Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/perform.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/2014572557
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
Gift; Rochelle S. Arkin; 1990.
This set of booklets was purchased from Joan Armstrong Hill by Rochelle S. Arkin and donated to the Library of Congress. Hill mailed the set of booklets directly to the Library of Congress Music Division on Apr. 13, 1990.
No further accruals are expected.
The Joan Hill Tap Notation Collection was processed, and a finding aid was created and coded for EAD format by Libby Smigel in October 2016.
The major source for archival information on tap dancing is the Gregory Hines Collection of American Tap Dance at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
For other systems of tap notation, nine notation scores for tap dance were discovered among the papers of American bandleader Ted Lewis, housed at the Ted Lewis Museum in Circleville, Ohio.
Additional material relating to tap dancing can be found in the following collections in the Library of Congress Music Division: International Tap Association Archive; Alan M. and Sali Ann Kriegsman Collection. The Music Division created a searchable online resource on tap dancing titled
Materials from the Joan Hill Tap Notation Collection are governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.) and other applicable international copyright laws.
The Joan Hill Tap Notation Collection is open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Music Division prior to visiting in order to determine whether the desired materials will be available at that time.
Certain restrictions to use or copying of materials may apply.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [item, date, container number], Joan Hill Tap Notation Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Joan Armstrong Hill, a classically trained pianist, relocated from California to Boston to study jazz with pianist-composer-educator Charlie Banacos (1946-2009). In Boston, she became accompanist for the Star Steps Studio and dance company of master tap dancer Leon Collins (1922-1985), who is credited with developing a bebop-influenced jazz tap style. The Joan Hill notation system for tap dancing was devised by her to record Collins’s tap routines, many of which are notated in the booklets of this collection. The Chicago Human Rhythm Project honored her with the JUBA Award in 2008.
The Joan Hill Tap Notation Collection is composed of 11 self-published manuals titled "Jazz Tap: The Great American Art." Volume 1 introduces the notation system and provides the scores for introductory tap exercises. Volumes 2-11 record progressively more difficult tap sequences in complete routines.
The Collection is organized in one series:
“Jazz Tap: The Great American Art,” dated between 1983 and 1989. 11 self-published tap dance manuals, which notate dance routines with symbols on a music staff.
Arranged sequentially by volume number.