Rod Howell

* Teacher

1. *Choreographer
   

2. *Performer
   

3. *Musician
   

4. *Producer
   

5. *Web Designer
   

Accomplishments

1. *Choreographed for/Performed on Soap Net
   

2. *Wrote and recorded music for Soap Net Appearance
   

3. *Recorded tap sounds for Miss America Pageant
   

4. *Multiple Choreography/High Score Awards at Competitions
   

5. *Performed with/Choreographed for Tapsounds Underground
   

6. *Created world’s largest free tap video dictionary
   

7. *Created the first online tap show, Garage Tap
   

8. *Created an entire song out of a single tap sound
   

  

Teaching Credits

1. *18 years teaching experience
   

2. *Edge Performing Arts Center
   

3. *L.A. Underground
   

4. *3D Dance Network
   

5. *Encore
   

6. *L.A. Elite Dance Convention
   

7. *Bobbie's School of Performing Arts
   

8. *The Talent Factory
   

9. *Pam Rossi's Dance Ten
   

10. *Dancing Unlimited
    

11. *Broadway Bound Dance Academy
    

12. *Center Stage Dance Academy
    

Email:  rodhowell(deletethispart)@unitedtaps.com

United Taps Story

In the mid 1990's I started a web site called e-tap.com.  I put up some step definitions and a few animations to show how to do certain steps.  The response was great, but I eventually took it off line because I didn't have time to work on it.

Fast forward to May 2005.  I decided it was time to bring back e-tap.com but in a different way.  I came up with the name United Taps and decided to base this new site around video clips.  You can explain a step all day long, but sometimes it's just easier to watch it.  I decided I would have a video clip of almost every step I knew.  I figured I would just go into the studio, video my steps, convert it and post it.  Piece of cake, right?  HAH!  Nothing is ever as simple as it seems.  Here is the short version of my successes and failures:

Late May 05:  FAILURE - My first attempt at videoing turns out to be a flop due to too much echo from taping in a large room.  All the steps I shot had to be refilmed.

Late May 05:  SUCCESS - I fill an entire video cassette with steps and begin to film a second.

Late May 05:  FAILURE - I accidentally changed some setting on the video camera so all the steps filmed on the second tape had an orange-ish tint to them.  All those steps had to be refilmed.

Early June 05:  SUCCESS - I refilmed the second tape and it turned out well.

Mid June 05:  SUCCESS - I began making headway very slowly converting the video of each individual step to a format I could post online.  I didn't have very good video editing and converting tools so this process was ssslllllooooowwwwww.

Late June 05:  MAJOR SUCCESS - All video files had been converted, compressed, and named.  I began work on writing the actual web pages.  This was more work than I bargained for.  Each and every link (over 2000) has to be written out by hand!!

Late June 05:  CATASTROPHIC FAILURE - My hard drive crashes and I lose ALL my video files (nearly 2000 of them).  I thought I had them backed up on an extra hard drive, however dragging the files to the extra hard drive only created a shortcut to the files and didn't actually back them up.  Talk about getting sick to your stomach.  I was extremely upset and discouraged.

Early July 05:  SUCCESS - Slowly I began to reconvert all the video files from tape to computer and compress and label them.

July-October 05:  SUCCESS - A little bit at a time I gradually convert all the video clips to a web friendly format (I got a new computer which helped a lot).

November 05:  FAILURE - I review all my video files and find several are not good enough either due to my tapping or video glitches, and a few are missing (can't blame the dog on this one).

November 05:  SUCCESS - I refilm the bad video clips and reconvert them.

November 05:  SUCCESS - I create links to all 2009 video files.  Every link has to be typed out one at a time as they are all different.  This process was the definition of monotony.

November 29th 05:  SUCCESS - I post all the web pages and get ready to start uploading the video files.

December 1st 05:  SUCCESS - United Taps is online!

May 18th, 2006:  SUCCESS - United Taps begins branching out to collaborate with drew Tyler Bell on a new show called "Garage Tap!" 

Some Time 2006:  SUCCESS - I offer sales of my album No Rest through unitedtaps.com

April 2008:  SUCCESS -  I refilm EVERYTHING to offer in a more condensed Flash video format (no more downloading, just hit play).  I ended up cuting filming short

email: rodhowell(delete this part)@unitedtaps.com