Hoofers, or tap dancers, have been part of Broadway, West End, and musical theatre for a very long time. Put on your tap shoes and join me as we shuffle and flap our way through a few famous shows and performers that used tap dance!

Pre-Tap
Tap dance per-se, with metal taps shoes did not exist until the early 1900’s, but forms of tap dance were used before then in musicals. The 1866 show “The Black Crook“, considered by many to be the first real musical, used forms of clogging and minstrel dancing. Ned Wayburn, a famous choreographer of the early 1900’s, is credited with the first commercial use of the phrase “tap dance”, in a musical in 1902.

George M. Cohan
George Cohan marked a turning point in musical theatre. He was a vaudeville performer, and was one of the first men to do any substantial dancing in a musical, as up until then most dancing was done by women. Cohan’s breakthrough musical was Little Johnny Jones (1904), which he wrote and starred in. It was this musical that contained his hits “Give My Regards To Broadway” and “I’m A Yankee Doodle Dandy”. The songs were great, but it was Cohan’s dancing that made the show and many of his subsequent hits.

Fred Astair And Ginger Rogers
Easily the most well-known tap dancing duo in musical history, Fred and Ginger got their start in Flying Down to Rio (1933), right during the “Golden Age Of Musicals”. Fred And Ginger made a total of 10 musicals together, including The Gay Divorcee, Roberta, Top Hat, Follow the Fleet, Swing Time, Shall We Dance, and Carefree. Fred and Ginger each made films without the other, also. Fred could also play piano, apparently.

Fred Astair had a eclectic dance style, which including tap, ballet, and other forms. He was (and still is) known for his grace and lightness on his feet during dance numbers. One of his most famous dance scenes was his “dance on the ceiling routine”, which (unfortunately) was not a tap dance:

Ginger was also an excellent dancer - according to her fans, she did everything Fred did, just in high heels and backwards.

One of their Fred’s most well-known movies was Top-Hat, which did contain some great tap dancing:

The Little Colonel (1935)
While not actually a musical, this movie featured the famous “up-the-stairs” tap dance by Bojangles Robinson and Shirley Temple:

Anything Goes (1935)
This musical tells the story of what happens belowdecks on a cruise ship headed from New York to London. The characters range from GI’s to gang members to evangelists. Here is a video clip of Patti Lupone and the Broadway revival cast performing the title song from Anything Goes on the Tony Awards:

Gene Kelly
Probably best known for his role in Singin’ In The Rain, Gene Kelly was a talented tap dancer, and tap danced in many of his movies. Another of Gene’s well known musicals was Anchors Aweigh, which he co-starred with Frank Sinatra in. A lesser known, but still wonderful musical with Gene at the front was Brigadoon, which had some great hoofing, plus some super scottish/irish dancing.

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
This musical tells the story of George M. Cohan, and includes “clips” from many of his musicals including the songs “Give My Regards To Broadway”, “I’m A Yankee Doodle Dandy”, “45 Minutes From Broadway” and others. It also includes several great tap numbers. James Cagney shines as an actor and dancer in this film.

Ziegfeld Follies (1946)
The Ziegfeld Follies was a film based on the series of Broadway shows called by the same name. The film was full of top talent, including both Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. In fact, they did a tap dance number together in the film:

The Lullaby Of Broadway
This movie musical, made in 1951, starred Doris Day, has no lack of tap dancing in it. The musical tells the story of the pretty singer Melinda Howard, her alcoholic mother (who is hiding from her), a kind Broadway show producer, and a romantic young tap dancer.

It Was The Hey-Day Of Tap
Tap Dance arguably saw it’s peak in musicals during the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, when stars such as Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, (see a comparison of Gene and Fred) Ginger Rogers, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Ginger Rogers, and Eleanor Powell hoofed their way onto the screens of America. Never since have there been big movie stars like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers who it seems tap dance in almost every movie they make.

But recent years have seen some powerful tap dancing shows, too…I’ll highlight some of those in part two of this post…

Resources

• Buy Fred Astaire Musicals On DVD
• Buy Yankee Doodle Dandy (Two-Disc Special Edition)
• Buy Singin’ in the Rain (Two-Disc Special Edition)
• Buy The Lullaby of Broadway On DVD

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