I don’t think Mia Michaels was the only one to be blown away when So You Think You Can Dance Canada opened their Top 12 show with a tap routine. It was totally awesome and I’m sure inspired many to revisit their own childhood tap dancing days.

The name ‘tap’ comes from the sound a dancer’s shoes make due to metal plates attached to the ball and heel of the shoe. When a tap dancer’s shoes hit a hard surface, the plates create a percussive sound and dancer’s therefore can create their own ‘music’.

Influences of tap dancing come from far and wide: Irish stepdancing, African drum rythmns and possibly some West Indian hand clapping and drum rhythmns. Tap however, has continued to evolve since the1930s and beyond, when the best tap dancers crossed from American Vaudeville to cinema and television.

The basic root to tap is the frequent use of syncopation with choreography starting on t he eighth or first beatcount. Also important to tap is improvisation – with or without music. In the 1930s, tap dance combined with Lindy Hop to utilize upper body Lindy Hop moves with tap footwork. As popularity of dance styles changed in the 1950s, jazz music and tap dancing lost fans and a new style of jazz dance evolved - its antecedents came from tap – so there are many common elements between them.

Some of the tap legends of the past include Fred Astaire whose specialty was based on a ballroom look and style, while Gene Kelly’s ballet expertise gave him a broader base to incorporate into his routines. “Broadway style” tap grew out of this style and became popular in American culture through Broadway musicals, such as 42^nd Street.

While transcending gender and racial stereotypes, many of the best known tap dancers have been Afro-American men: Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson, Sammy Davis Jnr, Gregory Hines and Savion Glover. Hines’s starred in Tap, a film made in 1989, which to some extent, has helped regenerate interest in this sometimes, unappreciated form of dance.

While initially an American-specific dance style, tap has expanded geographically and can now be found in dance studios globally. Recently, Vancouver hosted Tap Rising: Canadians in Tap Conference and the 10^th Annual Vancouver International Tap Dance Festival. Tap dancing will likely be featured in the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics as the executive producer, David Atkins, created and performed in the most successful musical in Australian history, Hot Shoe Shuffle – and naturally, it’s all about tap!