Tap dance experienced a remarkable renaissance over the past decade. After years of relegation to nostalgic variety shows and animated penguin films, the form reclaimed its status as a serious contemporary art—one capable of carrying complex narratives, anchoring Broadway productions, and bridging cultural traditions.
This list examines five landmark performances from 2014 to 2024, selected for their critical impact, artistic innovation, and influence on tap's evolving identity. Whether preserved through official recordings, touring revivals, or documented through audience footage, these works represent the decade's most significant contributions to the form.
Broadway's Percussive Turn: Jason Samuels Smith in Catch Me If You Can (2011 revival, 2014–2016 touring)
When the 2011 Broadway musical Catch Me If You Can launched its national tour, it carried something unusual for a commercial production: a featured tap soloist with genuine street credibility. Jason Samuels Smith, already renowned for winning an Emmy with Tap the Movie and his weekly "Chloe's" tap jams in Los Angeles, served as dance captain and ensemble featured performer.
His showcase moment arrived during "Jet Set," where Samuels Smith's feet became the sonic embodiment of 1960s Pan Am glamour—speed without sacrificing clarity, syncopation that flirted with jazz drumming. Unlike the film version's caper comedy, this stage production used tap as period texture and character psychology: the con artist's slippery charm made literal through sound.
Availability: Original Broadway cast recording preserves the orchestration; touring documentation exists through audience recordings. Samuels Smith continues to teach this repertoire in masterclasses.
Concert Dance Elevation: Michelle Dorrance in The Blues Project (2015)
Michelle Dorrance's 2015 work at New York City Center marked a watershed moment for tap's institutional legitimacy. The Blues Project—co-created with Toshi Reagon and Dormeshia—positioned tap not as novelty act but as contemporary art music, worthy of the same dramaturgical attention as Cunningham or Tharp.
The production's innovation lay in its structural equality: live blues musicians and dancers shared compositional authority. Dorrance's solo "ETM: Double Down" (later excerpted) demonstrated her signature weighted release—heels striking with gravitational deliberation, then rebounding into suspended turns. The effect was architectural rather than decorative, tap as load-bearing narrative element.
Critics noted what The New York Times called "the end of tap's apology era." No longer defending its presence in concert halls, Dorrance's work assumed its rightful space.
Availability: Excerpts filmed for PBS's Great Performances; full production dormant but Dorrance's company, Dorrance Dance, maintains active touring repertoire.
Cultural Fusion and Identity: Ayodele Casel in Chica Chica: A Latin Soul Journey (2017–2019)
Ayodele Casel's decade-defining work emerged from a specific cultural position: a Nuyorican woman tracing her Puerto Rican heritage through rhythmic investigation. Chica Chica, developed through residencies at the Apollo Theater and New York Live Arts, fused tap's African American lineage with bomba and plena traditions.
Casel's choreography rejected easy fusion in favor of genuine conversation. In "Maria's Song," her feet articulated bomba's cuá rhythm while maintaining tap's swing phrasing—the two traditions distinct but interlocking, like counterpoint in Baroque music. The work's emotional core addressed what Casel termed "the invisibility of Latinx contributions to tap," a historical correction made visceral through performance.
The production's 2019 tour coincided with Casel's Guggenheim Fellowship, cementing her transition from "rising star" to established voice.
Availability: Documented through Casel's 2020 American Tap PBS special; select solos available on her YouTube channel. Full production awaiting remount.
Rhythmic Mastery: Max Pollak in Rumba Tap (2016–present)
Austrian-born, Cuba-trained Max Pollak spent the decade proving that rhythm tap's technical vocabulary could absorb Cuban rumba without diluting either tradition. His ongoing Rumba Tap project—documented in the 2018 album RumbaTap and continuous live performances—represents perhaps the decade's most rigorous cross-cultural technical achievement.
Pollak's innovation is structural: he performs guaguancó and yambú rhythms with his feet while maintaining the quinto (lead drum) patterns through upper body percussion. The result is solo polyphony—one body generating the interlocking parts typically requiring three tumbadoras and a quinto player.
His 2016 performance at Havana's Teatro Nacional
