An insider word for tap dancers in the rhythm tap tradition: close-to-the-floor footwork, sound over looks, improvisation as the default. Closely tied to Harlem's Hoofers' Club.
When two tap videos look completely different, you are usually not seeing two skill levels but two traditions. Broadway tap is built for stage impact: big movements, synchronised groups, choreographed pictures. Rhythm tap — the world of the hoofer — sees itself as part of the jazz tradition: smaller, closer to the floor, often solo, and the sound produced counts for more than the shape. The most common misreading is treating rhythm tap as the easier option — these are two independent traditions, not two levels of difficulty. The word is at home in the back room of a Harlem billiard hall: at the Hoofers' Club, dancers met from the 1920s into the 1940s to steal steps from one another. What gets missed: the split between the two branches has a real history along racially segregated stages — it is not merely a matter of taste.