I'd like to add to this interesting dicussion with an excerpt from Lynne Fauley Emery's book "Black Dance: from 1619 to today; 2nd revised edition {Princeton Book Company, 1988; pps.205, 206}. I believe this excerpt begins to address Frank Hamilton comment "The [there?]remains the question as to where tap-dancing came from. This may be of Celtic origin through step-dances and clogging and was picked up by African-American entertainers" . Furthermore, I believe this excerpt helps to focus attention on the important roles that African Americans had-not just as source material for-but active performers in minstrelsy in the USA and elsewhere in the world.

"Negro Minstrel Dancers
Minstrelsy also left us with the remembrance of a few old plantation dances and with the names of a few authentic Negro performers. In the old Georgia Minstrel troupe, which was eventually renamed for its white manager, Chareles Callender, were three famous Negro stars. James Bland, the composer of "In the Evening by the Moonlight" and "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" was one. Another was Sam Lucas, of whom more will be said shortly. The third was Billy Kersands, a dancer and a comedian.

Kersands was a leading exponent of the Essence Dance...Tom Fletcher, who knew Kersands, described him as
...a natural born comic...He also was a good acrobat and tumbler and an excellent dancer. His original dance creations were the soft shoe and buck-and-wing, the dances that were very popular in the early days of show business; the type which are still use today in all musical shows,...Now taught by dancing teachers and known as the "soft shoe"", this dance was called the "Virginia Essence" by Kersands. He danced it in a slow, four-four rhythm, and for all of his two hundred pounds he was as light on his feet as a person half his size.

Another famouse minstrel dancing act was that of the Bohee Brothers. These two were exponents of the Soft Shoe and, according to Edward Marks, "They were,so far as I know, the first team to play banjos while dancing". Traveling to England with one of the minstrel companies, they were well received there both as performers and teachers. One of the brothers, James Bohee, instructed the Prince of Wales on the banjo and did not return to the United States...

With few exceptions, most of the Negro minstrel dancers were noted for a variety of talents other than their dancing abilities. Of necessity they were comedians, singers, actors, or instrumentalists and sometimes were all of these things. Even Master Juba, with all his sanceing expertise, was also an expert on the tambourine. As minstrelsy declined and the Negro performers found work in medicine shows and carnivals, the circus, vaudeville, and the theatre, the dancers maintainedtheir many talents, and also, for a long period of time their blackface stereotypes."