How the Introduction of Film Influenced the Development of 20th Century Tap Dance - Essay Example

Film’s Influence on Tap Dance The introduction of film into the modern society had a tremendous impact upon the way we live our lives, gather information, view others and entertain ourselves. More than something that plays out specifically within the darkened theater, this phenomenon has expanded far beyond the boundaries of the movie house to incorporate several aspects of life, changing the way we do things even as it changes the way we think about things. This radical new invention had a profound effect on the development of the art of tap dance. Before the advent of film, tap dance was among the amalgamation of improvisational dances that were routinely performed on street corners and back alleys as an inexpensive form of entertainment. Occasionally, dancers would make it into a vaudeville act and go on the road, but tap dance as an art form in its own right wasn’t really recognized until the introduction of film brought it out to the world. Yet even this introduction has been an evolving process. “Throughout its history, tap dancing has been portrayed as a happy, carefree form of movement. Movies and theater classically depict the smiling tap dancer as ‘footloose and fancy-free’, without a worry in the world, a free spirit having an enjoyable time, jovial to the point of lacking any seriousness.” (Marx, 1983, p. 4). Responsible for its reputation as a purely carefree expression of movement, film is also credited with bringing the artists of the field into the open, allowing them to demonstrate their talent and providing the necessary medium to continue its growth and development. Today, jazz dance is an amalgamation of various different dance styles that have evolved through these great dancers of the film industry. This close relationship with the film industry enables us to track, through film, the growth pattern of tap dance from its emergence as a dance style in the early 1900s through its popularity as a major movement through the mid-90s to its current incarnation as jazz dance. Tap dance traces its roots back to the introduction of the African culture on the North American continent. Minstrels, wandering musicians and entertainers that roamed the country in its early days, introduced the sounds and rhythms of the various cultures that had gathered in America in their development of ragtime and the combination of several forms of step dancing to create tap dance. “Created by southern blacks, ragtime was set in 2/4 time and featured a persistent syncopation in the melody line” (Marx, 1983, p. 124). This rhythm led to the development of a number of new dances, leading to a tremendous dance craze that swept the country, inventing dances such as the Fox Trot, the Charleston, the Blackbottom, the Lindy and the Rumba. These dances, focused around the jazz music of the age, continued to be improvised upon, leading more and more to the development of tap dance as a genre. The minstrels gave way to the family acts of vaudeville toward the end of the 1800s, further leading to the development of tap. “In vaudeville, tap dancing continued to develop and grow, producing several of the classic routines and flash steps, as well as some of the finest tap-dancers” (Marx, 1983, p. 76). It was in vaudeville that one of tap’s first film dancers received his start. Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson danced in vaudeville for almost thirty years, became Broadway’s first black dancing star and brought his art form to film in 1932 when he performed his stair dance with the child Shirley Temple in the film Little Colonel. Many of the early vaudeville dancers made the connection with film. Like Bojangles, they each brought their own style and vision to the music included in these productions, working in various ways with the unique challenges film brought to the art as opposed to working in the theater. The relationship between film and tap dance was established very early. The very first silent film, produced in September of 1903, was a 14 minute rendition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a popular story of the time. Although the film is completely silent, it includes the portrayal of tap dance on several occasions, both emphasizing how important dance was to the African culture as well as introducing it as a form of highly enjoyable entertainment, celebration and escape from deplorable conditions. Characters can be seen dancing when the ship comes into shore, when the master returns to his home and even when the slaves are waiting around to be sold following their master’s death (Railton, 2005). The next inclusion of jazz into film appeared with one of the first films featuring audio sound, the 1927 Al Jolson movie, The Jazz Singer. The popularity of this film further brought dance, and its free-wheeling, improvisational jazz association to the forefront of audience attention, imbuing the dance form with an energy and vivaciousness that blended perfectly with the movement of the swinging 1920s and ‘30s. “The first ‘talkie’ to include tap dance was Hollywood Revue of 1929, starring Joan Crawford” (Marx, 1983, p. 92). Having just entered into the world of the sound film, MGM Studios envisioned this film as a throw-back tribute to the vaudeville days. As such, it included much of the dance that had been seen on stage, including a great deal of tap as it had been developed thus far, including elements from the Irish, African and Russian camps as well as several others. Despite its inclusion in early film, though, and their origination on the Broadway stage to great acclaim, these early movies failed to adequately convey the energy and excitement that is what tap dance is all about. This is where Busby Berkeley entered the scene, transforming the way dance was portrayed in the movies that effectively captured this elusive aspect. When Berkeley went to work in Hollywood, he discovered a break down in vision between the various individuals who determined how dance numbers would be filmed. According to Lynn Dougherty, musicals at that time were made by having the dance director train and stage the dances while the director determined the camera positions and the editor decided which takes would be included in the final cut. “Berkeley wanted to direct the dances himself and convinced the producer Samuel Goldwyn to let him. One of the first decisions he made, was to use only one camera – he never used more in his films – and to show close-ups of the chorus girls” (Dougherty, 2006). His style was classified by the use of elaborate sets built to a grand scale and the use of sometimes hundreds of dancers, all tapping their way through the numbers with stunning sound and energy. It was through his vision that Hollywood learned how to film dancing in such a way as to present the emotional content involved in each piece. As early as 1931 with the film Whoopee!, Berkeley was the first choreographer who used the camera to take advantage of the geometric patterns being worked on stage by filming from above the stage looking down rather than focusing straight on as it had been done thus far. In addition, he introduced “the priapic tracking shot which went through the spread legs of chorus girls” (Dougherty, 2006). The incredible success of 42nd Street launched Berkeley’s career and helped associate tap dance with the street-wise and modern day rebels of the age. The scantily or tightly clad chorus girls worked to emphasize the sex appeal of the film, making it a further hit with the young men of the age and providing young women with a sense of the excitement and adventure that tap dance might provide them. This new way of depicting the excitement of the dance, as well as its sudden appeal with the younger set, worked to attract several of the Broadway and former vaudeville stars to the Hollywood hills. One of the vaudeville stars to successfully make the transition to film was Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson thanks to his Broadway popularity with white audiences. Although he almost invariably played parts akin to the antebellum butler of Shirley Temple films such as The Littlest Colonel, The Littlest Rebel and the Will Rogers film In Old Kentucky, Bojangles was able to insinuate his own easy style of tap into the field, not overshadowing but providing an alternative to the feverish energy of the dances that were popular in the 1930s. “Audiences enjoyed his style, which eschewed the frenetic manner of the jitterbug. In contrast, Robinson always remained cool and reserved, rarely using his upper body and depending on his busy, inventive feet and his expressive face” (Corr, 2004). As a result, the relaxed and little-moving upper body conveyed a sense of ease and relaxation in Bojangles’ dance, making audiences feel this was a simple yet incredibly enjoyable exercise. His more advanced age, having already reached age 50 before seeing his success on Broadway, made the dance appealing to the older set while his partnership with the very young Shirley Temple made it an attractive activity for the younger set. His famous stair dance emphasized his innovation of bringing the dance up onto the toes as well as encouraged others to experiment with their own innovations. His relaxed attitude, coining the phrase ‘everything is copasetic’, further helped encourage others to experiment with the dance form. “He explained this extraordinary versatility – he once danced for more than an hour before a dancing class without repeating a step – by insisting that his feet responded directly to the music, his head having nothing to do with it” (Corr, 2004). Another great early innovator was Fred Astaire. Although much of his early experience was influenced by ballroom dancing techniques, Astaire “reportedly was influenced by ballroom dancers Vernon and Irene Castle. He proceeded to combine the modes of tap, jazz, ballroom and ballet into what he called his ‘outlaw’ style” (Marx, 1983, p. 93). Astaire took the lessons the Castles taught the American public a few decades earlier and brought them to the silver screen. “The Castles popularized many innovative dances, and their talents and public attitudes made them perfect symbols for the new generation. The public, accustomed to well-padded and stiff standards of personal appearance and carriage, found them exotically slim and ‘chic’” while “the Establishment, seeing in them an opportunity to promote the right and ‘proper’ model for social dancing, quickly crowned the Castles the media darlings of the 1910s” (Benjamin, 1999). Like Berkeley, Astaire spent a lot of time analyzing the various ways in which dance could be captured on film and worked endlessly to more accurately portray the energy, emotion and elegance of the dance numbers being performed. Like Bojangles, it was inconceivable to Astaire to have someone else create the sounds of his dancing feet in his dances, a common practice in most films created during this period. In many of these performances, Astaire choreographed the dances himself, lending tap dance both his charm and grace as well as his rebel attitude and innovative techniques and allowing this form of dance to become the new dance of the upwardly mobile man about town as well as allowing it to remain the dance style of the average boy down on the street corners. Having had the advantage of working with Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly was another innovator in the world of tap dance during the 1940s. Much like Bojangles, Kelly began his dancing career on the vaudeville stage, having danced for several years as a part of an act that included his four brothers and sisters. His screen debut was made in the film For Me And My Gal in 1942. At this time, tap dance and dancing in films was generally on the decline. The excitement of the 1930s had waned with the opening of a new war and dancing was somehow almost too frivolous for the serious events happening around the world. “Kelly revived the movie musical and redefined dance on screen, bringing with him an inspired sensibility and an original vitality. His choreography and his performances were relaxed but compelling, innovative but highly accessible and, ultimately, magical” (“Gene Kelly”, n.d.). Much like Astaire, Kelly was a perfectionist who constantly worked to both perfect his dance techniques, innovations and to improve the way in which dance was portrayed on screen. “His careful organization and arrangement of movement, using all forms of dance and acrobatics, evolved into a unique style. His personality was a significant factor in his films, and he often portrayed a rather brash ‘All-American’ type of guy” (Marx, 1983, p. 119). In addition, Kelly participated in and encouraged the use of new filming techniques that would add to the excitement and visual appeal of on-screen dancing. “His landmark ‘alter ego’ sequence, in which he partnered with himself, brought film dance to a new level of special effects. With Stanley Donen as his assistant, Kelly created a sense of the psychological and integrated story telling never before seen in a Hollywood musical” (“Gene Kelly”, n.d.). With all the combinations, innovations and influences that were being brought in to the more traditional forms of tap dance, the style took on a new persona in the catch-all title of jazz dance, but this wasn’t enough to keep it at the forefront of feature films. As Hollywood began exploring other genres and the attention of the country became focused less upon dance and more upon passive observation of films, the innovations occurring within the field began to slow down. However, new actors entering the field refused to allow the art form to fade away completely, quickly pointing out their influences and the impact these early film dancers had upon their own development. One of the more popular dancers of recent films, Gregory Hines, attributes a great deal of his influence to the Nicholas Brothers, who made one of their more lasting appearances in Stormy Weather. “From the time my brother Maurice and I began dancing as kids, we idolized the Nicholas Brothers. … Better to aspire to reinventing the tap shoe … Because we will never ever see the likes of the Nicholas Brothers … dancing on any stage or screen or in person again. The dances they did. The moves they made. The pictures they painted” (Hines cited in Hill, 2000, p. xi). However, by combining his acting talents with his dancing abilities, it is partially thanks to Hines that modern cinema-goers have an idea of what the jazz dancers of previous eras had to offer. Featured in several films such as White Nights, The Cotton Club, Waiting to Exhale and Running Scared as well as several television appearances on American programs, Hines is still remembered more as a dancer than an actor. “Fast or slow, smooth or snazzy, he moved with evocative perfection. It was a talent he was born with” (Byrne, 2003). The development of jazz dance as it progressed from Bojangles through the Nicholas Brothers and Fred Astaire can be traced through the constantly smooth and fluid motions of Hines’ performances, whether intended for the big screen or a quick number danced on a boardroom table for a tv sitcom. In addition, Hines worked to produce materials that chronicled the development of his dance form in a way that had not been accomplished before. This included his participation in the television docudrama “Bojangles” and the filming of a PBS musical special entitled “Gregory Hines: Tap Dance in America” filmed in 1989. Like his predecessors, Hines’ work has inspired future dancers such as Savion Glover. Another participant in the struggle to keep the jazz dance history alive and active into the future is Brenda Bufalino. Having studied from the time she was four and her ability to work both at Stanley Brown’s studio and with Honi Coles in New York provided Bufalino with a well-rounded background in the various styles and types of jazz dance performed today. However, she experienced the same limited availability of work in her chosen style. “She was compelled to perform in other dance mediums, particularly Afro-Cuban and avant garde jazz. Early in the seventies, however, when few people were talking about tap, Brenda brought her old black cloth tap shoes to the dance studio and began to pass the art on to several young enthusiasts” (Marx, 1983, p. 85). Although she had never envisioned herself as an instructor of any kind, Bufalino recognized the declining availability as reflecting a decline in the number of talented dancers available and a lack of recognition in the greater viewing public for the amount of skill and emotion involved in this dance style. This realization led her to participate in a public awareness campaign in the form of a documentary. “Along with Dorothy Anderson and several others, Brenda produced and directed the video documentary called ‘Great Feats of Feet’ in 1975. The tape recounts the dance experiences of the famous Copasetics. In the documentary, several well-known routines are performed, and there are touching interviews that reveal the ups and downs of the careers of each dancer” (Marx, 1983, p. 85). The Copasetics was comprised of 21 original members including, Cholly Atkins, Peg Leg Bates, Paul Black, Roy Branker, Ernest Brown, Honi Coles, Chink Collins, Charles Cook, Emory Evans, Frank & Francis Goldberg, Milton Larkin, LeRoy Myers, Pete Nugent, Luther Preston, Phace Roberts, Billy Strayhorn, John E. Thomas, James Walker, Elmer Waters and Eddie West. Although step dancing had been a popular form of folk dance for a variety of peoples spanning from the Isle of Ireland to the African continent, it wasn’t until these cultures began blending together in America that these forms of expression began to meld. With the advent of the traveling minstrels, these art forms became more mingled until they finally appeared on the vaudeville stages as the recognized dance genre called tap dance. The popularity of this type of dance gained its entrance to the Broadway stage and from there to the Hollywood hills for inclusion on the silver screen. Although tap dance was an early part of even the first films produced, these dances lacked the life of the live performances and it required the interference of choreographer and director Busby Berkeley to begin the necessary explorations in how to capture these elements on film before the audience began to catch some of the excitement. These innovations in camera usage also helped to encourage further exploration into the various styles and expressions that could be portrayed, leading to ever increasing inclusions and experimentation. Bojangles introduced the innovation of dancing on the toes while Fred Astaire combined the graceful elegance of Vernon and Irene Castle’s ballroom dancing with his own suave handling of the tap dance moves. Other dancers such as Gene Kelly and the Nicholas Brothers picked up the baton from there, carrying tap dance into the 1940s and 50s by increasingly including innovations such as acrobatics and rhythmic brilliance and helping the genre evolve into an early form of its current incarnation of jazz dance. This tradition was carried forward by such forward-thinker performers as Brenda Bufalino and Gregory Hines, who each demonstrated their talent for the dance and took the time and effort to both teach others their techniques as well as to document the history of the dance and the principle players in its development. References Benjamin, Rick. (1999). “Irene and Vernon Castle: Dancers.” Paragon Ragtime Orchestra. Retrieved 13 July, 2006 from Byrne, Bridget. (10 August, 2003). “Tap Star Gregory Hines Dies.” E! Entertainment Television. Retrieved 14 July, 2006 from Corr, Paul. (13 December, 2004). “Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson.” International Tap Association. Retrieved 12 July, 2006 from < http://www.tapdance.org/tap/people/bojangle.htm> Dougherty, Lynn. (1 January, 2006). Busby Berkeley. Classic Movie Favorites. Retrieved 8 July, 2006 from < http://www.classicmoviefavorites.com/berkeley> “Gene Kelly.” (n.d.). American Masters. PBS. Retrieved 14 July, 2006 from Hill, Constance Valis. (2000). Brotherhood in Rhythm. New York: Oxford University Press. Marx, Trina. (1983). Tap Dance: A Beginner’s Guide. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Railton, Stephen. (2005). “The First Uncle Tom’s Cabin Film: Edison-Porter’s Slavery Days (1903).” Uncle Tom’s Cabin and American Culture. The University of Virginia. Retrieved 8 July, 2006 from Read More