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Brief HiStory Tap Aof I <br /> I <br /> Born in America from the same roots as jazz music, tap dance emerged in 1 <br /> the mid-1800's from the fusion of African and European dance styles and I <br /> rhythmic sensibilities. In minstrel shows, Caucasian performers darkened their j <br /> A* faces with burnt cork and "acted black." By the 1890's, African-American I <br /> performers were being advertised as "authentic Negroes," darkening up their <br /> own faces and imitating the Caucasian performers who had been imitating I <br /> African-Americans. I <br /> � I <br /> Vaudeville--or variety shows--came from the minstrel shows and provided I <br /> an explosion of live theatre. The typical show had an orchestra and a 1 <br /> number of acts--singers, dancers, monologists, comics--and many led off I <br /> with an animal act. The typical tap act was eight minutes long and often the I <br /> performers played five shows a day. By the 1930s there were infinite I <br /> possibilities: elegant "class" acts, comic and eccentric dancers, acrobatic I <br /> dancers who flipped upside down off of most anything, and any number of 1 <br /> acts which combined other skills such as hat tricks, cane tricks, and spinning I <br /> plates and trays. The greatest vaudeville star, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, I <br /> danced in a style which was upright, clearly European, yet always swinging. <br /> Classic movies of the 1930s and '40s showcased the great Caucasian 1 <br /> dancers of the day, while African-Americans were mostly excluded. The I <br /> Nicholas Brothers, whose daring exploits in flash and acrobatic tap were j <br /> always delivered with elegance, succeeded in spite of their skin color and I <br /> broke many color lines. Fred Astaire brought choreographic genius to tap I <br /> and set standards for filming dance. At this time, tap dance came down 1 <br /> 1 from its toes into a syncopated, more sophisticated musical style know as I <br /> rhythm, or jazz, tap. I <br /> By the 1940s, tap dance I <br /> moved in two important I <br /> directions, onto the 1 <br /> concert stage and into the I <br /> S small music clubs where I <br /> 1� bebop was brewing. <br /> Paul Draper fused ballet <br /> with tap, gave concerts for 1 <br /> tap, piano, and I <br /> harmonica, and was j <br /> America's top concert 1 <br /> attraction for most of a I <br /> decade. Meanwhile in the I <br /> jazz clubs, African- I <br /> Z l <br /> � l <br /> North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble - Guide for teachers 1 <br />