Happy St. Patrick's Day, 2001!
It's another fine day to celebrate the Irish contributions in our lives!
Tap Dancing And The Irish!
Does anyone else enjoy, or at least appreciate, the skill and natural timing involved in good tap dancing? The 1st time that I remember seeing it was in an old Shirley Temple movie, and then, after that, many more old movies! And at that time, some of the best tap dancing, in my young opinion, was done by African American's, who made it come alive!
(I wasn't nearly as impressed when my sister took tap dancing at age 6! *wink*)
So, naturally, I didn't question the origin of tap dancing. In my mind it was something from thin air, and perfected by the African American's in the 1920's and 1930's, and we were just fortunate that there were movies for us to enjoy them from! (How's that for a simplistic child's view? ;)
But that nagging question of the "thin air" part, started to enter my mind as I grew older. I can't help it, I have a curious nature, I want to know "why" things are as they are! Well, I found my answer, and it was in my very own blood!
Apparantly it was a mix of 2 cultures. The West African's that were here, and the Irish immigrants.
This began in the late 18th century. The Irish immigrants often traveled through the South. I know this is correct as my own Irish ancestors, who arrived here in the 1740's, went the Southern route as did many others, as we can see from their ancestors still there, and hear from the music...but that's another story!
Naturally the Irish met up with the slaves, and the 2 had much more in common at the time than many realize. And one thing that they shared was an irrepressable nature based in pride, sense of history, and entertainment. Neither culture was about to be "kept down" easily, or for long. So they shared their styles of dance, and began to meld their choreography.
The Irish jig was melded with the African shuffle and slide ~ and what we know today as tap dancing, was born!
But it really all came together with 2 of the greatest 19th century dancers.
One was a free-born African American, who is considered the father of tap dancing, named William Henry Lane, aka Master Juba, born in 1825; the other was an Irish clog dancer named, Jack Diamond. The 2 met in competition in saloons, and developed a style that evolved, step by step, over time.
Irish dancing uses much fancy footwork and natural timing, but there is no use of the arms, classically. Arms are kept to the dancer's sides. The African American contribution to tap dancing in that department was to add the upper body movement.
Thus, we have something that we all take for granted today. And we can chalk up another contribution, buried in the murky depths of history, but now uncovered, to the Irish, and their irrepressable nature's and friends!