Editing Tap dance (section)

== Segregation's impact ==
During the 1930s and the 1940s, Americans were able to watch tap dancers perform on film.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Tap Dance in America: A Short History |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200217630/ |access-date=2022-11-29 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}</ref> However, Black tap dancers found it difficult to be a part of these White films because [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregation]] was prominent in America.<ref name=":1" /> This led to the creation of two different styles of tap dance: White tap dancers formed a Broadway style and Black dancers continued to evolve with the traditional rhythm based style.<ref name=":1" /> Broadway tap dance was performed in mainly Broadway musicals and film, and it did not emphasize classic jazz rhythms.<ref name=":1" /> Rhythm tap integrated more of the classic African roots of tap dance, and it emphasized jazz rhythms, musicality, and improvisation.<ref name=":1" />  [[Musicality]] is the dancer's understanding of the music they are performing to. Improvisation is where a dancer makes up the movement as they perform, and the choreography is not prepared beforehand.

There was also the "two-color rule," which made sure that black tap dancers were not able to perform solos onstage.<ref name=":02">{{Cite news |date=2001-02-02 |title='Bojangles' salutes tap dancer who broke race barriers |work=Christian Science Monitor |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/2001/0202/p18s2.html |access-date=2022-11-28 |issn=0882-7729}}</ref> This led to some tap dancers performing comedic tap duets. There were stereotypes placed on black Americans such as the "Uncle Tom" stereotype, and many tap dancers were forced to wear "[[Blackface|black-face]]" onstage to perform.<ref name=":02" /> One of the first black tap dancers to be acknowledged by America was [[Bill Robinson|Bill "Bojangles" Robinson]], who performed duets with [[Shirley Temple]].<ref name=":02" /> However, Bill Robinson's career was reduced to "minstrelsy," which can be defined as White performers using makeup to mock black culture or using black stereotypes in a performance.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=DURKIN |first=HANNAH |date=2010 |title="TAP DANCING ON THE RACIAL BOUNDARY": RACIAL REPRESENTATION AND ARTISTIC EXPERIMENTATION IN BILL "BOJANGLES" ROBINSON'S STORMY WEATHER PERFORMANCE |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26234258 |journal=IJAS Online |issue=2 |pages=98–106 |jstor=26234258 |issn=2009-2377}}</ref> Black Americans joined these [[Minstrel show|minstrel]] performances, where they would be forced to act on black stereotypes in their performances.<ref name=":2" />  [[James "Buster" Brown (tap dancer)|James "Buster" Brown]], got his start in the segregated clubs of the 1930s, but eventually earned international mainstream recognition and mentored younger more modern tap dancers in the 1990s.<ref name="Hill">{{cite book |last1=Hill |first1=Constance Valis |title=Tap Dancing America: A Cultural History |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=103 |isbn=978-0-19-022538-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_HERDAAAQBAJ&q=%22James+Buster+Brown%22 |access-date=February 2, 2024}}</ref>