Tap - You Can't be Sad When You are Tapping Quiz

Answer: Doug

Each of these terms has uses outside of tap, but it is the tap term we are looking at. The shuffle, the grab off and the paradiddle are all commonly known tap steps, but you will find some tappers know the same combinations by different names. Tappers will also create a combination of steps and give it a name, thus creating a new tap step known to only a small group of dancers.

Answer: May 25th

May 25th was chosen as it is the birth date of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.

Answer: Cholly Atkins

Honi won a Tony Award in 1983 for his performance as Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical for "My One and Only."

Answer: No one knows

While Michael made it famous, Cab Calloway can be seen doing a version of backsliding back in the 30s. Bill Bailey and Marcel Marceau both did versions of the "moonwalk" in the 50s. There are those who feel the moonwalk came out of Africa.

Answer: Gregory Hines

Gregory Hines learned from Sandman Sims, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and Harold Nicholas but it was Sammy Davis Jr, who became Hines's mentor.

Answer: The Little Colonel

It is said Bojangles invented the stair tap routine made famous in "The Little Colonel". He and Shirley became life long friends.

Answer: All of these

These dances as well as others are thought to have influenced what we now call tap. Cloggers came out of England where the heavy wooden soled shoes were worn to protect the feet from dampness. From the south of Africa came the Gumboot dance - a dance by men wearing, of all things - gumboots.

These were sometimes decked out with bells. Zapateado is a Spanish dance where nails were hammered into the toes and heels of their boots to bring out the sounds of their steps.

Answer: 1925

Prior to 1925 dancers had to work hard to create their rhythms with wooden soled shoes.

Answer: Mumbles

"Happy Feet" was an animated film featuring a penguin who could not keep his feet still. It once again proves you cannot be sad when you are tapping.

Answer: His grandmother

The Cotton Club was a famous dance club in Harlem that ran during and after Prohibition. While famous blacks such as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and Louis Armstrong performed there, blacks were generally denied admission to the club as patrons.