National Tap Dance Day falls on

May 25 Events Pre-1600 * 567 BC – Servius Tullius, the king of Rome, celebrates a triumph for his victory over the Etruscans. *240 BC – First recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet. * 1085 – Alfonso VI of Castile takes Tol ...

every year, and is a celebration of

tap dance Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm (jazz) tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses on dance; it is widely perfo ...

as an American art form. The idea of National Tap Dance Day was first presented to

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...

on February 7, 1989, and was signed into US American Law by President

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

, on November 8, 1989. House Bill Text The one-time official observance was on May 25, 1989. Senate Bill Text Tap Dance Day is also celebrated in other countries, particularly

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

. Tap Dance Day is celebrated online, with 27,518,521 mentions on social media in 2016. Some may also celebrate it individually, due to geographical dispersion, or lack of access to the wider tap community. National Tap Dance Day is celebrated in many different ways. For example, a studio may send people out onto the streets to teach the

Shim Sham Shimmy The Shim Sham Shimmy, Shim Sham or just Sham originally is a particular tap dance routine and is regarded as tap dance's national anthem. For today's swing dancers, it is a line dance. History In the late 1920s, when Leonard Reed and Willie Bry ...

to passers by. The Shim Sham Shimmy is a popular move that is used in tap dancing. However, there are several cities (particularly in the United States) that have their own performances and events to coincide with Tap Dance Day.

References

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External links

Learn about National Tap Day Japan, celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2004.National Tap Dance Day mentions on social media.
Tap dance May observances 101st United States Congress