What the Eye Hears

"Mr. Seibert's way of explaining tap constitutes nothing less than a social history of our country's deepest folk and pop roots . . . He rolls out a cast of thousands. . . and he layers their stories—black dancers on white on black—so deftly that a reader turning the pages gets a visceral sense of the art's constant overlap . . . "—Elizabeth Kendall, The New York Times

"There have been some valuable works [about tap dancing] but never a volume that did the real heavy lifting: critical, analytical, historical, comprehensive . . . That book has now been published."—Joan Acocella, The New Yorker

"Brian Seibert's authoritative What the Eye Hears illuminates those beginnings [of tap dance]—along with what happened afterward—as well as anyone ever will. His research is as thorough about the 1820s as about last week. Seibert . . . has smoked out every clip, sat through every silly old movie, read everything and sorted it all out for the rest of us . . . [he] does a sterling job of telling the story of where tap has been, and why it matters."—John McWhorter, The New York Times Book Review

"Seibert cares, first and foremost, about the dance as dance. He’s done a marvelous job tracking that dance, too, digging deep into primary sources to help you see, and hear, dozens of tappers from the nineteenth century to the present . . . Seibert generously invites both the famous and nearly forgotten into his pages, making a case for why each of them matters as an artist . . . This is masterful storytelling."—Megan Pugh, The New Republic

“Tap is America’s great contribution to dance, and Brian Seibert’s book gives us—at last!—a full-scale (and lively) history of its roots, its development, and its glorious achievements.”—Robert Gottlieb, dance critic for The New York Observer and editor of Reading Dance

“Brian Seibert’s What the Eye Hears not only tells you all you wanted to know about tap dancing; it tells you what you never realized you needed to know. Drawing on his massive research, Seibert follows the art through its roots, its vaudeville heyday, its forays onto Broadway and into Hollywood, its decline, its renaissance, and its dissemination beyond American shores. And he recounts all this in an easygoing style, providing vibrant descriptions of the dancing itself and illuminating commentary by those masters who could make a floor sing.”—Deborah Jowitt, author of Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theater, His Dance and Time and the Dancing Image

"Anyone interested in dance, popular culture, and African American history will enjoy this comprehensive work.”—Carolyn Mulac, Booklist

“The word comprehensive comes to mind, but is insufficient to properly describe the depth of detail Seibert achieves . . . Fascinating, sharply written cultural analysis.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)