Lessons in Tap - Week 6 - Part 1 & 2 [4/6/24 & 5/6/24] / Week 7 - [11/6/24]

 LESSONS IN TAP 

Developing Our Skills - Week 6

[4/6/24 & 5/6/24]

Tap Routine Run-through / Dress Run for Spotlight

Overall, I feel very positive about this run-through of our tap number. We have now completely finished it so what we need to do now is refine the dance to make sure we are all together and in time. When it comes to the actual performance skills, I would say we are all successfully characterising the dance well. This is all very good but I think we do focus on it maybe slightly too much so our actual technique is getting sloppy. We need to balance our focus on both performance and technique. We do well to stay in time with our own separate groups and I think this is because there’s less people to try and be in time with. When it comes to the group close work sequence, in the video I can see and hear that we all start at different points and some go faster than others. This is because we aren’t firstly listening to each other, secondly we are not listening to the counts in the music and thirdly we aren’t counting in our heads. This is leading us to start on different counts. One thing I’ve noticed is that we have the tendency to on count ‘1’ not ‘and 1’. I know I definitely do this as I’m used to dancing to lyrics not necessarily counts so I always start the close work sequence when the singer says ‘ downtown’ as it feels right to start there but I should be starting halfway way through the word ‘downtown’ as that’s where are starting count is. I need to listen to the song and count it in my head to make sure I start at the right point. When it come to the amalgamation sequence (shuffle ball-change tap step heel heel…) we are all pretty in time with each other. I think as a group we find this sequence easier to do than the close work sequence. 

The part where we lose our unison is at the end of the amalgamation and go into the time steps as the cunts switch up. The counts for the amalgamation is ‘and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4…’ whereas the time steps counts is ‘8 and 1 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 6 and 7 and’. We need to blend the 2 together so that the counts are now ‘and 5 and 6 and 7, 8 and 1 2 and 3 and…’. We need to slightly pause on count 7 before we go into the time steps. I personally found this really difficult and I keep slipping up and forgetting to do the ‘hop’ in the time steps. I need to break this section down and so that I can really focus on the change in counts. 

Developing Our Skills - Week 7

[11/6/24]

This rehearsal consisted of us going over the count switch from the amalgamation to the time steps and we also ran-through the whole dance repeatedly cleaning up certain sections as we go. With the switch in counts, Rob got us to start with breaking it all down and just say the counts. Saying the counts over and over in our heads will allow it to stick in our head so w have to think about less when we add the movement to it. Getting used to counting it in our heads will also get us used to counting it while we actually tap the sequence. Breaking it all down really helped me with the count switch so when it came to actually practicing the switch, I did successfully do it in time when Rob was counting and we did it with music. Once the music was being played, I did mess up more as the music led me to lose my concentration. This made me aware that I need to go over and practice this section with the music more so it doesn’t then make me loose focus.