Something about the "B.S. Chorus" in Tap dancing？
- Researcher: Anthony SMK
- Sep 16, 2021
- 2 min read
Our performance for the shim sham and the B.S. Chorus：
"BS" is a vulgar term meaning "nonsense" or "to fake something." Unlike the Shim-Sham Shimmy, another treasured piece of tap history, the BS Chorus requires more advanced technique. It's extremely challenging if done correctly. When it became popular in the 1920s and '30s, inexperienced dancers would try to fake their way through it—hence, "BS."
“Although we don't know exactly who decided what steps to incorporate or the order in which they were originally performed, Margaret Morrison, a tap historian, performer, and co-director of tap teaching training at the American Tap Dance Foundation in NYC, believes the first two steps of the BS Chorus date back to the 1800s, when they were part of a style known as buck-and-wing—a predecessor of tap dance, which wasn't formally known as tap until the 1920s. The sequence was later popularized and presented often by The Copasetics, an ensemble of well-known hoofers formed in 1949.”
As with the Shim-Sham Shimmy, there's no one correct way to execute the BS Chorus. Most variations occur on the break, a section of most traditional routines where the dancer can inject his or her own personal flair.
No matter how you do it, the BS Chorus is an important dance to learn and keep alive: It's informed so much of tap dance and enriched how and what we teach. "We need to return the favor by doing it well and allowing it to teach us,"
Tutorial Clip：
- B.S. Chorus的B.S.中間這兩點是縮寫符號，那麼，就令人好奇啦！ B跟S到底stand for(代表)什麼？！從出版的書籍、Honi Coles上電視接受訪問、以及當年歌舞女郎被傳授時，都被告知B.S. 代表“Boy Scout（童子軍）
- 總括而言踢躂舞裡面的 B.S. Chorus 會符合接下來要提的這幾個規則：共分為四段，第一段是Time-Step，第二段Crossover、第三段 Buck and Wing、第四段是 Over the Top 然後 Trench 然後 Shave and a Haircut 結束。
- 每一段的長度是四個八，所以總共是16個八；當然你也可以說是每一段長度是8 小節，總共32小節，端看各位習慣的算法是什麼。
- B.S. Chorus是在二O與三O年代間非常廣為流傳的一組 Routine，跟Shim Sham Shimmy不同，B.S. Chorus比較像是一種約定俗成下的產物。其目的非常的明確，就是為了陪襯主秀的跑龍套者所使用的統一套路。
- 進入2020年了，想想看，現在我們腳下跳的B.S. Chorus 與 Shim Sham Shimmy，可是跟將近一百年前的踢踏舞的前輩們跳的東西是一樣的呢，有沒有種跨時空對唱的感動呢？！
材料來源：
Source:
Opmerkingen