The Tap Love Tour Podcast Episode 138: Jason Samuels Smith & Moncell Durden - Rhythm, Lineage, and Reclassification
Feb 11, 2026
Moncell Durden, dance educator and embodied historian focused on Afro-diasporic movement. Jason Samuels Smith, Emmy-winning tap artist and preservationist of tap traditions. They debate rhythm ownership, contested origins of tap, Black indigeneity, regional influences like New Orleans, archival vs oral memory, and how movement acts as living archive.
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Episode notes
Flatboat Footwork Influenced Styles
- Historical flatboat and Appalachian 'flat-footing' traditions may have contributed percussive footwork to American forms.
- Moncell notes regional European and American footwork influenced what later became tap vocabulary.
Black Culture As Cultural Center
- Jason Samuels Smith asserts Black people in the Americas shaped mainstream culture and others assimilated into it.
- He emphasizes cultural leadership from Black American communities in language, dance, and style.
Start Research With Family
- Ask your family and community first when researching lineage because oral memory holds vital clues.
- Jason and Moncell urge listeners to trust elders and dig into family records as primary sources.
