Section 01
Documentaries
Essential documentaries tracing the lineage, artistry, and revival of tap dance as a Black American art form.
1979No Maps on My TapsGeorge T. Nierenberg
No Maps on My Taps
The spirit of tap in its heyday, shown through rare photos and Hollywood film clips. Three surviving hoofers — Sandman Sims, Chuck Green, and Bunny Briggs — tell the story of tap as an expression of Black heritage and culture. An indispensable historical record of this distinctly American art form.
About Tap
Introduced by Gregory Hines, this brilliant follow-up to No Maps on My Taps examines various styles of jazz tap through masters Steve Condos, Jimmy Slyde, and Chuck Green. Each dancer answers: "How does an artist discover their own individual style?"
Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me
The first major film documentary to examine the performer's vast career and his journey for identity through the shifting tides of civil rights and racial progress during 20th-century America. A portrait of one of the most complex entertainers in American history.
2006Been Rich All My LifeHeather Lyn MacDonald
Been Rich All My Life
An admiring portrait of the Silver Belles — a troupe of veteran Harlem tap dancers between 84 and 96 years old. Bertye Lou Wood, Cleo Hayes, Marion Coles, Fay Ray, and Elaine Ellis met in the 1930s as chorus dancers and reunited in 1985, still performing in matching glitter-encrusted costumes.
2004Plenty of Good Women DancersKodish & Dornfeld
Plenty of Good Women Dancers
Features exceptional Philadelphia African American women tap dancers active from the 1920s–1950s. Restricted to few roles, often unnamed and uncredited, these women remained anonymous even within their own communities. Historic clips and vivid recollections paint a dynamic portrait of veteran women hoofers.
1996Frontline: Secret DaughterJune Cross
Frontline: Secret Daughter
Takes viewers on an epic journey across the racial divide, into the hidden world of Hollywood and Black vaudeville, and deep into the painful, complicated relationship between an abandoned daughter and the mother who gave her away. June Cross's father was half of the comedy duo "Stump and Stumpy."
1991The Dancing Man: Peg Leg BatesDave Davidson
The Dancing Man: Peg Leg Bates
Documentary on the life and work of tap dancer Peg Leg Bates, told much in his own words. Profusely illustrated with archival footage, including many scenes of Bates dancing at different times of his life on stage, in films, and on television — a man who turned adversity into artistry.
1989Tap Dance in AmericaGregory Hines
Gregory Hines' Tap Dance in America
Gregory Hines created and hosted this Emmy-winning PBS special featuring the most seasoned tap dancers of the era, offering rare insight into the masters who shaped tap dance into the art form it has become. Features a young Savion Glover alongside legends like Bunny Briggs.
1992We Sing, We DanceChris Bould
We Sing, We Dance: The Nicholas Brothers
A&E documentary about the life of the legendary Nicholas Brothers — Fayard (1914–2006) and Harold (1921–2000) — whose breathtaking acrobatic tap routines redefined what was possible in dance. Fred Astaire called their Stormy Weather routine the greatest dance number ever filmed.
1980Tapdancin'Christian Blackwood
Tapdancin'
Illuminates the New York-driven renaissance of tap. Shows how the triumphs and defeats of great dancers from the past mingled with rejuvenation by talented newcomers. Featuring the Nicholas Brothers, Honi Coles, John Bubbles, the Copasetics, and many more tap legends.
1989Songs UnwrittenDavid Wadsworth
Songs Unwritten: A Tap Dancer Remembered
The story of legendary hoofer Leon Collins — from triumphs with Jimmie Lunceford, Tito Puente, and Tina Dixon, to bebop years in New York with Baby Laurence and Dizzy Gillespie, through lean years in Boston, and finally his remarkable comeback as a gifted teacher and spokesman for the tap revival.
1981The Jazz HooferBill Hancock
The Jazz Hoofer: The Story of Baby Laurence
Documentary on jazz tap dancer Baby Laurence (Laurence Donald Jackson), told in his own voice and words. The story of his dance career and how he was inspired by jazz musicians such as Art Tatum and Charlie Parker to create a style that married bebop rhythm to the tap tradition.
1977Great Feats of FeetBrenda Bufalino
Great Feats of Feet: A Portrait of Jazz & Tap
A classic documentary exploring the tradition of jazz and tap dance and the essence that sets it uniquely apart from other dance forms, featuring The Copasetics. Each featured dancer speaks of his life and art, revealing the creative spirit and individuality that personified each artist through their long careers.
1964Over the Top to BebopColes & Atkins
Over the Top to Bebop
Master tap dancers Honi Coles and Cholly Atkins demonstrate favorite tap steps and routines spanning from World War I ("Over the Top and Through the Trenches") to the mid-sixties ("Bebop") — a living history of tap's evolution performed by two of its greatest practitioners.
1996Honi ColesFrench TV
Honi Coles, Le Danseur de Claquettes Distingué
French television portrait of the great Charles "Honi" Coles, featuring Lena Horne, Marshall Stearns, Cholly Atkins, Tommy Tune, Brenda Bufalino, and dancers of the time. A rare international perspective on one of tap's most elegant practitioners.
1997Mr. BojanglesA&E Biography
Biography: Bill Robinson — Mr. Bojangles
Tap dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (1878–1949) is profiled — his childhood, vaudeville and Broadway careers, screen partnership with Shirley Temple, and personal life. A portrait of the man who became tap's first crossover star in an era of deep segregation.
2003LaVaughn RobinsonDornfeld & Boughter
LaVaughn Robinson
LaVaughn Robinson, a National Heritage Fellowship winner, was a tap virtuoso on the big-band circuit in the 1940s–50s who became a master teacher and major force in tap's revival. Part of an extraordinary generation of child dancers who sharpened their skills in Philadelphia street competitions.
1989Tappin': Making of TapTV Special
Tappin': The Making of Tap The Movie
Behind-the-scenes special about the making of the film TAP, starring Gregory Hines, Sammy Davis Jr., and Savion Glover. Features tons of behind-the-scenes clips and classic movie footage of legendary hoofers gathered for Sammy Davis Jr.'s final film appearance.
Feature Films
Narrative films that center tap dance and its intersection with race in America.
Stormy Weather
A landmark all-Black musical featuring Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, and the Nicholas Brothers. Their legendary "Jumpin' Jive" sequence is considered one of the greatest dance numbers ever committed to film.
The Cotton Club
Coppola's lavish drama set in 1930s Harlem's legendary Cotton Club, where the best Black entertainers performed for white-only audiences. Features Gregory Hines alongside Richard Gere in parallel stories of musicians and gangsters navigating the racial divide.
Tap
Gregory Hines stars as an ex-con torn between crime and tap. Sammy Davis Jr.'s final film appearance. Features a legendary challenge-dance sequence with Arthur Duncan, Bunny Briggs, Steve Condos, Harold Nicholas, Jimmy Slyde, and other masters of the form.
Bamboozled
Spike Lee's blistering satire about a Black TV writer who pitches a modern minstrel show — and it becomes a hit. Savion Glover stars as a tap dancer exploited by the entertainment industry, drawing direct lines between minstrelsy's history and modern media representation.
White Nights
Gregory Hines plays an American tap dancer who defected to the Soviet Union, paired with Baryshnikov's Russian ballet dancer trying to escape. Their duets — tap meeting ballet — are explosive demonstrations of how dance transcends cultural and political boundaries.
Bojangles
Gregory Hines portrays the legendary Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in this biographical film tracing Robinson's rise from Richmond streets to Broadway stardom and Hollywood, navigating the brutal racial politics of early 20th century entertainment.
Section 02
Books & Reading
Essential reading on tap dance history, the Black roots of American vernacular dance, and the intersection of race and performance.
What the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing
Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. The definitive history — from tap's origins in the jig, clog dancing, and dances brought from Africa by enslaved people, through minstrelsy, Broadway, Hollywood, its post-war decline, and contemporary revival.
Amazon →
Brotherhood in Rhythm: The Jazz Tap Dancing of the Nicholas Brothers
The definitive account of Fayard and Harold Nicholas, whose acrobatic brilliance redefined tap. Traces their journey from Philadelphia vaudeville through Hollywood and their complex navigation of race in the entertainment industry.
Amazon →
Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance
The seminal history whose final chapter was titled "The Dying Breed" — written just before the 1970s tap revival proved it beautifully wrong. Essential context for understanding every documentary on this list.
Amazon →
Tap! The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and Their Stories
An oral history built from first-person interviews with the dancers themselves — their own words about the golden age, the lean years, and the revival. An essential companion to the documentary record.
Amazon →
Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance
Uncovers the African roots embedded in American concert dance, popular entertainment, and everyday movement. Essential for understanding how Black aesthetics shaped — and were often uncredited in — American dance forms including tap.
Amazon →
Waltzing in the Dark: African American Vaudeville and Race Politics in the Swing Era
Examines the world of African American vaudeville — the vibrant performance circuit that nurtured virtually every tap dancer on this list — and the racial politics that both constrained and propelled their artistry.
Amazon →
Steppin' on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of African American Dance
Explores the rhythmic foundations of African American dance forms, from ring shouts through jazz tap to contemporary hip-hop, revealing the continuous thread of African-derived movement aesthetics in American culture.
Amazon →
The Black Tradition in American Dance
A comprehensive visual and narrative survey of the Black dance tradition from African origins through modern concert dance, placing tap within the broader continuum of Black movement art in America.
Amazon →
The Royalty of Negro Vaudeville: The Whitman Sisters
Recovers the story of the Whitman Sisters — the highest-paid Black act on the TOBA circuit — and their negotiation of race, gender, and class in African American theater from 1900–1940. A crucial, under-told chapter in tap history.
Amazon →
Secret Daughter: A Mixed-Race Daughter and the Mother Who Gave Her Away
The memoir that accompanies the Frontline documentary. June Cross tells the full story of her parents — a white actress and a Black vaudevillian — and growing up hidden across the racial divide of mid-century America.
Amazon →
Section 03
Videos & Performances
Legendary performances and illuminating talks available online. Click to watch.
The Nicholas Brothers — "Jumpin' Jive" (Stormy Weather, 1943)
The routine Fred Astaire called the greatest dance number ever filmed. Unrehearsed. One take. Fayard and Harold leap across orchestra stands, split down a staircase, and redefine what the human body can do.
The "Challenge" from Tap (1989) — Sammy Davis Jr. & Gregory Hines
Sammy Davis Jr. at 64, Harold Nicholas at 68, and Gregory Hines trade steps in the film's legendary challenge sequence. Davis's final film appearance — a passing of the torch captured on screen.
Savion Glover's Big Break on PBS with Gregory Hines
At just 15, Savion Glover appeared alongside his mentor Gregory Hines on PBS's Great Performances special "Tap Dance in America." The moment a new generation of tap found its voice.
Been Rich All My Life — Official Trailer
Trailer for the documentary about the Silver Belles — five Harlem tap dancers in their 80s and 90s who prove that the art never leaves your body, even after seven decades.
About Tap (1985) — Teaser
A preview of George Nierenberg's follow-up documentary featuring Steve Condos, Jimmy Slyde, and Chuck Green exploring the question of individual style in tap dance.
Stormy Weather (1943) — Full Film
The complete landmark all-Black musical starring Lena Horne and Bill Robinson, available in 4K restoration on YouTube. Features performances by Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, and the Nicholas Brothers.
The Nicholas Brothers & Cab Calloway — Colorized
The legendary Stormy Weather "Jumpin' Jive" sequence, carefully colorized with DeOldify technology. Seeing the routine in color adds a new dimension to its already staggering impact.
Brian Seibert: "What the Eye Hears" — LAPL Talk
The New York Times dance critic and author of the definitive tap history discusses the art form's origins, its roots in both African and European traditions, and the racial politics that shaped its trajectory.