Mention tap dancing to some one and they will mention one of the Hollywood stars, it is unfortunate that the founders of tap are seldom mentioned and you have to go to a lot of effort to find out about these grand fathers of tap. Much of the information lays in archives hidden away in books and libraries and it is almost a quest of Holy Grail proportions to find any great amounts of information. Also, some of the old masters and founders of tap dancing are no longer with us. Fortunately the legends and tails still exist about their abilities and the achievements. Some factual information has ceased to exist and the generation of that era past away or lost and unable to give their account of what went on around the crucial points of taps evolutionary beginnings.

Unfortunately tap dancing was not regarded as an art form until quite late in it's development and it's Afro-American origins went unrecorded, due to the racial barriers that existed at the time and the struggle for equal rights for Afro-Americans, who were thought of as being in the minority. Tap was looked upon as being a gimmick and some thing done on the street for money. The interest for tap dancing soon took off around the black theatre shows and was quickly adopted in white shows. When tap went to Hollywood the great studios looked for other white Americans to take the staring rolls in the big block buster films they made. Even though the actors were really of lesser standard of dancing ability, compared to many great Afro-Americans that were around at that time. All of a sudden the silver screen took over and even today it is the great Hollywood headline names that are deep in the minds of 20th century tap dancers and not the original founders, but the injustices of the past are regretted by future generations and remembered so that history does not repeat its self.

It is a shame that the true story is seldom heard, thankfully though, there is sufficient interest by the dedicated few who unearth the Valley of The Kings of Tap and bring a greater enlightenment to all. Time Step concentrates on two of the most prolific tap dancers, who's names are linked with every aspect of tap as we know it. It should be pointed out however that the combination of these two dancers is the basis of many of the tap styles there after. All dancers who precede these two great men pay tribute to what they accomplished in there time. Obviously there were many other less well known dancers who contributed some important aspects to the art, but this is a tribute all the great innovators.