| Tapping To Jazz | | | | If you close your eyes for a moment and think |
| Jazz music was, and still is sometimes, used for | | | | about what Fred Astaire wore on his feet, you |
| tap dance numbers, in fact jazz and tap were | | | | will undoubtedly think of a pair of black tap shoes |
| very closely connected when African American | | | | that looked like fashionable ballroom dance attire. |
| routines were in their heyday during the early | | | | And that is most often what tap dance footwear |
| 1900's through to the 1950's. However jazz dance | | | | is about. Tapping. Shoes that are solid, often |
| and it's respective footwear took a slightly | | | | leather, that hold the foot tight and secure and on |
| different turn, becoming more of a modern dance | | | | the bottom there are taps to click and clack to a |
| that incorporated segments from ballet and other | | | | rhythm. From flamenco women's heeled designs |
| contemporary choreographed styles, and in many | | | | to men's oxfords that look like formalwear - |
| cases required a mix of footwear flexibility, the | | | | that's tap, whereas jazz dance footwear has |
| ability to perform a pirouette while still not being | | | | become a whole new bread of flexible, soft, |
| ballet, and later being able to add rhythmic | | | | unusual and very dissimilar designs. |
| movements, and most recently incorporate hip | | | | Jazz-Tap By Leo's |
| hop street dance styles. | | | | Terms like jazz flex and jazz sneaker are now |
| Fred Astaire Tapping | | | | the norm. Companies like Capezio and Bloch are |
| Naturally the footwear once used for jazz, which | | | | masters at designing affordable tan colored and |
| consisted of basic black tap shoes in rather formal | | | | black jazz footwear for men, women and children. |
| ballroomesque styles, had to change with the | | | | There are however still jazz tap shoes, like the |
| needs of the dancers. Dancers required diverse | | | | ones made by Leo's, one particular design is the |
| things, from an oxford to a soft flexible leather, | | | | Giordano that is a leather shoe with a two part |
| or a modern sneaker to a street style high top | | | | sole for flexibility, a heel, a rubber sole and taps. |
| boot that would be accepted on dance floors. | | | | So, jazz can have an element of tap and vice |
| These changes caused a split in the footwear | | | | versa, although there are now many more |
| designs. The classic black jazz shoes no longer | | | | specific design elements and dance characteristics |
| "needed" to be equipped with taps because they | | | | to take into account when buying the right |
| fell under a more specific label of "tap shoes". | | | | footwear for the right dance. |