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National Tap Dance Day: May 25th

When it's time, don't forget to check the May section of the Tap Event Calendar for performances and celebrations in your area. Around that date, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is available to work with tap studios for special events.

Tap Dance Day Ideas

Carol Vaughn of the Tap America Project wrote an article called "Seize the Day: Tips for Tap Dance Day" for the ITA Newsletter in January 1996 which included an extensive tip sheet for those looking to create a Tap Dance Day event. Carol has graciously permitted me to post it on the Tap Dance Homepage site. Check out a copy of the article online.

Here are some additional ideas related to celebrating Tap Dance Day, May 25th. A US legislative resolution (included below) designating National Tap Dance Day here in the US passed Congress making it so a few years ago. May 25th was chosen because it is Bill "Bojangles" Robinson's birthday. Many of the larger (and not so large) cities have tap dance performances to coincide with this date. They may be listed in the ITA event calendar.

A tap studio or company could have representatives teach the Shim Sham Shimmy to passers-by in a downtown area or mall at lunch or dinnertime. Swing Dance clubs often include the Shim Sham at their dances and workshop weekends. Maybe you could hook up with a local Swing Dance group for an event. Rusty Frank (contact information) has a video that teaches the Shim Sham with Freeze Chorus and another variation called the Shim Sham II. Henry LeTang's Tap Dance for Beginners video also covers the Shim Sham. I have these Shim Sham steps notated online. [Note: the steps are a bit easier for non-tappers in Rusty's video and are closer to the swing dancer version.]

It would be appropriate to have the local PBS station celebrate the day and demonstrate the richness of public television by showing rare movies, like "Stormy Weather", the Honi Coles video, "Peg Leg Bates: The Dancing Man" and others. There are several movies listed in Rusty Frank's book "Tap! The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and Their Stories" that I would love to see. They can't be found at the local video outlet.

There are also tap videos including a PBS Dance In America special hosted by Gregory Hines featuring the leading lights of tap today. The Philadelphia station WHYY has a five minute short featuring local tap master LaVaughn Robinson also. Other cities may have similar resources.

On commercial TV, I have seen a public service announcement (or advertisement, it's hard to define some of these things) for Einstein Hospital in Phila. which touted the advantages of exercise in later years using Howard "Sandman" Simms tap dancing. He finished with a half-split saying "I still got it!" There is also an Audi ad which has the narrator saying the Audi anti-lock brake system brakes "xxx times per second" which is followed by Savion Glover saying "Yeah but can it do this?" and doing some incredible combinations. There is also a short commercial for Sunsweet prunes where Bess Bair is tap dancing down a highway. Many other commercials feature tap dance also. I believe a PBS celebration of National Tap Dance Day can highlight the variety of tap and is an idea worth pursuing.

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Tap Day Bill

The passage of US Joint Resolution declaring May 25th National Tap Dance Day, was the result of hard work by Nicola Daval, Carol Vaughn and Linda Christensen of the Tap America Project. It was introduced and shepherded through the process by Congressman John Conyers and Senator Alfonse D'Amato and signed into law by President George Bush on November 7, 1989. {The next project for TAP is a commemorative stamp.}

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 131
Introduced by John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI)
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 53
Introduced by Alfonse D'Amato (R-NY)

TO DESIGNATE MAY 25 AS NATIONAL TAP DANCE DAY


Whereas
the multifaceted art form of tap dancing is a manifestation of the cultural heritage of our Nation, reflecting the fusion of African and European cultures into an exemplification of the American spirit, that should be, through documentation, and archival and performance support, transmitted to succeeding generations;

Whereas
tap dancing has had an historic and continuing influence on other genres of American art, including music, vaudeville, Broadway musical theater, and film, as well as other dance forms;

Whereas
tap dancing is a joyful and powerful aesthetic force providing a source of enjoyment and an outlet for creativity and self-expression for Americans on both the professional and amateur level;

Whereas
it is in the best interest of the people of our Nation to preserve, promote, and celebrate this uniquely American art form;

Whereas
Bill "Bojangles" Robinson made an outstanding contribution to the art of tap dancing on both stage and film through the unification of diverse stylistic and racial elements; and

Whereas
May 25, as the anniversary of the birth of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson is an appropriate day on which to refocus the attention of the Nation on American tap dancing: Now therefore, be it

Resolved
by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that May 25, 1989 is designated "National Tap Dance Day." The President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe such a day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

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