ABOUT
TAPS
Yale's Premiere Club for Tap Dance
What is Taps?
Taps at Yale is a 25 year-old Yale University student organization committed to celebrating and performing tap dance. Our group members work to continue the American tradition of tap, which is rooted in Black life and culture. We are an energetic, passionate, enthusiastic, and joyful group of dancers. Members range from first-years to grad students - any Yale University student is invited to audition and join.
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At the end of each semester, Taps puts on an entirely student-choreographed performance to showcase the pieces that have been created over the semester. Anyone can be a choreographer! Whether it's your first time choreographing, or you're a seasoned professional, all are welcome to pitch a dance at the beginning of the semester - and you can co-choreograph with a friend!
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Taps members also have the opportunity to learn some of the more technical aspects of theater. Members can learn how to light dances, can select costumes, and must take part in set-up and strike of the theater before and after every show.
Photos from our Fall 2019 show, "Tap Street Boys"
What is Tap Dance?
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Tap dance is a Black American dance genre that evolved over a period of about 400 years. When Africans were enslaved in America, communication methods included speaking, singing, using horns, and drums. However, after the Stono Rebellion of 1739, a new slave code was passed in 1740 barring enslaved people from using drums for fear that the sound might ignite a revolution. They were also told not to verbally communicate, lest they plot an escape. As a result, they created a new form of communication using rhythms and their feet. Disguised as a dance, tap dance as we know it today in its earliest form was actually a language! Many scholars believe this development originated in New Orleans. As a result, tap and jazz music were born and raised together in the American south, and today, you can still find young Black people performing on streets with homemade tin-can tap shoes.
Negro Act of 1740 | Credit: teachingushistory.org
William Henry Lane, or "Master Juba" is credited with fathering modern tap dance in the Five Points district of Manhattan in the mid-1840s. He was the first African American dancer to tour with an all-white minstrel group, and is credited with allowing tap dance to retain its Black roots. As time progressed, more Black tap dancers emerged on the scene, like Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. He was one of the only Black tap dancers to appear in mainstream Hollywood films - but his roles were limited to that of a butler or another subservient role. Because of historical under-representation of Black people in the performing arts sector, most of the "famous" tap dancers the average American can name are white dancers: Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Eleanor Powell, and Ginger Rogers, among others.
Bill "Bojangles" Robinson | Credit:
National Jazz Museum in Harlem
Tap dance has made its way through minstrel shows, Hollywood, Vaudeville, and Broadway. Many incorrectly believe that tap dance is a dying art form, but this could not be further from the truth. Tap dance artists like Chloe Arnold and her Syncopated Ladies are being reposted by Beyonce; Michelle Dorrance has won a MacArthur "Genius" Grant for her innovative choreography; artists like Jason Samuels Smith, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, and Derick K. Grant are receiving rave reviews in the NY Times; global tap dance festivals are increasing in popularity; and more and more tap dance artists are emerging in the American entertainment industry daily.
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Taps at Yale is proud to continue this storied legacy.
*above history paraphrased from the Library of Congress
Previous Show Posters from Fall 2018 and Spring 2019