About This Stamp
With these stamps, the U.S. Postal Service celebrates tap dancing as a uniquely American contribution to world dance.
This pane of 20 stamps features five different stamps repeated four times. The five stamps each feature a photograph of a different tap dancer performing his or her craft against a brightly colored background that highlights the dancer’s shaping and movement.
Historians trace the deep roots of tap dancing to the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade, especially to contact between enslaved Africans and Irish and Scottish indentured servants on Caribbean plantations in the 1600s. In colonial America, a wide range of dance elements with African origins — including a relaxed torso, hip movement, improvisation, using the body as a percussive instrument, and the rhythmic shuffling, gliding, or dragging of the feet — became intertwined with the rapid footwork of the Irish jig and the percussion of English clog dancing. Whether cultures intermingled in the rural South or in crowded city neighborhoods, the result was a budding new set of hybrid dance forms based on a skilled and ever-changing combination of movement and sound.
By the 1920s, tap as we know it had fully emerged and was popular on the Broadway stage. During the 1930s and 1940s, movies tended to highlight white dancers who tapped in a choreographed style that showed the influence of dance schools, while African American dancers were more likely to be seen performing off-screen in a more improvisational style with jazz-influenced rhythms. By the 1950s, interest in tap dancing was waning, but by the 1970s, aspiring tap dancers looked to their elders and learned from their skills and experience. As young dancers from wide-ranging backgrounds began to study tap again, new generations of professionals infused tap with influences from jazz and hip hop to express their own personalities and experiences.
From its roots in popular entertainment, tap has grown into a significant art form praised as a major American contribution to world dance. As it continues to evolve, tap will be equally at home in the most prestigious performance halls and on the streets, building on tradition while staying fresh with the infusion of new cultural influences.
Designed by art director Ethel Kessler, the stamps showcase five photographs by Matthew Murphy.
The Tap Dance stamps are being issued as Forever® stamps. These Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Art Director, Stamp Designer
Ethel Kessler
Ethel Kessler is an award-winning designer and art director who has worked with corporations, museums, public and private institutions, professional service organizations, and now, the United States Postal Service.
After earning a B.F.A. in visual communications from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Kessler worked as a graphic designer and project manager for the exhibits division of the United States Information Agency. Her work was distributed internationally on subjects such as Immigration, Entrepreneurship, Renovation of American Cities, and the Bicentennial of 1976. She was also responsible for exhibits in Morocco, Botswana, and El Salvador.
In 1981, she established Kessler Design, Inc., for which she is creative director and designer. Clients have included the Clinton Government reorganization, the Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic Television, the National Park Service, and the American Institute of Architects.
She has been an art director for the U.S. Postal Service’s stamp development program for more than 25 years. As an art director for USPS, Kessler has been responsible for creating more than 500 stamp designs, including the Breast Cancer Research stamp illustrated by Whitney Sherman. Issued in 1998, the stamp is still on sale and has raised more $98 million for breast cancer research. Other Kessler projects include the popular and highly regarded Nature of America 120 stamp series, a collaboration with nationally acclaimed nature illustrator John Dawson, the 12-year Lunar New Year series with Kam Mak, the American Filmmaking: Behind the Scenes 10 stamps issued in 2003, a 2016 pane of stamps celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, and the 2023 stamp honoring Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And many, many others.
Photographer
Matthew Murphy
Matthew Murphy is one of the world’s leading photographers of theater and dance.
Drawing on his background as a dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, Murphy captures the look and emotional feel of the shows he photographs. He has photographed such productions as Moulin Rouge!, Dear Evan Hansen, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Hadestown, and Kinky Boots, among hundreds of others. His work was featured in the advertising campaign for the blockbuster musical Hamilton, recently seen on Disney+.
Murphy’s photography has been featured in the New York Times and Vanity Fair as well as the books Hamilton: The Revolution, Come From Away: Welcome to the Rock, and Dear Evan Hansen: Through the Window. He lives in New York City with his husband, composer Ryan Scott Oliver, and their two dogs.
The 2021 Tap Dance stamps are Murphy’s first project for the U.S. Postal Service.