Broadway Tap
Also known as: Show tap
- Origin
- United States
- Era
- 1900–Present
- Rhythm
- Show tunes, arranged 4/4
- Tempo
- Varies
- Character
- Light, upright, presentational
History & Cultural Context
Broadway tap is the show-dance branch of tap: lighter and more upright than rhythm tap, danced higher on the balls of the feet, and oriented toward visual line, travel, and ensemble choreography in musical theater. Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson's clean, rolling, on-the-toes style is emblematic of this presentational approach.
Cultural Significance
Broadway tap is the tap most audiences know through musicals and film.
Characteristic Movement & Technique
Upright carriage, dancing high on the balls of the feet, clean rolling sounds, and choreography built for travel and presentation.
Signature Figures
- Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson
- Fred Astaire
- Eleanor Powell
Dance Lineage
Broadway Tap Music & Tempo
Drawn from 24 Broadway Tap tracks in the LODance music library.
Example tracks at practice tempo
- Shaking the Blues Away — Megan Lawrence & Holiday Inn Original Broadway Ensemble96 BPM
- Shuffle Off to Buffalo — Original Broadway Cast of 42nd Street77 BPM
- Getting Out of Town — Original Broadway Cast of 42nd Street108 BPM
- King of New York (Full Song With Dance Break) [Bonus Track] — Ryan Breslin, Kara Lindsay & Newsies Original Broadway Cast168 BPM
- Go Into Your Dance — Original Broadway Cast of 42nd Street80 BPM
- Lullaby of Broadway — Original Broadway Cast of 42nd Street183 BPM
Legends of Broadway Tap
Dancers, choreographers and teachers whose work shaped this style.
Broadway Tap on screen
Films and television where Broadway Tap appears, with the sequences worth watching for.
Singin' in the Rain (1952)4 sequences indexedDignity flashback and Fit as a Fiddle · 00:04:46 · chor. Gene Kelly; Stanley DonenGood Morning · 01:01:49 · chor. Gene Kelly; Stanley DonenMoses Supposes · 00:48:02 · chor. Gene Kelly; Stanley Donen+ 1 more on the title page
An American in Paris (1951)3 sequences indexed'S Wonderful · 01:20:24 · chor. Gene KellyTra-la-la (This Time It's Really Love) · 00:46:17 · chor. Gene KellyI Got Rhythm · 00:26:36 · chor. Gene Kelly
Top Hat (1935)3 sequences indexedOpening-credit feet and cane chorus · chor. Fred Astaire (uncredited); Hermes PanNo Strings (I'm Fancy Free) · 00:08:18 · chor. Fred Astaire (uncredited); Hermes PanTop Hat, White Tie and Tails · 00:40:52 · chor. Fred Astaire (uncredited); Hermes Pan
Chicago (2002)2 sequences indexedBilly's courtroom tap dance · 01:30:31 · chor. Rob Marshall; Cynthia Onrubia (Richard Gere's tap steps)Hot Honey Rag finale · 01:42:58 · chor. Rob Marshall; John DeLuca (choreographic supervisor)
Swing Time (1936)2 sequences indexedPick Yourself Up lesson and reveal · 00:22:48 · chor. Hermes Pan (dance director)Bojangles of Harlem · 01:12:43 · chor. Hermes Pan (dance director)
The Gay Divorcee (1934)2 sequences indexedA Needle in a Haystack · 00:17:47 · chor. Hermes Pan (dance director)Don't Let It Bother You reprise — identity-proving solo · 00:06:39 · chor. Hermes Pan (dance director)
Billy Elliot (2000)1 sequence indexedI Love to Boogie private-lesson montage · 00:42:19 · chor. Peter Darling
Hail, Caesar! (2016)1 sequence indexed“No Dames!” sailor tap number · chor. Christopher Gattelli
La La Land (2016)1 sequence indexedA Lovely Night · 00:32:23 · chor. Mandy MooreOn the Town (1949)1 sequence indexedPrehistoric Man museum number
Tap (1989)1 sequence indexedBob Wythe’s Broadway solo audition · chor. Henry LeTang; Gregory Hines (improvography)Poster artwork from TMDB.
This site uses TMDB and the TMDB APIs but is not endorsed, certified, or otherwise approved by TMDB.
Sources & Further Reading
Cultural & Historical Context
Broadway Tap emerged from United States during the 1900s—present day. Understanding the cultural roots, musical traditions, and social circumstances of this era enriches appreciation for the dance's characteristics and significance.
Formative Influences
Signature Movement Vocabulary:
Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson, Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell
Primary Source Documents
The Library of Dance contains public-domain primary sources for dance history. Copyrighted modern syllabi are indexed with purchase links to their respective copyright owners. Search by dance name or codifier to discover primary source documents.
Last reviewed: November 2026 — This dance profile synthesizes historical research, cultural documentation, and contemporary practice knowledge to provide authoritative context.
More in Tap Dance
Soft Shoe
The smooth, light, low-volume tap idiom—historically sometimes danced on a sanded floor—that precedes and underlies both rhythm and Broadway tap.
Rhythm Tap (Hoofing)
The grounded, weighted, jazz-rooted tap style in which the dancer is a percussive musician improvising complex syncopation 'into the floor.'
Buck-and-Wing
A fast, vernacular late-19th-century precursor of modern tap, combining flat-footed 'buck' rhythms with springing 'wing' steps on the minstrel and vaudeville stage.
Breakdown
A fast solo percussive dance created by enslaved African Americans, danced to fiddle and banjo tunes in quick duple time and often performed as a challenge between dancers. It carries one of the core movement vocabularies from which buck dancing, flatfooting and American tap descend. Its commercial spread in the 1840s and after ran through blackface minstrelsy, which took the material from Black dancers and sold it as caricature.
Clog
A percussive step dance performed in wooden-soled clogs, developed among mill and mine workers in northern England and built largely on hornpipe rhythms. It moved onto the music-hall stage as a championship solo turn in the nineteenth century and crossed to North America, where it fed both Appalachian step traditions and the variety stage. With African American percussive dance it is one of the two roots of American tap.
Tap Dance in art
Browse the gallery →Works from the wider Tap Dance tradition — we have not yet identified enough that depict Broadway Tap specifically.
Master Juba
Hans Nathan · 1848
Public Domain
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