Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) to wriggle out of trouble, to evade something cleverly; thus n. a graceful evasion, a distracting performance.

1987		G.W. Clemente Cops are Robbers 139: Bucky’s rap was a tapdance, a softshoe he would shuffle quite a few times during that coming year, but for a while it was convincing.
2000		Lehr & O’Neill Black Mass 34: Green, a glib salesman with a checkered past, tried a salesman’s tap dance.
2003		kariyaki posting 21 Mar. on ‘All My Children’ at SoapSlut 🌐 Chris says that he thought Erica was cheating on him. She says he’s right. Oh, I can’t wait to see her tapdance out of THIS one.
2003		N. Cvetkovic Blog 22 Apr. 🌐 ‘If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything,’ Santorum, R-Pa., said in the interview, published Monday. (Trying to tapdance out of it...).
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Irish Fandango [ebook] [N]o one had said anything about a Mrs Callaghan. He tap-danced. ‘Um, she’s at her mum’s place’.
2014		D.B. Flowers Bangs 220: ‘Enough bullshit. Where’s my money?’ Bangs picked up again. ‘I told you I’d pay you Saturday night and Saturday night’s not over yet,’ Bobby tap-danced.

2. (US gay) to masturbate; thus tapdancer n., a masturbator.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 115: to masturbate [...] tapdance (’40s). [Ibid.] 116: masturbator [...] tapdancer (’40s).

3. (Aus.) to beat up.

2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] [I]t had been decided to break the strike by force and target the organisers for some serious tap-dancing.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Irish Fandango [ebook] The other one started tap-dancing on him with plenty of vim.