Unlike the familiar dances which were to be found in dance clubs and ball rooms, some of them animal inspired like the Turkey trot and then later on the Charleston and Lindy Hop took over as the popular dances around the 1920's and 1930's. Tap Dancing was not really a dance that could be copied on the dance floor or in some of the popular dance halls in the 1920's. This was the fact that presented a slight popularity problem in that it was basically a dance gimmick and looked upon by other classically trained dancers as undisciplined street dancing. This was true to a certain extent, but unlike most of the classical dances, Tap Dancing had its roots deep in the soul of the African American migrants and a deep importance that ran in parallel with Gospel singing and the blues.

This street talent transferred it's self from the cotton fields of oppression on it's evolving journey from virtual obscurity to main stream popularity. Tap Dancing made it's way into New York, Harlem via the streets and became a way of earning money in hard times for many years before it's great popularity in the mid 1930's.

Tap Dancing or at least the form that was hitting the streets at the time was rarely taught at the time, but was picked up and traded on the streets to the extent that it developed and evolved by it's self. People were always willing to go one better than the next guy up the street, this fuelled the natural development of Tap. Most people were not willing to part with money if they were seeing the same thing, so the development of style and personality were employed to win over any potential paying audiences that were passing by.

The Jig and the shuffle of a young street performer became a familiar sight, on many street corners, there were few ways of making money if you were black and down on your luck. Begging was not really much of an option, as people are not really willing to part with their money without some thing in return, be it entertainment or evidence of some one really being worthy of a casual donation. People were more willing to part with their money if they had been entertained by some one who had at least earned payment as reward or earned it in appreciation.

Soon rival artists started to compete with each other, not just for section of street they worked on, but for respect and the honour of being the best on the street. Dancers became so talented they were asked to appear in shows as an intermission act while they prepared the stage for the main acts of the evening. It was not till much later that Tap Dancing or some form of it became the main dance in popular local shows moving aside traditional dances until it became a basic dance requirement that is still with us today. However, it was still some time before these shows were introduced to Broadway.

The affiliation with Irish clog dancing, which was a very close one, became a source of ideas. Tap borrowed many of the Irish rudiments and approached them differently introducing syncopated rhythms, which were so reminiscent of Jazz at that time. The application of different rhythms and styles are both common to both Tap and jazz music.

With the introduction of Tap Dancing in its primitive form to stage there was a problem of sound. If you didn't have the sound dancers could look pretty dull if all you saw was a guy shuffling and bobbing around on stage. It must be remembered that microphones and amplification were simply not around at the time. Voice throwing and acoustically arranged theatres were the only sound assistance available and neither of them helped the evolving Tap Dancer much. Tapping in the street was some times done with metal bottle tops were placed between the toes of the dancers or lose fitting shoes were used. It is widely believed that King Rustus Brown picked up on this idea and attached metal plates to the bottoms of his shoes.

                    

With this problem in mind the wooden soled shoe idea was borrowed from Irish dancing and employed as a means of transmitting the sound of the intricate Taps to the audience. Now equipped with a means of enabling the sound of Taps to be heard by a theatre full of people, Tap gained huge appeal. Tap sounds that were once originally meant for the ears of a, small localised group of people out side on the street, were now shared by a wider audience. With this innovation Tap was once again free to continue to evolve and etch a place in historic entertainment. Bill Robinson and Ruby Keeler are the two most prominent dancers to be seen on film using the wooden soled shoes.

Even with the use of the wooden soled shoes the sounds of Tap were not always audible, so some dancers made the dance look artistic enough to seem more entertaining than their Tap Dancing. This idea was developed and used so much it became a separate style of performance. This style of dancing became known as the "soft shoe", which was almost lost with the introduction of the metal Tap, but saw a revival by several big names in the business mainly that of Coles and Atkins.

The soft-shoe existed along side the Tap Dancing, and indeed Tap Dancers were commonly the best people to employ this style of dancing. There were also other dance styles which incorporated various dance styles form around the world, these dances would be picked up from visiting foreign artists who performed their own cultural dance,  Tap Dancers saw an opportunity to copy some of the spectacular moves and incorporate them into their acts.

Producers were inundated with new up and coming Tap Dancers, so the only way to decide who would be suitable was to select those that stood out. Today there is hardly gimmick that has not been done years before, if you can think of it, you can be sure that it has been done, by some one wanting to impress an agent or producer of a show. It was Simple, if you were unusual you found your self on stage, if you were not, you found your self on the street.

There were many straight Tap Dancers who perfected their art, but Tap Dancing was not recognised as an art form until towards the end of the 20th century. This was very unfortunate as much has been lost of it's history and many of it's pioneers have passed away without recognition for the huge contribution they made to the great art of Tap Dancing. Today it is respected as an art form and we can only retrace the history as best we can.