I grew up learning classical tap in heeled tap shoes, but with no understanding or explanation of where tap came from and who my teachers trained under. Don’t get me wrong, they were amazing teachers, but they never quite let us in on the history of tap!

Then, when I went to college, I experienced a totally new kind of tap and from a teacher with an amazing lineage and understanding of tap history and the tap world: Gay Nardone. She was a Rockette and then continued on to train under and perform with greats like Dean Diggins and Brenda Buffalino! We were even lucky enough to have Dean come to our rehearsals and give us notes, and to our performances which set our hearts racing!!

I remember my first tap class with Gay: she asked us to do an open and closed third. I had never in my life heard of this thing! Then she asked us to do pickups and, yet again, I was flustered and confused! I grew up calling “pickups” “drawbacks” and simply had never done an open or closed third. Gay was also flabbergasted as I had great technique, but no understanding outside of my tiny bit of classical training. So, I think this brings up a really important point to teaching tap: make sure your tappers understand different styles and terminology as they change teacher to teacher and region to region!

Throughout my training with Gay, I quickly learned rhythm tap and about the greats that brought it to us like the Nicholas Brothers. We had dance classes where we watched videos/movies starring Shirley Temple, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson just to name a few. Gay exposed us to the world of rhythm tap and classical tap, the music great tappers through the ages have danced to, different ways of counting music and brutally difficult tap classes and routines!

Gay also made us participate in an “improv circle” at the end of each class. This was a dreaded moment for me for multiple classes, but through the years, it allowed me to become more comfortable with my sounds and myself as a tapper. I think that including improv to each class is key in allowing a love for tap to blossom. Even though it is scary at first, I think using new pop music is a great way to ease the pressure!

So, Sarah, I obviously agree with you on so many things and I think the most important thing as a tap teacher is to take classes yourself and beam your love for tap so it can be seen by your students. Also, explaining to students your lineage and those before you historically makes a huge impact in a blossoming love for tap.

Thanks for posting about tap… I look forward to more reading!

I think you make some good points here. As a tap teacher, I live the struggle to make tap a form of dance that the kids want to take. Unfortunately, tap is not that popular in film or television and I think that has a big impact on the kids. Also, jazz, lyrical and ballet complement each other quite nicely, but a lot of those skills they learn (like pointing your toes) actually work against them in tap class where pointed feet lead to scraping sounds.

I think you are right on target with #5 above. I used a current song in one of my classes last year and I saw some those kids light up in a way I’ve never seen before. I try to keep a rotation of some of the hot songs of the day on playlist (though I;m guilty of not always keeping it up to date). I also chose a day when the kids got to bring in their own iPods and we used their music for class. They liked that a lot.

Finally, I shoe my kids videos of the greats, especially the Nicholas Brothers. They are really amazed at what they see and it inspires them as well.

Nice article, Keep up the good work.

Rod