No Maps on My Taps

In a Harlem nightclub, old time performers Chuck Green, Bunny Briggs, Sandman Sims are continuing the tap dancing traditions. It's a fading art form. They are going to do challenge dances. They talk about old times including old footage of them performing when they were young.

This is an one hour documentary. It's like hanging out with old uncles who are telling stories of the old days. On one hand, it's fascinating. On the other hand, it is as ordinary as every other old guy with a story about the good old days. The most fascinating is the dancing in the streets with an everyday audience. What's missing is the guys confronting the new world of dancing. New York is exploding with the new energy of rap music. The new break-dancing is coming up. The guys need to tap into the underground, no pun intended. They need to see the new ways and the film needs to see them seeing it. This is still great as an archive for a time long gone.

Part history, part current survey, NO MAPS ON MY TAPS surveys the origins of tap dancing and three of its current practitioners. Tap arose among American Blacks as an extension of their culture, like jazz music, and became popular among White audiences; I still recall the day my cousin Larry demonstrated how my mother had taught him to tap -- apparently Shirley Temple was not the only White girl in the 1920s and 1930s whose parents thought it would be nice for her to learn how to do so.

The three current -- as of 1978 -- performers show the art as it was practiced then, and then the audience is treated to a discourse on tap's origins, and some notable performers throughout history. At less than an hour, it's not an exhaustive effort, but it does give a nice introduction for people who are unfamiliar with the dance form.

I loved this classic documentary. Full of great tap dancing footage and jazz music. Eat your hearts out Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, these guys are right up there with the best! Very entertaining.