Who Invented Tap Shoes?
What you may consider a traditional tap shoe is the product of dance evolution. What is now American tap dancing is a combination of Irish and African dances that became popularized in America as immigrants brought their cultures to the new world. Tap dancing on stage began as soft shoe and later included more Irish dancing which was traditionally done in wooden shoes with split soles. Vaudevillians introduced the aluminum taps sometime after 1910 to create the distinct sound we know today.
