Lessons in Tap - Week 1 [17/4/24]

LESSONS IN TAP 

Developing Our Skills - Week 1 

[17/4/24]

• After our show, ‘One Night Only’ where we performed our Jazz Lyrical Mirror dance number that we had been working on over the last 10 week, we are now working on something new for our next show, ‘Spotlight’. The next style of dance we are moving onto in our dance lessons is ‘Tap Dancing’. As a class, we aren’t very experienced with tap dancing. Some have tapped before and some have never. I personally, I have never tapped before so I’m going to be learning from scratch. I am both excited and nervous to try and learn tap but I am very excited to challenge myself with a new dance style. 
• Before we began learning anything, Rob, our dance teacher, told us what song we would eventually be dancing our tap sequences to. The chosen song is "Downtown" by Macklemore. "Downtown" is a hip-hop style song which wouldn't normally be the genre style choice for tap. This song is a good speed for beginners as it is fast enough for a tap number but not so fast that we make mistakes and mess up. 
• For costumes, we had an idea for all of us to dress up as different characters, like all different characters that you would see walking down the street. 

Introduction to Tap                                                                                                                                  

What is Tap?

• Tap dancing is a, ‘style of dance in which a dancer wearing shoes fitted with heel and toe taps sounds out audible beats by rhythmically striking the floor or any other hard surface.’ Key elements of tap are syncopation, improvisation and acrobatics. Tap is a fusion of West African step dances and Scottish, Irish and English clog dances, hornpipes and jigs. Tap originated in the late 1800’s but tap dance ‘as it is known today did not emerge until roughly the 1920s, when “taps,” nailed or screwed onto shoe soles at the toes and heels, became popular.’ Britannica

Back to Basics                                                                                                                                            

• This was our first rehearsal for tap and we first off needed to know the absolute basics of tap dancing. For this rehearsal, we didn’t have tap shows available to us so we danced with socks on. We have ordered tap shoes so will have them for future rehearsals. The first thing Rob, our teacher, explained to us was that tap footwork is either from knee or the ankle. To help us to understand that he asked us to shake our foot as fast as week could without moving our leg, just move our ankles. While we did this, he explained to us that when tap dancing we need to be relaxed. Being tense, restricts the speed and quality of our tap footwork and makes us put more effort into a movement than necessary that could lead to us overworking our bodies. To help us as a group feel more confident with learning a whole new dance style Rob explained how tap is easier than it looks. The sheer speed of the movements is what makes tap appear as complicated. 
• Once we were introduced to Tap as a whole, we started by learning the 10 basic ‘One Sound Movements’. These moves are tap movements that will only make ‘one sound’ when carried out which is evident through the name. 
• These movements and their definition are:

1. Straight tap: Strike the ball of the foot sharply on the ground and up again (ankle action)
2. Forward tap: Strike the ball of foot sharply forward (ankle action)
3. Back tap: Strike the ball of foot sharply back (ankle action)
4. Heel tap: Lift heel off the ground by bending the knee and strike the heel sharply down and up
5. Toe tap: With point of toe, sharply tap on ground and up again
6. Ball tap: Stand on both feet. Lift toe of one foot and tap ball of foot on ground. Can be done standing on one foot
7. Heel beat: Same as heel tap, but leave heel on ground
8. Ball beat: Same as ball tap, but leave ball of foot on ground
9. Step: Transfer weight on ball of foot
10. Stamp : Heavy down beat on flat foot

• Once Rob talked us through these movements, we now needed to get them into practice. Before we got up on our feet rob made us replicate the movements with our hands on the floor first. He showed us the movements with his hands and then showed us what the movements look like when danced with our feet. Rob gave us the beginning movements to a sequence which was, ‘Tap, Step, Heel, Toe, Heel, Step’. We first did this sequence with our hands on the floor and we repeated the sequence out loud as a group repeatedly to help us get the sequence into our heads. Knowing the words to a sequence will benefit us when we try them out with our feet as we will be able to say what our feet need to be doing. It will help us to connect our brains to our footwork. 
• As a class, we were all sat in a circle learning this sequence with our hands. This is when Rob asked me to stand up in front of the class and try out the sequence with my feet for the first time. Rob wants us to get used with doing sequences and movements in front of each other like this to help us learn from each other. I personally felt very vulnerable in that moment as I am definitely not a tap dancer (at this point). I did struggle with the sequence but it was my first ever attempt and I struggled to get my head around it. Once I had done it informs of the class I did feel more relaxed as once you do it once it’s okay. I always bared in mind that everyone else is also learning to which mad me feel less vulnerable. We each stood up in front of the class and while people were going rough the sequence, Rob was asking the rest of us what that person was doing wrong. This exercise allowed us to learn what is right and wrong and help us to recognise when a tap movement was done incorrectly. 
• We kept doing this exercise and then started to individually rehearse this sequence so that we can get it into our heads. 
• Once we had time to do that, Rob began to teach us some more tap movements. The next ones we learnt are called, ‘Two Sounds Movements’. These are tap movements that will create 2 sounds when carried out which is evident through its name. 
• These movements and their definitions are:

1. Ball change: Change of weight from one foot to the other on count of 'and 1'. Can be done ball to ball of foot, or ball to flat of foot
2. Shuffle: Start with your weight on your left foot and your right foot slightly behind. Then, quickly brush your right foot forward, creating a sound with the ball of your foot. Next, bring your right foot back and touch the ground with your heel, creating a second sound.
3. Pick-up step: Stand with feet slightly apart, turn up toe of R. foot, keeping heel on the ground. Sharply slap ball of foot backwards, removing heel and step back on R. foot, turning the L. toe up to repeat the same movement on the other side
4. Pick-up spring: Same as pick up step, but spring onto ball of foot instead of stepping backwards, stepping backward after spring to repeat on same foot

• We followed the same method of learning the movements with our hands before getting up on our feet like we did with the One Sound movements. Once we had then started to practise these movements, we then started to add more to our sequence. Our sequence was now: tap, step, heel, toe, heel, step, pick-up, step, shuffle, step, shuffle, step, step, heel. We spent the remainder of the lesson learning this sequence. 

Thoughts & Feelings                                                                                                                                

• Overall, I think tap is definitely going to be a challenge for me. I feel that I did well to pick up the steps quite quickly but as this is my first time ever trying tap, my technique isn't at a good standard. This is something I can 100% develop and work on in future lessons I just need to make sure I get the steps/movements right first. I feel that I am doing quite well for a first attempt but I need to make sure to be practicing what we learnt in this lesson at home.