Understanding Jazz and Tap Dance

Submitted by matt on Tue, 12/04/2007 - 3:11pm.

By Matt McDermott

Tap dance has a strong tradition in Chicago, illustrated by the upcoming tribute to Sammy Dyer at the 3rd Annual Chicago Tap Summit (Oct. 12-14). In jazz dance, we have been lucky enough to give a home to the world-famous Gus Giordano, to the influential Joel Hall and now to the talent of Billy Siegenfeld. This article will keep words brief and focus on video to introduce some of the variety of famous names in the history of jazz and tap dance before listing some Chicago companies you can explore.

Historical Figures in Tap Dance

As a boy, Bill Robinson observed traveling minstrel shows and copied aspects of their movement, eventually creating a unique dance style characterized by highly rhythmic, syncopated, and complex footwork that appeared effortless, carefree, and buoyant. He developed tap dance and soft-shoe routines (tap dances done in soft-soled shoes) in which he proved himself a master of improvisation, able to produce a seemingly unlimited range of percussive sounds. Bill Robinson was known for his skill and originality, and one of the first Black entertainers to achieve popularity among members of different races in the United States.

Bill Robinson Deleted Film Scene

Fred Astaire called the film clip below the finest tap routine ever caught on film. The Nicholas Brothers grew up in Philadelphia, the sons of musicians who played in their own band at the old Standard Theater, their mother at the piano and father on drums. Neither Fayard nor Harold had any formal dance training.

They became the featured act at Harlem's legendary Cotton Club in 1932, when Harold was 11 and Fayard was 18. They were the only entertainers in the African American cast allowed to mingle with white patrons.

In that exhilarating hybrid of tap dance, ballet and acrobatics, sometimes called acrobatic dancing or "flash dancing," no individual or group surpassed the effect that the Nicholas Brothers had on audiences and on other dancers. By 1940 they were in Hollywood and for several decades alternated between movies, nightclubs, concerts, Broadway, television, and extensive tours of Latin America, Africa, and Europe. The Nicholas brothers taught master classes in tap dance as teachers-in-residence at Harvard University and Radcliff as Ruth Page Visiting Artists.

Nicholas Brothers – “Stormy Weather” tap piece

Choreographer George Balanchine and ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev rated Fred Astaire the greatest dancer of the twentieth century – no small praise - and he is generally acknowledged to have been the most influential dancer in the history of film and television musicals. Astaire is credited with two important innovations in early film musicals. First, he insisted that the (almost stationary) camera film a dance routine in a single shot, if possible, while holding the dancers in full view at all times. Second, Astaire was adamant that all song and dance routines be seamlessly integrated into the plotlines of the film.

Fred Astaire: “Dancing with Props”

This famous film sequence of Gene Kelly dancing on a newspaper has always been a favorite of mine and one showing great talent and skill. This quote from him is a clear statement of his approach and commitment to the art of dance: "I don't believe in conformity to any school of dancing. I create what the drama and the music demand. While I am a hundred percent for ballet technique, I use only what I can adapt to my own use. I never let technique get in the way of mood or continuity."

Gene Kelly – “Summer Stock” (Newspaper Dance)

It would seem tap stars start young and their easy grace is long-earned. Gregory Hines, the son of a dancer, made his professional debut at the age of five, and spent much of his childhood backstage in theatres where he picked up lessons from, among others, Sandman Sims, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Harold Nicholas (whom Fred Astaire thought the most elegant dancer he had ever seen) and later Sammy Davis Jr., who became Hines's mentor.

Hines himself grew up to be an exceptionally graceful tapper, yet one always alive to the aural as well as visual possibilities of the form, using his feet to build jazzy, expressive rhythms of varying density and volume, all conjured from something as prosaic as the shifting of weight from one foot to the other.

This skill Hines employed in a series of Broadway shows that brought him four Tony nominations. Meanwhile, his campaign to increase recognition of tap was rewarded in 1998 by the creation of National Tap Day.

Hines vs. Hines

Historical Figures in Jazz Dance

Katherine Dunham revolutionized American dance in the 1930's by going to the roots of black dance and ritual and transforming them into significant artistic choreography that speaks to all. She is a pioneer in the use of folk and ethnic choreography; she is one of the founders of the anthropological dance movement. She showed the world that African American heritage is beautiful.

Dunham prepared herself by dancing and performing throughout her youth in Peoria, Illinois, by her graduate studies in social anthropology at the University of Chicago, and by living among the native in the West Indies.

Katherine Dunham Dance & Choreography

Jack Cole was an American dancer, choreographer, and theatre director known as the father of theatrical jazz dance. Cole virtually invented the idiom of American Show Dancing known as "Theater Dance." He developed an entirely personal mode of jazz-ethnic-ballet that prevails as the dominant look of and technique for dancing in today's musicals, films, nightclub revues, television commercials and music videos.

From Cole's modern training, he brought a low sense of gravity. The use of deep plié gives jazz its sense of power and explosiveness. From East Indian dancing, Cole borrowed a refined use of isolation. Today, isolations are an integral part of jazz classes. From the Lindy hoppers, he brought an intricate use of swing rhythm - syncopation. The use of knee slides and floor work came from Cole's acrobatic experience. These common traits are found in the jazz dance genes of today. And while we’re admiring his choreography, what’s wrong with adding Rita Hayworth to the mix?

Rita Hayworth piece choreographed by Jack Cole

Matt Mattox is a dancer-teacher-choreographer who has greatly affected the evolution of jazz dance in America and Europe. The Mattox movement style is an eclectic form that draws from the Cole style, modern dance, ethnic, flamenco, tap, and Mattox's own studies in ballet. It is based on Mattox's personal belief that all forms of dance are valid as inspiration and expression. Mattox has commented on his need for total freedom in expression by calling his style "freestyle".

His efforts as a teacher of jazz dance, however, are significant, for Mattox created a system of exercises to train jazz dancers during the embryonic stage of theatrical jazz dance. Although he was not the only teacher to do so, it is evident that his technique method was the most intricate and most clearly integrated the jazz dance concepts of isolation and propulsive rhythm.

Matt Mattox Choreography

Jerome Robbins is world renowned for his work as a choreographer of ballets as well as his work as a director and choreographer in theater, movies and television. His Broadway shows include On the Town, Billion Dollar Baby, High Button Shoes, West Side Story, The King and I, Gypsy, Peter Pan, Miss Liberty, Call Me Madam, and Fiddler on the Roof. His last Broadway production in 1989, Jerome Robbins= Broadway, won six Tony Awards including best musical and best director.

Among the more than 60 ballets he created are Fancy Free, Afternoon of a Faun, The Concert, Dances At a Gathering, In the Night, In G Major, Other Dances, Glass Pieces and Ives, Songs, which are in the repertories of New York City Ballet and other major dance companies throughout the world. His last ballets include A Suite of Dances created for Mikhail Baryshnikov (1994), 2 & 3 Part Inventions (1994), West Side Story Suite (1995) and Brandenburg (1996).

Rita Moreno on Jerome Robbins

Preview of “West Side Story the Movie” (Jerome Robbins)

As an artist, Bob Fosse was known for his thoroughly modern style, a signature one could never mistake for anyone else's. Snapping fingers are omnipresent, so are rakishly tilted bowler hats. Both hip and shoulder rolls appear frequently, as do backward exits. Swiveling hips and strutting predominate, as do white-gloved, single-handed gestures. Fosse himself often called the en masse amalgamation of these moves the "amoeba," and that word as much as any describes his particular style, one at once fluid and angular. Fosse said that: “The time to sing is when your emotional level is too high to just speak anymore, and the time to dance is when your emotions are just too strong to only sing about how you feel.”

Bob Fosse Dancing His Own Choreography in a Movie (1955 film, "My Sister Eileen”)