Tap and Teeth: Virtuosity and the Smile in the Films of Bill Robinson and Eleanor Powell

Power, Intimacy, and Submission in Hollywood Tap

Tap dance movies flourished rapidly in the 1930s and, by 1935, Hollywood’s production of feature-length tap films doubled in comparison to the preceding years (Photo 1). The industry eagerly promoted new tap stars and developed cinematic techniques to feature them, as tap dance musicals proved to be some of the biggest box office draws of the year.¹ In 1935, several feature films catapulted Bill “Bojangles” Robinson to movie stardom, and the press hailed Eleanor Powell as the “greatest female tap dancer” for her screen debut (Schultz 1994, 9). Two of their works, Robinson’s The Littlest Rebel and Powell’s Broadway Melody of 1936 (both of which opened at the end of 1935), utilize a cinematic formula that features the virtuosic footwork of the tap artists in sequences that are intercut with giant close-ups of toothy grins. The experience for contemporary spectators can be unnerving, as magnified lips, teeth, and eyes dominate the screen and interrupt the pleasure of watching expert tap. By the mid-1930s, just a few years after the advent of sound motion pictures, Hollywood had perfected the lucrative genre of tap dance musicals. The industry used close-up shots of the smile to repackage tap dance for the big screen, as cinematic techniques also constructed narratives of race and gender.

In this article about tap and teeth, I examine the interplay between virtuosic footwork and close-up shots of the smile to reveal how tap artistry intersects with Hollywood’s construction of racial and gender stereotypes. At first glance, Robinson and Powell share few similarities aside from their reputations as skilled foot technicians, charming performers, and relentless perfectionists. Yet, despite obvious differences of gender, race, age, and their dissimilar career backgrounds, dance styles, movie studios, and plot lines (Broadway Melody of 1936 is a back-stage musical, and The Littlest Rebel is a Civil War plantation drama), movie-makers filmed Robinson and Powell in a similar manner in these dance sequences. Tap dance, without a doubt, is noted for smiling performers. Tap dancer Honi Coles remarked of Robinson that “Bo’s face was about forty percent of his appeal” (quoted in Stearns and Stearns 1979, 188), and one of MGM’s first moves to prepare Powell for her film career was to fix her teeth (Thomas 1935). The smiling or non-smiling moment signals a complex negotiation between the dancer’s agency and the demands of the director and production, and can express a multitude of meanings and emotions. I address only one type of shot utilized by filmmakers: the close-up of the smiling dancer’s face in the midst of his or her tap routine.

Photo 1.

Bill Robinson. Video still from The Littlest Rebel. Directed by David Butler. Twentieth Century Fox, 1935. Beverly Hills, CA: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2005.

The editing technique of intercutting close-up shots of smiling teeth with full-body shots of tap dancing creates multilayered narratives of power, intimacy, and submission. Robinson’s and Powell’s power as performers is established in the opening moments of their solos. In the birthday party scene of The Littlest Rebel, Robinson steps forward with confidence; in the “Broadway Rhythm” sequence of Broadway Melody of 1936, Powell boldly sprints onstage to an orchestral fanfare. Both artists elegantly command their performance spaces and focus the attention of their staged audience, telling us—the live viewers—that they are worthy of admiration.² Close-up shots of their faces in the opening moments of their dance solos direct spectators to see Robinson and Powell as powerful and important stars. The connection between live fan and filmed star becomes even more intimate, as he or she looks directly into the camera and appears to gaze into our eyes. In the moment our eyes meet through their direct address, all other spectators fall away, and the dancer’s smile and performance seem to be for...