Jimmy Slyde was the aptly named practitioner of a sinuous, slithering form of tap dance that helped to define the heyday of an ever-changing cultural phenomenon. Whereas modern tap is aggressive, sometimes even obstreperous, Slyde embodied a seemingly effortless ability to, well, slide across a stage, often letting slip the odd mot juste as he made his way past an admiring public.

An early acolyte of such African-American tap legends as Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Slyde in turn helped pave the way for the likes of Savion Glover, who transformed Slyde's vaunted rhythmic ease into something deliberately rougher and more raw. The two generations of performer were both seen on Broadway in the elaborate 1989 revue Black and Blue, which began in Paris in 1985 before settling into a two year run in New York, where it won three Tony Awards.

Like many African-American figures in the arts, Slyde himself settled in Paris in the 1970s, having grown up first in Atlanta, where he was born James Titus Godbolt in 1927, and then Massachusetts, where he studied violin at the New England Conservatory. It was while hoofing in clubs as a young dancer with Jimmy Mitchell, aka Sir Slyde, that the two men were dubbed the Slyde Brothers, hence James Godbolt's newfound moniker, Jimmy Slyde.

As tap grew in prominence and the public imagination, Slyde was right there with it. He appeared as one of the dancers at Harlem's feted Hoofers Club in the large-scale Francis Coppola movie The Cotton Club, starring Richard Gere and Gregory Hines, in 1984, and had a small role in Round Midnight, Bertrand Tavernier's much-laurelled film about the jazz scene in Paris. In 1989 Slyde showed up in another Hines film, Tap, alongside fellow icons Harold Nicholas and Howard "Sandman" Sims.

Slyde collected multiple accolades in recent years, starting with a fellowship from the now financially beleaguered National Endowment for the Arts in 1999; an award named for another contemporary legend, Charles "Honi" Coles, of Broadway's My One and Only, in 2001; and a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, intended for men and women of outstanding creative ability, in 2003.

Slyde is survived by his wife, Donna, and a son.

Jimmy Slyde, tap dancer, was born on October 27, 1927. He died on May 16, 2008, aged 80