I’ve read your 12 Tips for Teaching Tots and found it to be very well-written, informative, and helpful. Keep up the great work you do here!

Thanks so much for the additional great ideas! This is off the topic, but . . . I think sharing is one of the most fabulous things about dance. As a teacher, my goal is not only to teach safe and proper technique, but also to immerse students in feeling the joy of music and movement. In my mind, there is no competition when it comes to teaching; we should all share as many ideas as possible to help all teachers find different methods for instilling the joy of dancing in our students. Dance also continues the tradition of handing down knowledge and skills to the next generation. This is lacking in so many other segments of our world.

- Use a lot of call and response with my kiddos. Clap out phrases that have words to them… “I like app-le-sauce”, then they clap it back to you in time.

- Playing clapping games like “Who Stole the Cookie” is a great friendship-builder, but it also has amazing benefits when it comes to keeping a beat internalized, trading improvisationally and more.

- “Shoebox” – I’m not sure from whom or where I borrowed this (Nichelle? Is this yours?). You say, “Shoebox” and they quickly put their feet in an imaginary shoebox and zip their lips. Works WONDERS for quieting a bunch of happy feet!

- Teaching silence. We do a great little drill to “Wahoo Hey I’m Combing My Hair” by the Wiggles, where the kids march for 8 counts, then freeze their feet and comb their hair for 8 counts. We’re very silly when we do it, combing a friend’s hair, messing up our own, curling it, washing it… YOU NAME IT! But they develop a great feel for the 2-bar phrase early on in their musical awareness.

I hope some of these are useful to you, Karin. Glad that the article was helpful!

Sarah

I also wanted to note that I also tend to be a planner. I think it’s incredibly helpful to have well-thought-out objectives and lesson plans with lots of activities for very young students. The key for me to avoid planning “to death” is the sensitivity you’ve spoken of. Do the prep work so that you CAN be flexible and feel out the temperature of the room… with confidence! I talk about this in a post called 12 Tips for Teaching Tots which you may have interest in. Thanks so much for reading!

I am primarily a ballet teacher, but teach a preschool ballet/tap combo class. During the half-hour tap portion of my class, I find myself spending a little time on the basic steps/technique, but more of my time doing the following:

1. Having the students clap to the rhythm (heartbeat) of different pieces of music
2. Interpreting the “mood” of the music by moving their bodies and increasing/decreasing the tapping of their feet
3. Exploring the sounds that each part of the tap shoe makes (e.g., light rain, heavy rain, thunder, etc.)
4. Speaking/singing words that are the same as the timing in their steps. This seems to help them internalize the steps.

I don’t have a lot of tap experience, but hope this is on the right track to accomplishing some things mentioned in your article.

I think the single most important piece of advice that I pulled from your article was in # 1, “Let yourself feel the energy in the room and what needs to happen as you teach.” Because of my very young students, I have to keep the class moving, so I tend to plan it to death:-) I’m going to work more on letting the energy lead me to the next natural step in the hopes of striking a balance. The remainder of your article was fascinating and I see applications for older students.

In the future, I would be particularly interested in any advice you have for teaching tap to preschool children.

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