5 Iconic Historical Tap Pieces to Know
Historical tap pieces are important in any tapper’s repertoire. While modern tap continues to evolve in exciting ways, we never want to lose touch with the foundational routines that this art form is built on.
Each piece gives us insight into how tap evolved -- like how certain step sequences were created, and how dancers interpreted the music of their time. And these pieces let us step in the shoes of legendary tap performers like Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Leonard Reed. It’s fun bringing their pieces to life and passing them on to each generation of dancers!
There are so many pieces we could talk about, but today we’re going to cover just a few of Rocky Mountain Rhythm’s favorites. We perform these frequently as part of our core company rep, and often teach them in our community classes.
In fact, we will be performing all of the five historical pieces in this blog at the CoDEO (Colorado Dance Education organization) dance conference, February 1, 2025 -- and we will be teaching one of the pieces, “Laura”! Let’s start with that one.
“Laura”
“Laura” is choreographed by tap legend James “Buster” Brown, who tapped from the 1930s all the way to 2000. Buster Brown was the last surviving member of the Copasetics Club, an ensemble of tap dancers formed to honor the late Bojangles (who coined the word “copasetic”).
Buster Brown choreographed this routine to a theme from the film noir Laura (his version is adapted from the original theme -- it’s much more jazzy with a faster tempo). Buster was known for his speed and intricate rhythms, and “Laura” has plenty of both! If you like fast paddle & rolls, this one's for you.
Want to learn “Laura”? Here’s your chance: RMR historian and founding company member Michelle Farrell will be teaching part of it at CoDEO this weekend!
“The New Lowdown”
The New Lowdown is a combination of Bojangles signature steps, to the song “Doin' the New Lowdown” (sung by Bojangles himself). Bojangles was known for his light, swingy style, staying upright on his toes instead of dropping down his heels -- which was new to tap dance.
You can see this style in action in The New Lowdown. You spend most of the dance bouncing on the balls of your feet in time steps and flaps. It’s very cheerful and swingy, and impossible to do without smiling! Next time you’re in a bad mood, get going on those time steps and see if you can do it with a straight face.
The steps are simple, so this is a faster one to learn. But here’s one that’s even quicker...
“BS Chorus”
The BS Chorus was popularized by The Copasetics. You’ll find different variations of this one, but the basic format goes: Timesteps, crossovers, wings, trenches, and over-the-tops. These are each foundational patterns that are good for every tapper to know. It’s short and sweet, so it’s a fun one to learn quickly.
The exact origins aren’t known for sure, but one legend has it that when the BS Chorus became popular at vaudeville shows in the 20s, less-experienced dancers would try to “BS” their way through it!
Luckily we’ve done it so many times, there’s no BS around here. RMR performs BS Chorus year-round, but we especially love it during the holidays!
Caption: Rocky Mountain Rhythm performs the BS Chorus at the Denver Christkindlmarkt, finishing with the classic “shave and a haircut” step. Photo by Ian McMorran.
“The Copasetic Soft Shoe”
Soft shoe is a tap style that is danced in shoes with (you guessed it) soft soles. The Copasetic Soft Shoe is a soft shoe-style piece performed to the song “Ain't Misbehavin" by Fats Waller (1929), an early swing song.
The goal for this one isn’t to go as fast as possible or stomp as hard as possible. But don’t be tricked by the slow tempo -- it’s still hard to have the amount of control needed to look so smooth!
This is one of those pieces that feels like a time machine -- you can really enjoy the relaxed pace and graceful arms and imagine you’re back in the 1920s.
Caption: RMR members Michelle Farrell and Karen Settles brought the 1920s mood of the Soft Shoe to life (or, rather, death) in our spooky Halloween show, Dancing in the Dark. Photo by Ian McMorran.
“The Shim Sham Shimmy”
Often called the “anthem of tap,” the Shim Sham Shimmy (the “Shim Sham” for short) was created in the 1930s. Leonard Reed and Willie Bryant came up with the Shim Sham when they needed a finale to their act.
Reed and Bryant took four popular steps of the 1920s and put them together with a break. The Shim Sham consists of four different choruses, each a slight variation of the one before it.
The Shim Sham became a line dance of sorts, because it was easy to pick up and follow along. At the end of shows, everyone -- dancers, musicians, and singers -- would come onstage and do the Shim Sham together. So in our own homage to the Shim Sham, Rocky Mountain Rhythm performs the Shim Sham at the end of our shows!
If you go to our 10-Year Anniversary Show in April and you know the Shim Sham, we’d LOVE for you to bring your tap shoes and come onstage to perform it with us. Look out for a blog with our Shim Sham tutorial coming out soon if you want to learn it in time!
Caption: Everyone is invited onstage for the Shim Sham at the end of Rocky Mountain Rhythm’s Taps on Tap show! Photo by Andrews Artistry.
If you’re interested in learning any of these historical pieces, stay in the loop on our upcoming community classes and tutorials! You’ll be the first to know when we’re going to be teaching one of these pieces.
And don’t forget -- you can see all five of these pieces in action at once, this weekend at the CoDEO conference! Learn more about it here.
