Building Audiences For Tap

Stacie Strong | Jul 19, 2008 | 0

Image from "Insights on Audiences"

Every art form has to educate its audiences, to some degree.  When Balanchine and Robbins re-invented modern ballet, they had to overcome the preconceptions of the entrenched ballet elite.  When Graham and Duncan struck out on their own, they had to define what their new dance forms were before they could expect to win people over to their vision.  Tap faces the same issue.  Many people have a singular vision of tap - Fred Astaire in tails, a cheerful chorus girl in 42nd Street - that may or may not jive with what you're doing.  In my online rambles, I found a great article that describes exactly the dilemma that tap dancers face and provides solid ideas for how to create your own audience.

I found this article online in the International Tap Assocation Newsletter from January/February 1995, but it's just as relevant today.  You can click here http://www.tapdance.org/tap/ita/sample/newsltr.htm to see the issue in its entirety.  The following is reproduced by permission.

Some Ideas on Developing an Audience
by Mark Yonnally (c)

Among the many things that are unique about the tap community is the ability for "novice" practitioners of the art form to interact and study with the masters of the field. No other art form offers the same opportunities to its younger and more inexperienced members. A boy or girl with only five or six years of ballet training does not get the chance to work with Baryshnikov, and yet every year young (and older) students get to work with the likes of Dianne Walker, Sam Weber, Sarah Petronio, Heather Cornell and a host of other professionals who have taken tap to new and exciting places and levels.The question becomes, then, how can we, the enthusiasts and possibly the professionals of the future, return the favor?

The answer is simple and will not only benefit the current performers and musicians, but the future people trying to make a living tap dancing. It is our responsibility to help insure, to the best of our abilities, that the audiences who are willing to pay money to support tap performers are there. What can we do to raise the GTC (the Global Tap Consciousness)? The first is through education of the general public.

To many people, tap begins at Shirley Temple and ends at Fred Astaire. There is a rich and diverse history to tap and its surrounding culture that has gone largely unnoticed among non-devotees. Anyone who has seen a performance at a national festival can attest to the remarkable differences in styles and voices among working professionals today. From the grace and technique of Sam Weber to the bebop musicianship of Sarah Petronio to the clever prop work of Gracey Tune, there is a multitude of individual styles, and that's not even considering the tap companies that are doing everything from polyrhythms to the explorations of thematic ideas.

A common argument among my acquaintances is their disbelief in the existence of an American culture. It is true that, other than American Indians, we are all immigrants to this land, and it is common for some people to identify with the land they or their ancestors came from more than the United States. Others point to America and deny any "legitimate" culture; American culture, they say, is popular culture. To believe this, however, one would have to discount the many American contributions to world culture that are parts of all Americans' heritage. Jazz music, the cinema and of course, tap dancing are all elements of American culture that have become shared and made popular all over the world.
Indeed, no other country could have produced tap dancing as no other country had the option for the precise mixing of cultures and traditions that comprise tap dancing. In no other place could Irish jigs combine with African shuffles and sand dances to form an entirely new and exciting art form. Hell, tap was "multicultural" long before it was cool to be so.

If there is one type of person that will almost always fall in love with tap it is music lovers, especially jazz aficionados. If they are not already aware of the interconnection between the development of tap dancing and jazz playing,then educate them. If you need information to pass on, there are many good resources at your aid, including some fine and varied accounts of tap, from Marshall Stearns' history of jazz dancing to Rusty Frank's book. Finally, the best thing you could do to raise the GTC is to introduce tap dancing to the public first hand. Perform any time and any place you can. Look in your newspaper and find out if there are any jazz performers in your area you could sit in with for a song or two. Most major cities have at least one club with open jam for musicians. Invite your friends, invite your work mates, get as many people as you can exposed to what is going on in tap dancing today. When you perform, think about the image you want to convey to people as far as what your conception of tap is. Reflect that style in your appearance and behavior. I perform out every other week at a restaurant that has a live jazz band on Thursday nights, and the response has been really exciting. People who have never given tap a second thought now ask me to keep them informed of any tap events in the area, where I will perform next, and what movies they might rent to see more tap. The possibility for a strong base of tap supporters and lovers is there; they just have to be seduced by the form in the same way anyone holding this newsletter has been.

And I'm back! You'll see that this article was written in 1995.  Since then, Mark Yonally has travelled the world, performing and teaching as a professional tap dancer, and is Artistic Director of his own dance company, Chicago Tap Theatre.  He's followed his own advice on how to create audiences for tap and has made Chicago Tap Theatre one of the fastest-growing dance companies in the city.  After six years, CTT not only produces a three-show season in Chicago, it tours in both the U.S. and France, bringing live tap performances to people who may never have seen it (or seen it outside a dance studio recital).  So go out there and start raising the GTC - you'll be glad you did.

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