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Tap Musicians: Exploring The Use Of Tap Dance As An Instrument Through The Lens Of Notation, Kurt Horney, Kaia Goddard

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Known to very few, there is a written notation for tap dance: Kahnotation. Our research explores the integration of Kahnotation with musical notation. Tap dance is considered to be a performing art rather than a musical instrument. Our goal for this research is to develop a musical notation, derived from Kahnotation, that uses the bass clef and treble clef to incorporate tap as an instrument into a musical score. Multiple versions of tap notation exist; however, one universal form has yet to be codified within the performing arts industry. Synthesizing previous tap notations (that focus on movement patterns) and recalibrating …