The origin of tap dancing is a mixture of syncopations of African music and dance with Irish jig. Immigrant dancers from different ethnic and cultural groups met during dance competitions and compared their techniques. Over time, the dances enriched each other. African shuffle and Irish jig merged2 to result in tap dancing as we know it today.

Tap dance spread in the United States from the 1900s when it was the dance part of the vaudevilles on Broadway. The emergence of jazz in the 1920s brought them to the fore, as its rhythm naturally adapted to tap dancing. From the 1930s, tap dancing made their appearance in cinema and television where they reached their peak in the 1950s with great dancers like Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly.