This 300-year-old style of dancing will get your toes tapping. Learn about all the benefits!

Tap dancing is a dance style that uses the tip-tapping of dancers’ feet on the floor as a percussion instrument. This explosive tapping, from a musical point of view, emerged more than 300 years ago, and it is still extremely popular today. It has enjoyed a Renaissance because of recent musical movies and the latest Broadway trends. This dynamic, fun dance style also has numerous health benefits.

Tap dancing came into being in the 17th and 18th centuries through a fusion of Irish, English, and Scottish dancing and Afro-American dance (such as juba, with very varied percussion). Also, slave-owners in the United States would not allow their captives to have percussion instruments, so they beat out rhythms with their hands and feet.

Then, after the American Civil War (from 1861-1865), immigrants of different origins started gathering to compete and show off their dance skills. Their dance styles fused again, giving rise to the tap dancing that we are familiar with today, a unique style where improvisation is essential. However, the Golden Age of tap did not come until the 1930s, thanks to Hollywood musicals and dancers like Fred Astaire.

Types of tap dancing

According to the purpose of the dance, there are two types of tap dancing:

• Jazz Tap: this involves making music with the sounds produced by the shoes. Dancers wear special shoes with two metal plates, one at the toe and the other on the heel.
• Broadway Tap: this style is based mainly on dance and is usually seen in musical theatre.

Health benefits of tap dancing

1. Better posture

Balance is an essential ingredient of tap dancing, which in most cases means keeping the weight of the body on the feet. This means that it works the deep postural muscles (the core or abdominal corset that envelops the centre of gravity). It also improves posture in the lower back, prevents lower back injury and helps to flatten the belly.

2. Helps to maintain a healthy weight

Dancing in time with the music gives the body a gentle aerobic workout, speeding up the heart rate, and carrying more oxygen to the lungs and tissues. An hour of tap dancing burns around 250 calories.

3. Tones the body

Many tap movements involve raising the arms above the shoulders, which helps to strengthen and tone the lower and upper muscles. The body also works harder due to the continuous movements and fast rhythm.

4. Improves coordination

Tap steps include winging (a complex jump that makes three sounds on the floor), the pick-up (jumping and landing on the other foot) and the shuffle (a step where the foot moves back and forth, brushing the floor).

5. Strengthens the bones

Dancing that involves ‘stamping’, like tap and flamenco, have been shown to strengthen the muscles and regenerate the bones (helping to prevent osteoporosis). Bone mass is strengthened by bone stress, in other words, when the muscles are contracted and when the tendons create resistance on the bone during movement.

6. Boosts creativity

Although this dance form is hundreds of years old, tap still has elements that it has had for years, such as improvisation. Imagination and freedom to move the feet mean that it can be adapted to style of music such as funk and hip-hop (shuffle dancing is big on the internet right now).

As you can see, gliding romantically around the dance floor can be a magnificent way of exercising, which has healthy benefits and is also an opportunity to enjoy some entertainment and fun in good company.

This post is also available in: Italian