, tap dance} {double back} {pendulum, tap dance}. One tap is on way up, and two are on way down {three-tap wing}. It can have more taps {five-tap wing}.
Buck and Wing used clogs, jigs, and sand dance. Time step evolved from Buck and Wing style, as well as other steps {falling off a log} {shuffling off to Buffalo}. George H. Primrose of Cotton Coons Minstrel Company clogged without wooden soles {soft-shoe dance} {sand dance} [1910 to 1920]. Toots Davis in Darktown Follies [1913] invented extra routines {over the top} {through the trenches} {flash step}. Shim Sham {Shim-Sham Shimmy} began [1910 to 1920].
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Date Modified: 2022.0224