Rhythm and Soul

Rhythm and Soul

 A History of African-American Influences in Tap and Step

Erika Bambas

When one first thinks of tap dance, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers or Gene Kelly often spring to mind.  However, tap was created almost entirely by African-Americans.  African-Americans have been creating and innovating dance styles from the time they arrived in the United States.  These dance styles manifest their unique African aesthetic as a part of American dance.  Tap dance and stepping, a more recent innovation, are vital components of American and international rhythmic dance.  Uniquely American, tap and step are a collaboration of cultures and dance forms that showcase the creative genius of African-American dancers in the past two hundred years.

Both step and tap were developed by African-Americans and are a heritage of Africa.  To better understand the art forms, one must look at the history of the people who created them.  The dancers of both tap and step are dependent upon rhythms created by the dancer and employ a swinging feeling, easily flowing from one movement to the next.  “The musicality of tap dance, which is percussive, polyrhythmic, swinging, and dependent on the interrelationship of the dancer and musician, is a direct outgrowth of the African aesthetic” (Willis 152).  This swing feeling persists throughout the development of tap.  After studying native dances in Africa, Robert Farris Thompson developed five commonalities that exist in all West African dance forms and published them in his book, Aesthetic of the Cool.  These characteristics are percussive dominance, multiple meter, apart playing and dancing, call and response, and songs and dances of derision (Fine 83).  All five can be found in the history and analysis of tap and step.

            Until the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, the majority of African-Americans were slaves in the Southern United States.  After the Stono Rebellion, a slave insurrection in South Carolina in 1739, slaves were no longer allowed to drum, which had been an integral part of their culture for hundreds of years.  Slaves replaced drums with their own percussive music created from beating dried cow bones, shouting, clapping, stomping their feet, and using various other methods to create the percussive dominance found in African music and dance (Johnson 27).  African-American foot dances evolved to become what is known as “hoofin’, rhythm dance, and jazz tap” (Willis 145).

            In the early nineteenth century, minstrel shows became the preferred form of entertainment.  In a summer tour of Louisville, KY, as a member of N. M. Ludlow’s theater company, Thomas Dartmouth Rice observed a slave named Jim Crow who had a deformed shoulder, stiff leg, and bad knee, which caused him to have a limp.  Jim Crow would sing a song he had created, finishing with a twisted jump that landed on his heel.  Rice took this performance and song and made it his own to put on the stage. He danced with a face blackened with burnt cork and received twenty curtain calls.  It became an international hit (Ames 33)!  The blackface persisted for several decades in the minstrel circuit and became expected and accepted.

            Painting a black face on himself so that he was allowed to perform, William Henry Lane became the first black man to headline a minstrel show.  Born in Rhode Island in 1825, he began performing in the Five Points District of New York in his early teens.  His unique combination of African shuffling, footwork, rhythm, and traditional Irish step dancing quickly brought him to fame.  This fame led to a competition with John Diamond, a famed white Irish dancer, on July 8, 1844 for $500 prize money.  Lane emerged triumphant and became know as “the King of All Dancers” (Ames 34).  He toured England where critics adored him, then returned to the United States where he died at only twenty-seven years of age.  Malnutrition and overwork are speculated to be the causes of his death.  Fortunately, Lane’s memory lives on as the creator of tap dance.

            As tap dancing grew as an art form and entertainment, dancers began to innovate and find ways to make their tap styles unique.  In the early twentieth century, the Nicholas Brothers added acrobatics to tap, leaping into the air, performing cartwheels and walkovers, and always landing in the splits.  King Rastus Brown developed “buck dancing,” a style of tap incorporating the syncopated jazz rhythms heard in swing music and also a manifestation of the multiple meter African aesthetic.  He did not have the personality of an entertainer and never gained the recognition he deserved as one of the best dancers of his time (Ames 41).  However, his style was imitated and further developed by John W. Bubbles who created rhythm tap in 1922.  This form of tap was highly syncopated and done at half the speed of other tapping of the day, but with more intricate rhythms.  These innovators brought creativity and new ideas to the evolving art form.

            Although making great contributions to the entertainment world, blacks were continuously stereotyped in roles as slow-witted and shiftless.  White men with black painted faces danced in a brainless and comedic manner, appearing as tricksters and clowns.  This stereotype persisted until 1922 when the play Liza premiered, in which Thaddeus Drayton and Rufus Greenlee appeared in top hats and tails, giving blacks a classy act to follow (Ames 43).  This was not only a change in traditional costuming, but also a change in the perception of African-Americans, giving blacks a more equal footing with white entertainers.  This break from racial profiling provided blacks an opportunity to bring respect to their race.

            Also in the early 1900’s, Sherman Dudley formed the Theater Owner’s Booking Association, or T.O.B.A.  This association provided African-Americans with over two hundred venues to perform in, mainly in the Southern United States.  However, it was brutally competitive and dancers needed to stand out from the crowd with unique attributes and abilities.  T.O.B.A. grew to be known as “Tough on Black Artists.”  This association became the jumping off point for all African-American performers who broke into the white performing circuit (Ames 41).

            Another innovator of tap, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson began his career traveling with a white minstrel show, but later joined the T.O.B.A.  Robinson performed with a very easy, swinging style, showcasing the swinging characteristic of African dance with his arms and torso.  He became famous for his clear sounds, easy performance quality, and his stair dance.  Robinson developed a tap style performed on stairs that he performed throughout his career.  He emerged on Broadway in The Blackbirds and became the first colored man to headline a show, Brown Buddies, in 1930.  He then traveled to Hollywood where he made fourteen films, including The Littlest Rebel with Shirley Temple, in which they performed his famous stair dance.  The unlikely duo became one of the most famous tap duos of all time.

            In the early twentieth century, while tap was in its heyday, a new form of African-American dance emerged.  Also known as demonstrating, blocking, marching, and hopping, step dance is an African-American Greek society tradition (Uharriet 3).  “Stepping is tap dancing without tap shoes, James Brown without the music of the JB’s, Cab Calloway sans piano, a marching band without John Philip Sousa.  It is jazz, funk, rhythm and blues, and rap without instruments,” (Nelson C8).  Stepping involved call and response, percussive dominance, multiple meter, and songs and dances of derision.  Groups of African-American students in a fraternity or sorority formed stepping groups where they perfected complicated techniques involving clapping, stomping, jumping, slapping their bodies, and chanting.             

The first African-American fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, formed at Howard University in 1907.  The sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha quickly followed in 1908.  Between 1911 and 1920, Howard University was the birth place of the fraternities Omega Psi Phi and Phi Beta Sigma and the sororities Delta Sigma Theta and Zeta Phi Beta.  The sorority Sigma Gamma Rho began in 1922 at Butler University.  Finally, Iota Phi Theta was established at Morgan State College in Baltimore, Maryland in 1963.  These societies form the Pan-Hellenic Council, an organization of all African-American Greek societies, which is nicknamed the “Divine Nine” (Fine 14).

            Stepping began as a way for fraternity brothers to get together and sing and dance on campus.  It became more African with time as direct contact was established with Africa.  During the 1960’s and 70’s, during what is known as the Black Power Movement, racial pride caused students to create steps reflecting their heritage (Uharriet 6).  Although stepping is very similar to South African Gumboot dancing, the two styles appear to have developed simultaneously without any influence on the other.  This phenomenon is best explained by the earlier mentioned five attributes of an African aesthetic.  Both dance forms sprang from a similar heritage and grew more and more like each other as contacts between the countries increased.  Although it is highly influenced by the style and spirit of Africa, “stepping itself is the unique creation of African America” (Uharriet 8).

            Stepping involves not only dance, but also singing or chanting.  These chants can be a tribute to founders, a recognition of another Greek society, or a “crack,” or song making fun of another Greek society.  An example of cracking performed by the Alpha Kappa Alphas is:

                        My-y-y old King Tut

was the very first Greek,

When he clapped his hands

He had the ladies at his feet.

When he saw the Sigmas,

It made him mad.

When he saw the Kappas,

It made him mad.

A-a-h, when he saw the Ques,

It made him sick.… (Fine 91)

Cracking on competitors in competition can be brutal, but can also be performed tastefully.  Another element is paying tribute to the founders.  The Alpha Kappa Alphas honor their founders by singing:

                        “Nineteen-o-eight was our founding date.

In ’74 we did it once more.

Saying, “What? What?”

It’s a serious matter.

Saying, “What? What?”

It’s a serious matter.”

(Fine 11)

Singing narrates the stepping and brings more emotion to the movement.  It allows steppers to easily make a clear statement.

            All societies in the “Divine Nine” have a signature move that is unique to that sorority or fraternity.  The Kappa Alpha Psi’s carry canes that are striped in red and white, their fraternity colors.  The Alpha Phi Alpha’s do a “granddaddy” move with hunched backs, eluding to the fact that they are the oldest and first African-American fraternity.  The trademark of the Alpha Kappa Alpha’s is to often quote “It’s a serious matter” in their songs.  Other Greek societies often use these unique attributes to crack on competing fraternities and sororities.  However, the societies take pride in their diversity and remain fiercely loyal to societal traditions.

            In recent years, stepping has become more commercialized and performance oriented.  Whereas it began as a way for brothers and sisters to gather together and have fun, stepping is now more focused on competitions and shows.  Cash prizes are often awarded, making stepping into a business for Greek societies.  In 2007, Sylvain White directed the movie Stomp the Yard, bringing greater awareness to the art form.  Although stepping has gained great recognition, some students feel that this violates the sacredness of their traditions.  A member of Alpha Phi Alpha and student at Longwood College expressed, “[Black Greek societies] should not give away secrets or throw away something precious” (Fine 145).  Currently, stepping is mainly an African-American art form.  However, similar to tap, stepping may soon become an inter-racial and international activity.

            First appearing on stage as a stereotyped good-for-nothing, African-Americans still managed to contribute priceless creativity and innovation to the American dance world.  Although considered second-class citizens by many until the mid twentieth century, African-American dancers have been outstanding pioneers and developers of American rhythmic dance.  Much of what is uniquely American dance has been developed by African-Americans; therefore, their inclusion in American dance history is paramount.  As creators, innovators, and performers, African-Americans have left a legacy in tap and step that can never be forgotten.

Provo, UT; February 12, 2009

Works Cited

Ames, Jerry, and Jim Siegelman.  The Book of Tap.  New York: David McKay

Company, Inc., 1977.

Fine, Elizabeth C.  Soulstepping: African American Step Shows.  Urbana: University of

Illinois Press, 2003.

Johnson, Anne E.  Jazz Tap: From African Drums to American Feet.  New York: Rosen

Publishing Group, Inc., 1999.

Nelson, Jill. “Stepping Lively.” Washington Post 29 May 1990: C1+.

Uharriet, Jennifer Marie.  From Gumboots and Greek Letters: Preserving African

American Heritage Through Stepping.  Honors Thesis Brigham Young

University, 2006.

Willis, Cheryl.  “Tap Dance: Manifestation of the African Aesthetic.”  African Dance: An

Artistic, Historical, and Philosophical Inquiry.  Ed. Kariamu Welsh Asante. 

Trenton: Africa World Press, Inc., 1996.  145-159.

Works Consulted

Gray, Acia. The Souls of Your Feet: A Tap Dance Guidebook for Rhythm Explorers. 

Austin: Grand Weaver’s Publishing, 1998.

West, Colleen N.  Tap Dance Fundamentals.  Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt Publishing

Company, 2005.