Tap dance gets its name from the sounds made by special shoes with metal taps. The American art form got its start in the 1800s, as a melting pot of ethnic percussive dances blended African tribal ...

This is a tap show without tap shoes. Mr. Teicher is reaching back before the invention of metal taps to an earlier tradition of thumping and scraping, but he applies it to his own ends.

Their shiny black tap shoes make them sound like a small herd of ponies clattering across cobblestones. The sound comes from metal “taps” on their heels and toes, taps that are attached to a ...