"Listen to My Feet and I Will Tell You the Story of My Life": Re(hear)ing Tap Dance as Rhetorical Practice

This dissertation serves as a response to the “call” that scholars of African American rhetoric (Smitherman, Richardson, Banks, Young, etc.) have made asking for further investigation into the aspects and elements of the African American rhetorical tradition that are rooted in performance. I contend that tap dance should be recognized and documented as one of the performative, survival literacies within the African Diasporic and African American rhetorical tradition(s), and that there is great rhetorical significance in the compositional practices and griotic traditions of tap dancers. Utilizing an interdisciplinary framework, this project assembles ideas from African American Rhetorical Studies, African American and African Diasporic Studies, and Performance Studies, alongside ethnographic research, to not only prove that tap dance is a form of communication, but also to demonstrate how tap dance operates rhetorically, and how those rhetorical moves are connected to both the African Diasporic and African American rhetorical tradition(s). Ultimately, this project extends the definition of the “manifestations” of African and African American rhetoric to include the rhythmic embodiment of expression, by linking the practice of tap dance to the Africanic concepts of Nommo and Ma’at, as well as the African American rhetorical principle of signifyin