Informative Essay on Tap Dancing – Free Essay Example

Tap (1989) shows that one of the most foundational concepts that make tap dancing is that it is all about listening for the rhythm-listening, not because there are distinct beats and rhythms to be found in any seemingly chaotic combination of sound in life, from water dripping, streetcars, to construction noise. As seen through the film’s protagonist Max Washington, the idea of listening for the rhythm comprises acts of finding the rhythm in the immediate surrounding, transferring it to one’s steps, and focusing one’s energy on following the sound so as not to lose the beat in one’s moves. Since tap dancing relies a good deal on the ability to catch and follow the rhythm, it is very important that one becomes adept at seeking out the rhythms even in the most mundane setting and practices dancing along with them. A good tap dancer makes a habit of incorporating rhythms found in everyday life into their tap routines, to the point that hearing rhythm becomes a reflex that is possible even without conscious effort of the mind.

Bringing in rock and roll, the movie makes a point about how to tap dancers must not only follow the music alone but also be part of creating it. Unlike other forms of dancing that are performed solely on the basis of the tunes, tap dancing brings the tunes to another level, enhancing the listening experience by adding music to the tunes that already exist. It is precisely due to this nature of tap dancers being a form of instrument themselves that rock and tap dance did not go well together-since rock and roll drowned out the tap shoes’ percussions at least not until better, more well-suited shoes were developed.

Save your time!
We can take care of your essay

• Proper editing and formatting
• Free revision, title page, and bibliography
• Flexible prices and money-back guarantee

Place Order

Furthermore, the movie shows that one central aspect of tap dancing is that moves are hardly ever completely unique, for tap dancers are perpetually involved in the process of stealing and trading others’ steps and mixing them with their own styles. While there are a few who would invent new steps, as time goes by it becomes difficult to come up with steps that are not based on moves already executed by dancers from before. That being said, to watch and learn and selectively incorporate others’ moves into one’s style of dancing would be enough to make it count as (relatively) original, making tap a constantly evolving dancing art form.

Through Little Mo and Max’s reunion in Tap (1989), it can be seen that competition and challenge form a prominent part of tap dancing. Normally incited by a dare, two or more dancers would gather together for showdown wherein one would compete and try to outplay the other through skills, styles, and taunts by sometimes stealing each other’s step before evolving it. Besides working as a means of self-expression and showing off their stunts to the audience, these heated yet ‘friendly’ competitions are also educational experiences to the tap dancers as they would learn more dance moves from others that would evolve theirs.

Last but not least, the movie taps into the concept of dancing as tap dancers vs. dancing as hoofers through the contrast between the Broadway musical company and Little Mo’s dancing buddies. Whereas tap dancers focus on arm movement and sometimes are concerned with doing it like everyone else with a certain set of predefined tunes and movements, hoofers are all about freedom. Some even distinguish the two by saying tap dancers see tap dancing as a profession, while hoofers make it their way of life. For instance, tap dancers perform orderly in a designated environment with music written for them, whereas hoofers listen for rhythms in their surrounding environment and can dance to their hearts’ content anywhere with moves seemingly random but are in fact well organized and clean from years of practice.