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Tap Origins: A Brief History by Paul Corr
Introduction
Tap has a long history of "stealing steps" and "challenges." In reading any tap history performers will speak of dancing on street corners or outside clubs trying to outdo other dancers. These street games of "one-upmanship" were called "challenges." Challenges survive today in tap jam sessions and the techinique of "trading fours" in a performance with several dancers. "Trading fours" refers to each dancer giving his or her best for four measures before passing to the other dancer with a non-verbal "top this!"
The other phrase "stealing steps" refers to dancers trying to figure out what another dancer is doing, how he or she is getting that sound. The step is rarely taken literally by the viewing dancer. The motto is "Thou shalt not do another's step, exactly." A step is usually shaped and changed and incorporated into that dancer's personal style.
A reference to tap giant John Bubbles and "stealing steps" occurs in Marshall and Jean Stearns' Jazz Dance:
Bubbles, however, had little trouble adopting other dancers' steps. He had a reputation of being cagy, and his technique for extracting a step from a competitor became notorious.
Watching another dancer practicing at the Hoofers Club, Bubbles bides his time until he sees something he can use. "Oh-oh," he says, shaking his head in alarm, "you lost the beat back there--now try that step again." The dancer starts only to be stopped, again and again, until Bubbles, having learned it announces, "You know, that reminds me of a step I used to do," and proceeds to demonstrate two or three variations on the original step. The other dancer usually feels flattered."
Tap dancing's early history includes "challenges" and "stealing steps." Tapper and documentarian Jane Goldberg recently wrote that tap "came out of the lower classes, developed in competitive 'battles' on street corners by Irish immigrants and African American slaves."
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