Nostalgia and All That Jazz

This chapter opens with the performative reunion of the Nicholas Brothers on Hollywood Palace on July 31, 1964; returns to the years 1958–1964, when the brothers navigated separate careers (with Harold expatriating to France and inventing a career as a soloist, and Fayard remaining in the United States to eke out a career as a jazz artist in a field offering few opportunities); and continues through the seventies, when popular tastes for tap nostalgia forced the brothers to repeat many of the routines that had made them famous in the thirties and forties. The chapter’s story takes place roughly in the fifties and sixties, when tap dance fell into decline and dancers found themselves out of work. It was not until the early sixties, when dancers Baby Laurence, Bunny Briggs, Pete Nugent, Cholly Atkins, and Honi Coles performed at the Newport Jazz Festival, that signs appeared of a slow recovery for tap dance that would not materialize until the seventies. The ways Fayard and Harold, separately and as a team, found to endure these difficult decades were acts of reaction, whether through compromise, expediency, or expatriation, to the sociohistorical constraints that hindered black musical artists, and are testament to the solid musical foundation of their jazz tap dancing, which both flowed with and resisted the musical schisms of the time.

Brothers

This chapter tells the story of the early years of the Nicholas family; the Nicholas Collegians, the highly skilled and musically versatile ten-piece orchestra directed by Viola Nicholas, playing piano, and Ulysses Nicholas, on drums; young Fayard’s musical orientation; and the decision by Ulysses and Viola that their sons would perform as the Nicholas Kids. The success of the Nicholas brothers was a family affair. Love and respect, perfection and professionalism had been instilled by parents who not only guided and managed their sons’ career but modeled a supreme form of partnership at home that the brothers would celebrate together on stage. It was at the Standard Theater, where the Nicholas Collegians were installed, that young Fayard watched tap dance in live performance, memorized the steps, and taught them to his young brother Harold.

Resurgence

This chapter begins with the challenge dance scene in the 1989 movie Tap!, starring Gregory Hines; the scene includes seventy-four-year-old Henry LeTang, seventy-two-year-old Howard “Sandman” Sims, seventy-one-year-old Steve Condos, sixty-seven-year-old Bunny Briggs, sixty-four-year-old Sammy Davis Jr., sixty-two-year-old Jimmy Slyde, and fifty-six-year-old Arthur Duncan and ends in a triumphant finale with sixty-eight-year-old Harold Nicholas taking a flying leap over the backs of the men, landing in a down-and-up split with a no-hands assist, and pulling himself up into perfect form as the circle of men triumphantly shout “Olé!” The chapter then retrospects the decade of the eighties, which saw the grand resurgence of tap dance.

Mix(tap)ing: A method for sampling the past to envision the future

This article outlines the theoretical and aesthetic considerations of Love’s performance-as-research method for developing interdisciplinary tap dance work – a method he identifies as Mix(tap)ing. By first narrating how he arrived to his current practice as a dancemaker and artistic researcher, Love is able to show the ways in which his method samples strategies, voices and traditions from the cultural past to imagine and work towards futuristic locations of liberation and possibility. Ultimately, Mix(tap)ing allows Love to layer intellectual concepts and theatrical conventions in order to design an approach to rhythm tap dance improvisation and choreography that is expressly Black and queer. This article is, in itself, a demonstration of Love’s method as it joins written analysis with a performed lecture script to evidence how Love has previously presented one of his Mix(tap)es.

Effects of a Modified Tap Dance Program on Ankle Function and Postural Control in Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Older adults are at a high risk of falling due to age-related degradations in physical fitness. This study aimed to examine the effects of a modified tap dance program (MTD) on ankle function and postural control in older adults. Forty-four healthy older adults (mean age = 64.1 years, with 9 men) were recruited from local communities and were randomly divided into the MTD group and the control (CON) group. The MTD group received 12 weeks of MTD training 3 times per week for 30 min per session. Outcomes were measured using the five times sit-to-stand test (FTSST) for ankle strength, the universal goniometer for ankle range of motion, and the Footscan® to trace the center of pressure. Results revealed significant improvements in FTSST in the MTD group (mean difference = 1.01), plantar flexion (left = 9.10, right = 10.0). In addition, the MTD group displayed significantly more improvements at midtest than the CON group in FTSST (mean difference = 1.51) and plantar flexion (mean difference: left = 6.10; right = 4.5). Therefore, the MTD can be an effective exercise program for ankle function improvement, but it has limited effects on improving postural control among healthy older adults.

Effect of tap dance on plantar pressure, postural stability and lower body function in older patients at risk of diabetic foot: a randomized controlled trial

IntroductionTo examine the effects of tap dance (TD) on dynamic plantar pressure, static postural stability, ankle range of motion (ROM), and lower extremity functional strength in patients at risk of diabetic foot (DF).Research design and methodsA randomised, single-blinded, two-arm prospective study of 40 patients at risk of DF was conducted. The intervention group (n=20) received 16 weeks of TD training (60 min/session×3 sessions/week). The control group attended four educational workshops (1 hour/session×1 session/month). Plantar pressure, represented by the primary outcomes of peak pressure (PP) and pressure-time integral (PTI) over 10 areas on each foot, was measured using the Footscan platform system. Secondary outcomes comprised static postural stability, ankle ROM and lower extremity functional strength.ResultsReductions in intervention group PP (right foot: mean differences=4.50~27.1, decrease%=25.6~72.0; left foot: mean differences=−5.90~6.33, decrease%=−22.6~53.2) and PTI at 10 areas of each foot (right foot: mean differences=1.00~12.5, decrease%=10.4~63.6; left foot: mean differences=0.590~25.3, decrease%=21.9~72.6) were observed. Substantial PP and PTI differences were noted at the second through fourth metatarsals, medial heel and lateral heel in the right foot. Substantial PP and PTI differences were detected at metatarsals 1 and 2 and metatarsal 2 in the left foot, respectively. Moderate training effects were found in plantar flexion ROM of both feet, lower extremity functional strength, and length of center-of-pressure trajectory with eyes closed and open (r=0.321–0.376, p<0.05).ConclusionsA 16-week TD training program can significantly improve ankle ROM, lower extremity functional strength, and static postural stability. To attain greater improvements in plantar pressure, a longer training period is necessary.Trial registration numberChiCTR1800014714.