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Creator
Goldberg, Jane, 1948-
Call number
*MGZMD 497
Physical description
7.72 linear feet (19 boxes, 1 oversize folder). 14.4 gigabytes (7 computer files). 204 audio recordings. 148 moving image recordings
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Jane Goldberg Changing Times Tap Dance Company collection, *MGZMD 497. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Repository
Jerome Robbins Dance Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

The Jane Goldberg Changing Times Tap Dance Company collection, dating from 1943 through 2018, traces the professional history of founder Jane Goldberg and the initiatives undertaken by the Changing Times Tap Dance Company to promote and preserve tap dance history. The collection holds the Company's administrative files, promotional and publicity materials, photographs, correspondence, writings about tap by Goldberg, and extensive audio and moving image recordings of rehearsals, performances, and interviews.

Biographical/historical information

Jane Goldberg, tap dancer, teacher, director, and pioneer of the tap renaissance of the 1970s, was born in 1948 in Washington, DC. As a teenager, she participated in school musical performances and the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in the summer of 1964. In 1973, she looked up "tap dance" in the Boston yellow pages, found her way to the dance studio of Stanley Brown, and began to study with him.

One year later, she moved to New York City where she studied dance with the Judson Dance Theatre experimentalist Simone Forti. Lessons with Charles "Cookie" Cook, Albert "Gip" Gibson, Leon Collins, and Leslie "Bubba" Gaines soon followed. After about six months of studying the craft, she decided instead to write about tap dance. She traveled to Pittsburgh to interview Paul Draper and published her first article, "It's All in the Feet" in Boston's Patriot Ledger in 1974.

Five years later, in 1979, Goldberg formally founded the Changing Times Tap Dance Company, dedicated to preserving, promoting, and creating new tap performances. The company was also dedicated to the mixing of dancers of different ages and identities. Within the auspices of the company, Goldberg generated many more ideas that would help bring a more enthusiastic, critical, and public response to tap dance.

Teaching the rhythm tap tradition also became part of Goldberg's charge. She knew its survival required it to be passed on by the masters of tap. In 1980, Changing Times Tap Dance Company produced By Word of Foot: Tap Masters Pass on Their Tradition at the Village Gate in New York City. It was a rare gathering of tap's leading dancers, where they discussed their traditions and taught their own evolved styles. By Word of Foot was hailed as the first tap festival, and was organized and produced again in 1982 and 1985.

In the 1990s, Goldberg continued her exploration of comedy, tapping, and talking with productions such as Tapping and Talking Dirty, Rhythm and Schmooze, and The Rhythm Method. Goldberg continues to travel with The Traveling Tap Museum, a mobile exhibition and set for presentations about tap dancing. She also delivers Tap-A-Grams, a singing/tapping telegram service. Her team of dancers will dance and sing for a special event or occasion on request.

Scope and arrangement

The Jane Goldberg Changing Times Tap Dance Company collection chronicles the histroy of the company, which was founded in 1979 by tap dancer, teacher, and historian Jane Goldberg. While some materials date back to 1943, the bulk of the content ranges from 1970 to 2010, covering over fifty years of Goldberg's research and archival work. The collection focuses on the history of African American tap dancers through written profiles, photographs, audio and moving image recordings, writings, and publications. Tap dancers prominently represented throughout the collection include Chuck Green, John W. Bubbles, Leslie "Bubba" Gaines, Gregory Hines, and Charles "Cookie" Cook.

The collection holds articles and clippings by and about Goldberg; the Footprint: News on Tap newsletter; subject files for company projects and shows; photographs; educational material; profiles of dancers and companies; and show programs. Goldberg also wrote memorials and obituaries for dancers featured in local and national publications.

The By Word of Foot festival is documented through promotional materials, correspondence, press, and companion audio and video recordings. In addition to company records, the collection includes an extensive section on Goldberg's personal and professional history, containing annotated writings, early articles, designs, correspondence, ephemera, and programs from the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.

Three boxes of photographs depict Goldberg from her teenage years through the 2000s, including images with dancers such as Marion Coles, Charles "Honi" Coles, Albert "Gip" Gibson, and Ginger Rogers. Other photographs cover company sponsored performances, individual and group dancers, Goldberg's teaching fellowship in India, and behind-the-scenes images from the 1989 movie Tap.

Performances and shows from the company's repertoire are represented in audio and moving image recordings. Included are recordings of Rhythm and Schmooze, Shoot Me While I'm Happy, Sole Sisters, The Tappin' Talk Show, The Tap Goddess Speaks, and Goldberg's first show, It's About Time.

The collection also holds recordings of performances by individual dancers such as Cholly Atkins, Brenda Bufalino, and Howard "Sandman" Sims, some of which include conversations among the subjects. Interviews in the collection feature Goldberg on radio and television, at festivals, and with students. Many interviews with other dancers recorded by Goldberg include transcriptions located within the paper files.

Arrangement

Arranged topically into Articles and Press Clippings; Education; Journals and Newsletters; Photographs; Programs; Subject Files; Tap History; and Audio and Moving Image Recordings.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Donated by Jane Goldberg in 2018.

Revision History

Electronic records and audio and moving image recordings processed by Tara Strongosky in (2026.)

Processing information

Processed by Tara D. Strongosky in 2019.

Using the collection

Location

Jerome Robbins Dance Division
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor