Are tap dancers musicians?

[Haydnseek]

Pardon me for wasting forum space, but I was watching an Eleanor Powell movie from 1941 this evening and it occured to me that a performer like Powell or Bill Robinson was as much a percussionist as a dancer. The tap patterns are fascinating to hear even if you don't watch the dancing. Should we honor such talents as musicians and not just dancers?

[Ralph]

I think they are. Fred Astaire, Ray Bolger, Gene Kelly - they were musicians to me.

[Auntie Lynn]

Musicality is a critical component of and for the professional dancer. If you don't have it in my biz, you will find yourself all alone out on Franklin Street with no contract...

BTW, Sauvion Glover is coming to town with a classical program. Don't know what that involves but will checkitout...

[GK]

I could tap-dance my way around this question but I never regarded any dancers as musicians. To me they are reactors to music rather than performers of music.

[pizza]

Morton Gould wrote a Concerto for Tap Dancer and Orchestra.

[Gary]

To me they are reactors to music rather than performers of music.

I would agree with that statement generally. Tap dancing seems to be a special case, however, as the taps enrich the music more than they do the choreography. So a tap dancer is partly a musician.

Morton Gould wrote a Concerto for Tap Dancer and Orchestra.

Here's something similar--George Antheil's ballet Capital of the World.





(Excerpts only)
Ballet Theatre Orch/Joseph Levine, cond.
EMI 66548 (M) (ADD) TT: 71:38


From the liner notes

A unique feature of this recording--a feature conceived by the composer as an integral part of the music--is the actual sound of Spanish [flamenco] dancing created by Roy Fitzell, a principal male dancer in Ballet Theatre's premiere performances of The Capital of the World.

Unfortunately, the Centaur label's complete recording of this work does not include the flamenco dancing.

[Haydnseek]

Tap dancing seems to be a special case, however, as the taps enrich the music more than they do the choreography. So a tap dancer is partly a musician.

Dancers who are real specialists in tap seem to place as much emphasis on the sounds they produce as the visual display of their movements - maybe more. In the movie “Lady Be Good” there is a long sequence in the number “Fascinating Rhythm” that features Eleanor Powell dancing to the music of boogie-woogie piano (I believe the two pianists are Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis no less.) Her complex tapping is really a percussionist’s solo to a piano accompaniment and her dance movements are minimal. In “The Littlest Rebel” there is a number in which the taps of Bill Robinson and Shirley Temple are the music entirely. So, I think a certain type of tap dancer is just as much a musician as a dancer.

[jbuck919]

I hope everybody knows that all tap dancers required Foley artists to re-do the tap sound on the sound track. This does allow for a certain license. However, I would not wish to demean the artistic accomplishments of Bill Robinson and many others, and consider it irrelevant whether or not we call them musicians.

Gene Kelly always did his own Foley, just as he always did his own stunts.

[Corlyss_D]

Should we honor such talents as musicians and not just dancers?

Are there more props for being recognized as a musician than a dancer?

[Gary]

Here's another example of tap dancing adding to the music. In Frederick Ashton's ballet La Fille mal gardee there's a famous "clog dance". Sorry, can't find a picture of this that I can link to.

[Corlyss_D]

Crimeny! Someone who knows who Frederick Ashton is!

[GK]

On second thought I agree that tap-dancing is a special case. It could be considered a form of percussion.

[Gary]

Here's another example of tap dancing adding to the music. In Frederick Ashton's ballet La Fille mal gardee there's a famous "clog dance". Sorry, can't find a picture of this that I can link to.

Finally found one.