When did people first learn to tap dance

One of the most unique forms of dance in the entire world, tap dancing refers to that special dance where the sound of the shoe hitting the floor is used as an instrument and the music to which one is supposed to dance to. Thus, strange as it may seem, but tap dancing is also often considered a form of music. It seems as if there is a constant battle between the dance and the music industry over the true ownership of the art. When getting tap dance lessons, it is important to know the roots of this great art form and where it originally came from.

Unlike many other forms of dancing, tap dance is fairly new in the industry and was created by the influence of a number of different forms of dance that have greatly influenced tap dancing as it is known today. One can easily trace its roots back to the 1800s (specifically the mid-1800s) although the exact date of its emergence is not greatly known. It is known to be influenced by a number of different dance forms like step dancing (which is greatly popular in Ireland), the Juba dance and the English Lancashire Clog dancing – all predominantly western European influences. When people first started to learn to tap dance, these were the dance forms they looked up to.

In the 1800s, the minstrel shows were incredibly popular and that is where the first tap dance lessons seem to have come from. Well-known as Master Juba, William Henry Lane turn out to be amongst the small number of black artists to be a part of a mostly white minstrel company, and is commonly thought of as the greatest and most illustrious forerunners of tap dance. However, there came a time when the minstrel shows declined in popularity and were no longer as famous as they were a few years ago. However, tap dance did not die out fortunately. Instead, it moved to the much more popular and watched Vaudeville stage.

Like all dance forms, tap dance has also evolved and as more and more people began to learn to tap dance, they bought their own influences into the artful form of dancing. Many years later, in the 1930s tap dance emerged as a popular mixture of its old roots and Lindy hop – a widely popular dance form in the early decades of the nineties. "Flying swing outs" and "flying circles" are actually lindy hop steps that have been influenced by tap dance.

Later on, as the popularity of jazz started to grow and people started wanting more entertainment when it came to dance and music, the popularity of tap dancing greatly declined. Even though it did try to sustain its influence by merging some jazz steps into the well-known tap steps, I could not find its old popularity again.

However, even today, there are many people who want to learn this great art and for them, National Tap Dancing day is celebrated every year on the twenty-fifth of May in the united States of America – the country where tap dance is still somewhat popular.