Tap History
New York Public Library of Performing Arts Collection
Jane’s archives have been re-titled the Jane Goldberg Changing Times Tap Dance Company Collection. The electronic records and moving image materials of this collection have now been processed and are accessible in the reading room at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, located on the 3rd floor of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza (entrance at 111 Amsterdam between 64th and 65th) Third Floor – New York, NY 10023
Tap History
Since 1979, Jane Goldberg has preserved, promoted, and performed the dance form while paying respect to its most important key tappers such as Charles “Cookie” Cook, Albert “Gip” Gibson, Leslie “Bubba” Gaines, Chuck Green, and John Bubbles, the father of Rhythm Tap. At the end of 2019, Changing Times Tap Dance Company, Inc. donated 15 boxes of valuable archives to the Jerome Robbins Dance Collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. You can access this archive of video, audio tapes, and early interviews online or by visiting the library in person. Along with the multimedia files are included paperwork such as reviews, interviews, photos, newsletters (two issues of the first tap newsletter ever published, Footprint on Tap from the early 1980s before the International Tap Dance Journal and then newsletter began circa 1986) and more early tap lore.
The collection contains articles written by and about Goldberg, newsletters, educational papers, tap history profiles, programs, correspondence, administrative records, publicity materials, photographs, and posters. Many of Goldberg’s allies in producing original tap shows and festivals, including Dorothy Wasserman and Sarah Safford, are represented throughout in interviews, scripts, and programs.
The collection also includes an extensive record of discussions with many of the remaining old-time hoofers such as John Bubbles, Charles “Honi” Coles, and Albert “Gip” Gibson of The Three Chocolateers.
Additionally, photographs and correspondence provide a portrait of the professional and personal friendship Goldberg shared with the late Gregory Hines during tap’s “revival” of the mid 1970’s through 2003 when Hines died. They were personal friends. She has published some of his emails on tap on her website under Tapilosophy.
Contact Jane for more about tap history.