Being part of Chicago Tap Theatre means not only looking forward in the art of tap dance, but looking back as well. It has been our mission since the company’s inception to not only break through the boundaries of tap dance, exploring it’s capabilities to move, be expressive, and convey narrative, but also to preserve the history of tap dance that has let us do all that.

In honor of this, today’s blog post features just one of the many lineages of tap dance that we have been inspired by. It starts with a piece that we now perform as part of our heritage series of repertoire and follows through some of the most influential tap dancers of all time to contemporary tappers we have a great respect for.

We start with Coles & Atkins performing Taking a Chance on Love aka Class Act.

We follow this piece to Brenda Bufalino who’s mentor Honi Coles inspired her to move tap forward when she created the first ever concert tap company the American Tap Dance Orchestra, and yes, they did tune their tap shoes to one another every night.

Like Bufalino, Gregory Hines not only moved tap dance forward, but also had an unwavering respect for his predecessors. He brought tap dance back into the popular eye and inspired so many of us to learn the artform. Hines also mentored Savion Glover, arguably one of the biggest influences on popular, contemporary tap dance. Tap dance has come a long way since he first captured the attention of Americans, dancers and non-dancers alike, but he really did a lot to slingshot it into the 21st century.

Of course, Hines not only passed down his dancing but his respect for the past.

This little glimpse into contemporary tap dance history barely scratches the surface, but it does serve as a reminder of why our mission will forever be two-fold. It’s a very cool mission to be part of and we all feel incredibly proud to uphold it. We also feel tremendous gratitude to all the people that donate, volunteer, and support our endeavor to uphold this mission. It is because of this we’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who has helped us along the way, including all the lovely people who will celebrate the company with us tonight at our benefit. We hope to continue to make you proud and show you things (new and old) that will inspire you. ♥ CTT