No Maps on My Taps (1979)

Directed by

George Nierenberg

Genre

documentary film

Country

United States

Runtime

58 min

Rating

7.0 of 10 from 3 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary follows three veteran tap dancers as they recall their careers and perform together at a Harlem nightclub. It captures both their artistry and the sense that tap dance was fading from popular culture.

wistfulcelebratoryintimatehistoricalelegiaclivelynostalgicobservational

What happens

No Maps on My Taps is a 1979 American documentary film directed by George Nierenberg. The film recounts the history of tap dancing in America through the lives of three influential tap dancers, Chuck Green, Howard Sims, and Bunny Briggs, and showcases their dancing skills in a historic live performance at Smalls Paradise nightclub in Harlem. The film is a wistful tribute to the careers of the performers and to an art form that at the time of filming seemed to be waning. According to a review in The New Yorker, "Ironically, “No Maps on My Taps,” whose participants regarded it as an elegy, helped to start a tap revival in the eighties. The film was shown in festival after festival. Its stars travelled with it and danced, live, after the screenings." The film won Lionel Hampton a News and Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Musical Direction in 1981. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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