'You can't see anything, can you?': Examining tap dance on early musical theatre recordings

Tap dance is a predominantly visual and embodied art form, yet its capture on sound recordings paradoxically renders it sonically disembodied, raising questions about modality, mediation, and archival presence. Drawing on sound studies, dance scholarship, and media archaeology, this article examines the presence and implications of tap dance on early musical theatre recordings, focusing particularly on the first recorded tap dance by Fred Astaire, the 1926 recording of 'The Half-of-it-Dearie Blues'. The article identifies the characteristics of Astaire's recording as an aesthetic and technological 'time capsule' (Maslon 2018), capturing both the improvisatory energy of the Jazz Age and the evolving practices of musical theatre performance during the early 20th century. Through close listening, it explores how early electrical recording technologies enabled the sonic capture of percussive dance and how performers like Astaire utilised rhythmic spontaneity to integrate tap within musical textures. The article introduces the concept of tap on record as a 'dual-modality' performance – operating simultaneously as percussive music and embodied dance – and challenges traditional hierarchies in musical theatre historiography. Further, it repositions early recordings as disembodied archives that may also serve as re-embodied 'records' with application and agency in contemporary listening and performance practice. By interrogating the racialised lineage of tap dance and its appropriation within white theatrical institutions, 27the study advocates for critical re-engagement with historical recordings by contemporary students, scholars, and practitioners as acts of examination, interpretation, and reclamation. This article argues that early recordings of tap dance offer more than nostalgic or historical curiosities – they are dynamic interlocutors in the cultural memory of musical theatre. This study opens new pathways for understanding sonic heritage, embodied archival research, and the political implications of listening anew to tap dance mediated through sound.