Top 10 Tap Dancers of All Time 

yeah, what about Shirley Temple .. keeping up with them Adults .. she was an amazing little girl

@@usrawesome thank you!! That's what I'm saying. She should be on the list!

Thank you for this comment

usrawesome definitely not

Have you see the video of when he first met the Nicholas brothers and them doing the time step outside MGM studios when Astaire was making Top hat. It’s really sweet and awesome.

The Nicholas Brothers were as smooth as smooth can get. Fayard was interviewed & he said that contrary to popular belief, "Jumpin' Jive" was not filmed in one take & it was choreographed.

Thanks, Will Ruha. What a great synopsis of their dancing. Watching them never fails to amaze me! Thanks so much to those who on RU-vid have allowed us down the road to watch their amazing dancing and acrobatic skills!

The "Jumpin' Jive" number was not all filmed in one take. The "one take" idea came from a misquote. The sequence where they jump over each other's heads and land in splits was unrehearsed and done in one take, and later someone mistakenly wrote that the entire number was unrehearsed and done in one take. Regardless of how many "takes" it took to film that scene, what does it matter? It's still one of the most if not the most amazing and wonderful dance scenes in all of cinema. I have watched it over and over again and it still blows my mind. Furthermore, the Nicholas Brothers are about so much more than technique. They had great spirit and style and were nothing but class.

@@danawinsor1380I agree totally. I first saw the Stormy Weather routine decades ago and I was blown away by it then and I keep going back to it to be blown away again and again. Such beautiful expressions

The Nicholas Brothers’ Stormy Weather dance finale is nothing short of breathtaking, amazing and awe inspiring. Can never be duplicated, ever! And let’s give kudos to an extremely talented Cab Calloway and his Cotton Club Orchestra which put the beautiful music to this Great Dance routine. I can’t stop watching the video. Extremely talented, Extremely Classy!!!

And in the dance scene where they are dancing to vowels sounds! He's stupendous!

Not only "Singin' in the Rain". He's incredible in that movie, but also in "Call Me Madam". In that film, he tap dances and, towards the end, pops balloons with each dance step. In "I Love Melvin" he dances on roller skates. Gene Kelly had done the same thing, but, although I love Gene, I would dare say Donald surpassed him in that category. Donald O'Connor definitely should've been on this list. Given that fact that he was in "Singin' in the Rain" with someone as well known and talented as Gene Kelly, I feel that he's often overlooked. He was WAY more talented than people give him credit for.

@@acalia_sariah Yes. I have to put Donald's talent in the same category of Gene and Fred. He was a tremendous talent.

Try this on for size? It will have you grinning from ear to ear. "Where Did You Learn to Dance' from I Love Melvin .ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_bfZs1AGCRQ.html

Donald Oconnor remains one of the best

That Routine Were they're Jumping Over each other on the Stairs an they said they didn't Rehearse that at all it was all Natural Shame on Hollywood for not Giving them their just do!

Yes, I agree. Amazing - for what they did. In that one category they were the best.

I remember all of these dancers from watching all of the musicals when I was a child. They forgot to show Shirley Temple dancing. If you gave her a routine, she could do it in one take! Yes, I know she wasn't a tap dancer, but she was a great child actress.

They could fly before Michael Jordan!

Lucky Number..........

@@grandcatsmama3421 And they did not like little boys!

I think if the list was expanded to the top 15, Ann would have made it - she was agreeably a good dancer. They could have also thrown in James Cagney and Shirley Temple, even though she was a child at the height of her career. FYI - Diane.

Ann Miller DID make the list, she is at time: 2:07, right after Eleanor Powell. It was when she was younger.

hongkongnana Newterritories / thank you for clearing that up. I didn’t recognize her and some artists names didn’t appear. I think a machine gun tap middle of her time at MGM would have been a better clip choice.

hongkongnana Newterritories That is Eleanor Powell it’s just that her hair is different that was the film call 1000s Cheer that she ( Eleanor ) was dancing in .

Wow. I'm going to have to Google her. I have never heard of her. Thanks

I shoot video of many recitals of dance studios. They still learn tap and they learn it well. My only problem is they choose the wrong music, Most will do a tap dance routine to slow numbers without any rhythm.

Your right,especially as athletic and creative young people are today.

You're right, just like Jazz.

No...it is in transition, once again. Limited by bad floors and trying how too find a way to mix movement with rhythm in a way that the general public enjoys it again. But it isn't dead and this generation needs to use more of their energy, creativity and love of tap, to make sure it survives and blossoms!

it’s not dead trust me...

nobodyaskedbut The brothers used more elements of gymnastics and ballet. Smooth as oil working the flour as if dancing on ice with class and style. They are the greatest!

@@pamelajohnson866 The brothers never had any ballet training, which is surprising, given their graceful movements - especially their arms and hands. Fayard was a natural and taught his little brother everything. Fayard also recognized Eleanor's great talent and said that he considered her not only the best tap dancer, but the best dancer - period. I'm happy to report that there is a new biography of the Nicholas Brothers in the works!

I agree!

Say that again please!!!

Big facts

Including singing.

I totally agree

Tap dancing angels.

When they got to #3 I was worried Sammy wasn't going to be on the list. All of them are great but, Sammy probably did it longer than anyone since his career lasted 60 years. However, I am biased being related to the Mastin family.

It wasn’t about entertainer it was about dancers EP should have been second

Agreed

I think there's no doubt that the Nicholas Brothers were the best tap dancers on film there has ever been. Certainly the other nine dancers are great too, although it's hard to pick from all the greats (hard to leave out "Honey" Coles and Ann Miller, but if you put them in, then you leave out someone on this list). I will say while I loved the Nicholas Brothers dancing, I was never a huge fan of their high pitched singing as much as other singers on the list.

@@angelagunn7986 lol same here. If they weren't number 1 the whole list was a fraud. There's no one like them.

they were faster tappers and more athletic but to me not as graceful as eleanor powell

"Stormy Weather routine STILL blows my mind. Nicholas brothers are like Muhummed Ali and Bruce Lee. They are 1 in a trillion.

I knew Fayard Nicholas in the last years of his life. He said in his opinion, Eleanor Powell was the greatest tap dancer of all time. Not the greatest female dancer. The best that every was.

Ginger was known as a great dance partner as well as a great actress....as per Fred.. she sold their10 movies.

Just a thought that deserves consideration. How about Rita Hayworth? What an amazing dancer! I think all those in this conversation were amazing dancers, but I believe I read that Fred Astaire preferred her to Ginger, not to make that any dismissal of Ginger's dancing skills. Geez, we should not be rating all these talented dancers against one another. They are all so good, and so skilled and entertaining. I just think Rita Hayworth deserves a place on the platform.

​​@@scallaghan2118 love Rita so much! A good example of how great she was was in the film Down To Earth in the green dress sequence. Where we can see how her grace and charm is shining compared to the other dancers. Love the turn sequence on the platforms she does. Eleanor may not have the beauty or presence of Rita but Eleanor can't be matched in her power and speed when she does the continous 9 turns in this video. Her skills are jaw dropping. I wonder if she had ballet training as a child in able to do this? In any case both ladies were beautiful to watch.

Water Bearer: What do you mean when you say that Fred Astaire was too self involved in his dancing ?

They are nothing less than Gods. What beautiful dancing.

he could probably do nurosurgery if you asked him to.

kenneth joseph Most definitely. I'd say Gregory Hines was the closest performer to Sammy Davis Jr. I ever got to see. I mentioned that to him when we met. Both were complete entertainers who could do it all!

I’m confident that they’ll never be another Sammy Davis Jr. again in our lifetime. What an extraordinary talent!

@@jaymesaimettibelles6767 you obviously never saw Bruce Forsyth, sammy Davis appeared at the London pallidum and Bruce forsyth out shone sammy davis by a mile.

Barbara Dyson Thank you, Barbara. I will check Bruce Forsyth out.

Yes; who ranked these acts?

or Jimmy Cagney.

Or Honey Coles or Legs Miller

Yeah the Don x

Vera-Ellen, too.

Harold Brooks Ann Miller could tap like there was no tomorrow! Way better than Ginger Rogers!

I agree. Also, what about when she comes down from the air in Choreography from White Christmas. Blows me away every time i watch it.

@@vicki4838 Yes, she was an amazing dancer!

No Ann Miller???? FAIL! Top 10 is not enough. They really need a Top 20, there were so many greats back in the day.

@@DaenerysStormborn-cw5ws I agree. Vera Ellen. Rita. Donald O'Connor. they are surely top 10 or 20.👍👍💎

Ann Miller and Ray Bolger also belong in the top 10 - I always felt Donald O'Conner was a better dancer than Gene Kelly who starred because he didn't mind playing the boring lead while O'Conner got to do all the fun stuff.

@@WhirledPublishing O'Connor is best known for 'Mak'em Laugh', after which he had to go to the hospital since he filmed it twice.. He is under-represented in film history because Kelly was better looking and more ambitious.

@@rogerpropes7129 When O'Connor and Gene Kelly are dancing side-by-side, O'Connor is clearly the better dancer - he was also good looking but he apparently preferred the goof-ball roles so he could have more fun.

🤦😂😂😭

step ball change is all I could do....lol wanna borrow my tiger balm?

The amazing thing about the Nicholas Brothers is that Fayard Nicholas taught himself tap dancing, then taught his younger brother Harold how to tap and devised the act, when he was still in his early teens. They were an immediate sensation at the Cotton Club when still in their early teens. And as soon as they got to Hollywood, they sought out Fred Astaire, who kindly coached them on some of the finer points of tap. The Nicholas Brothers were amazing and definitely a strong #2, but Fred Astaire was the greatest and its not close. There's a reason Michael Jackson created Smooth Criminal as an homage to Astaire.

Those splits just look like they have to be painful, but we'll never know. By the way, that's Cab Calloway they're working with.

Those full splits look as if they hurt!

The Berry Brothers did mind-bending splits. They weren't as good as the Nicholas Brothers (no one is), but their splits are astounding. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fBP1C_kcvok.html

They were’t all black! Tho it did start with them as far as I know long ago

@@rmcfete if I hadn't seen something about Isadora Duncan on PBS I wouldn't have known about her. She was during the 1930s I believe. Anglo lady. Kinda chic. More great dancers.... Baryshnikov and Nureyev. Saw a vid on YT n sighed. Seems like there's a lot of gapeing holes in this culture sometimes. So tragic. Kids need the Arts in school. Sigh again. Many blessings.

gary dassing same here...it’s a dying art. We need some young people to take it up and revive it again.

You know you can still learn.

She did dance on stage with Bill Robinson, but she had to wear blackface while doing it. She'd be ostracized for that today, but when she did it, it was in order to be able to perform with a black man because she had no problem doing so. She was way ahead of the curve on civil rights. She talks about it in this interview (it's really long and not great quality and sorry I don't remember what time she talked about Robinson): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Z92h-bAMXBw.html

@@HariSeldon913 - that's very true

Eleanor Powell was judged the best tap dancer in the world by the Dancing Masters of America _before_ she went to Hollywood. 'World' meaning USA of course ...

@@EJP286CRSKW -she was Great, I love her movies

I love the way she danced

Don't forget Arthur Duncan, who for many years danced for Lawrence Welk.

@@stevenjoyal6565 agreed !!!!!!

notconvincedgranny , I'm 60 years of age and as a child we would go outside, in the rain, and tap dance singing " Singing In The Rain " to mimic Gene Kelly . Lol ❣✌

We get caught up in TAP. Why? It's only one part of being a true dancer. FA and GK did it ALL. FA was doing modern jazz in his 60s.

@@BuckyBrown-lt4ry the video is about TAP!!! Might I suggest if you want to discuss all around entertainers or whatever you're talking about you search for a video on that subject. Or make a video of your own

loved gene kelly but he can't top the nicholas brothers, no one can.

That tap number Kelly does on roller skates - I have no idea how he did that

That's all he could do. How can anyone say he was better than FA or GK or DO? And even in his field there were better.

I second this emotion.

@@BuckyBrown-lt4ry If it wasn't for Bojangles, tap wouldn't have had the exposure it had. He paved an avenue for the hoofing tap masters to have the success that they did, so that weighs extremely heavily.

@m howard I get what you're saying, but this video is totally based on the best tap dancers of all time. Going off that specifically and not looking into his personal life, Bojangles has to be ranked higher. He brought an African-American created art form to the forefront and the big screen. If you take any intro level tap class that incompasses tap history, the first tap dancer you talk about is Bojangles before you talk about the Nicholas brothers or the Copasetics Club or anyone else, and that's because if it wasn't for him, none of them would've been able to be as successful as they were. Hence why he should be ranked higher.

Who do they think everybody else on this list learned from? ?

My all time favorite Astaire clip.

That film you mention was “The Big Broadcast of 1940”. A stunning number by Astaire and Powell.

I was wrong. The movie with the outstanding tap duet by Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell was Broadway Melody of 1940, not Big Broadcast. Sorry,

The only time I've ever watched anyone out dance Astaire. (He didn't like it much... You'll notice they never danced together again...)

I agree even though I love the Astaire and Rogers musicals. "Night and Day" was a flawless routine. So, for me, Fred Astaire with ANYONE is a good time. Gene Kelly also but Astaire was just...........sigh....💕

Martin Epstein Truth is no one can duplicate ANY of these dancers. And to think that Harold and Fayard learned to dance by Fayard who was the eldest (taller and lighter of the two), snuck into the theaters to watch performers, memorized their steps and went home and taught his brother.

It must have been a difficult choice. I forgot Sammy Davis danced. Donald O’Connor was good. Also the dancer from Oklahoma. Can’t remember his name. Became a choreographer after an injury. The Nicholas brothers are awesome. So in tune with each other. An enjoyable video. Thank you.

Totally agree with you. Eleanor was a much better dancer than Ginger but Ginger made more musicals cuz she was a better actress than Eleanor. Further more, even the great Fred Astaire was nervous dancing along side Eleanor but was OK with Ginger alongside cuz he knew he was better than Ginger but not as good as Eleanor.

@@xavierfernandes5349 Absolutely right. The only dancer Astaire performed with who he said "intimidated" him was Eleanor Powell. She had a faster tap. She deserves billing over Ginger Rogers for sure as a tap dancer for chrissakes. Nicholas Brothers? Numero Uno. In any universe.

"Make 'Em Laugh"

Actually, Fred said that that dance scene was the best ever filmed.

Yes, Nicky Wilks that is the order I agree with🙂

No wayyyyyyy!!!!!

Nicky Wilks Gene Kelly Bojangles Nicholas brothers

she should be higher than Ginger Rogers, Eleanor could do things Ginger never could

She should be no. 2 if we are talking about purely TAP DANCERS. She was simply mind blowing but yes, the NICHOLAS BROTHERS were stupendous and rightly no. 1

She IS a legend.

Thanks for commenting Jewel glad you enjoyed the video appreciate your feedback.

Factz ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nlpvhtd1uaI.html

Broo lollll IMMA TAP DANCER OVER 20 yrs HARDBODY WHO EVER MADE THIS LIST DONT KNOW SHH BOUT TAP DANCING!!! PERIOD

AMEN!

It isn't greatest tap dancers tho some of them are great. It's mostly great dancers with a few of the greatest tap dancers thrown in. But Sam Weber isn't there and Gregory Hines thought Sam greatest! Look him up.😏

Who are the dancers after Gregory Hines and before Fred Astair? Thanks

watch their entire dance piece on Stormy Weather. It was stopped right before the most powerful part

The Nicholas Brothers were in a class of their own. Watch their bio: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jTmJowrBwOY.html

From the videos I think he got it right. .. she may have been during her time but Ginger was a stronger Tap from the looks of these videos.

nope sorry ginger was good at dancing but not at tap dancing , Eleanor Powell had skill in her tap dancing something Ginger didn't have

Eleanor Powell... just the best female tapper of all time. Yeah, Ginger was great too, but Eleanor was just amazing.

I love Ginger Rogers but I agree that Eleanor Powell should have been ranked much higher. She was incredible. Ginger looks great in the videos because she was a beautiful performer but Eleanor was tops.

Rita Hayworth would also rate above Ginger, but Eleanor should be much higher, and the clips used were far from her best.

What about Jesse Matthews of England? IN her day was a better dancer and all around talent than Ginger. But not as beautiful.

Once a journalist asked Rudolph Noureev : "For you who is the greatest dancer of the 20 th century?" Here is the answer of Noureev : " In this century ? well I see three great dancers ,Nijinsky, me ,and Fred Astaire...and most certainly the true genius of the three is Fred Astaire "..

@Michael...Can you put the name Cyd Charisse down as a tap dancer? Really?

@@jayyoung4534 why only "tap dancers" on a top 10 list? she could have done tap if MGM wanted her to. as talented and athletic Cyd was....no doubt!

@@abevillanueva1974 Charisse was trained in ballet as I understand it, not tap.