Tap City
Tap City, the New York City Tap Festival, was launched in 2001 in New York City. Held annually for approximately one week each summer, the festival features tap dancing classes, choreography residencies, panels, screenings, and performances as well as awards ceremonies, concert performances, and Tap it Out, a free, public, outdoor event performed in Times Square by a chorus of dancers. The goal of the Festival is to establish a higher level of understanding and examination of tap’s storied history and development.” 
== History ==
Tap City was designed to bring attention to New York City’s tap community. Its first iteration was held from July 7 through July 15, 2001, at various studios and performance spaces around Manhattan. Chaired by Hoagy Carmichael Jr., and Gregory Hines, the Festival began with an open jam session at the Broadway Dance Center in midtown Manhattan. Over the ensuing eight days, an international roster of over 90 performers appeared, which according to the New York Times, writing the day before the event, was to include well-known tapsters like Jimmy Slyde, Prince Spender of the Four Step Brothers, Brenda Bufalino, Jane Goldberg, Lynn Dally, the Silver Belles and Gregory Hines. Many of the performers will also teach classes.
Venues over the years have included The Joyce Theater, the Duke on 42nd Street, Symphony Space, Chelsea Studios, the Hudson River for a waterborne tap jam, and the amphitheater at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
== Festival highlights ==
Highlights of the festival now include:
=== Tap Awards ===
Film presentations and performances honor recipients of the Hoofer and Tap Preservation Awards and inductees into the International Tap Dance Hall of Fame.
==== International Tap Dance Hall of Fame ====
2002Fred Astaire
Jeni Le Gon
Baby Laurence Jackson
Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson
Eleanor Powell
John W. Bubbles
Steve Condos
The Nicholas Brothers
2003Charles 'Honi' Coles
Chuck Green
2004Ann Miller
Donald O'Connor
Gregory Hines
2005Peg Leg Bates
Sammy Davis Jr.
2006Bunny Briggs
2007Eddie Brown
Leon Collins
2008Jimmy Slyde
Mable Lee
Two-Man Comedy Tap Team - Cook & Brown
Two-Man Comedy Tap Team - Stump and Stumpy
2009Brenda Bufalino
The Class Act
2010Maurice Hines
2011Charles Cholly Atkins
2012Alice Whitman and the Whitman Sisters' Legacy
2013James Buster Brown
Paul Draper
2014Carnell Lyons
Gene Kelly
2015Henry LeTang
Ray Bolger
2016Harriet Quicksand Browne
Master Juba
Original Copasetics
Ludie Jones
The Apollo Number One Chorus Line
2017Duke Ellington
The Cotton Club Girls and the Cotton Club Boys
2018Ralph Brown
Tap Happenings
2019Ruby Keeler
The Radio City Music Hall Rockettes
Dianne Walker
2020Arthur Duncan
The June Taylor Dancers
2021Paul and Arlene Kennedy
Hal Le Roy
=== Annual Copacetic Boat Ride ===
The Festival officially kicks off every year on the Circle Line with performances and a tap jam accompanied by a live jazz band.
=== “Main stage” concert performances ===
The festival includes at least one Mainstage event. Recent iterations include Tap Forward, which featured new work created and performed by soloists, contemporary tap ensembles, new talent and so-called tap dance masters.”
=== Tap it Out ===
The festival finale, which features hundreds of tappers dancing in tandem in a free public, outdoors event.

== External links ==
Tap City - A New York Celebration of Tap Dance This July, Huffington Post, by Adria Rolnick. August 2013
New York City Tap Festival, The New Yorker. July 2013