Uploaded June 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
WHAT THE EYE HEARS: A HISTORY OF TAP DANCING
Brian Seibert with Performer Sarah Reich and Saxophonist Danny Janklow
In conversation with Sasha Anawalt, Director, USC Annenberg Arts Journalism Program
Jan 14, 2016 | ALOUD @ Central Library
Presented by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles
Brian Seibert, a dance critic for The New York Times, offers an authoritative account of the great American art of tap dancing in his new book, What the Eye Hears. Seibert’s entertaining history illuminates tap’s complex origins—from the jig and clog influences brought from Africa by slaves, to its growth as a cousin to jazz in the vaudeville circuits, to its ubiquity on Broadway and in Hollywood, and finally its post-World War II decline and more recent reinvention. Seibert, born and raised in Los Angeles, takes the ALOUD stage to discuss tap’s influence on American culture, including the legacy of L.A.’s thriving tap scene. With archival film footage and special performances by the young L.A. choreographer Sarah Reich, acclaimed as one of the new leaders in tap, this program will be sure to move you.
For more information about this ALOUD program, including photos and podcast, please visit:
lfla.org/event/what-the-eye-hears-a-history-of-tap-dancing
WHAT THE EYE HEARS: A HISTORY OF TAP DANCING
Brian Seibert with Performer Sarah Reich and Saxophonist Danny Janklow
In conversation with Sasha Anawalt, Director, USC Annenberg Arts Journalism Program
Jan 14, 2016 | ALOUD @ Central Library
Presented by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles
Brian Seibert, a dance critic for The New York Times, offers an authoritative account of the great American art of tap dancing in his new book, What the Eye Hears. Seibert’s entertaining history illuminates tap’s complex origins—from the jig and clog influences brought from Africa by slaves, to its growth as a cousin to jazz in the vaudeville circuits, to its ubiquity on Broadway and in Hollywood, and finally its post-World War II decline and more recent reinvention. Seibert, born and raised in Los Angeles, takes the ALOUD stage to discuss tap’s influence on American culture, including the legacy of L.A.’s thriving tap scene. With archival film footage and special performances by the young L.A. choreographer Sarah Reich, acclaimed as one of the new leaders in tap, this program will be sure to move you.
For more information about this ALOUD program, including photos and podcast, please visit:
lfla.org/event/what-the-eye-hears-a-history-of-tap-dancing
