What is tap dancing?
Tap dancing is a rhythmic type of dance where dancers tap their feet (in tap shoes) against a hard surface to create sound and rhythm.
What is the history of tap dancing?
I'm going to defer to the following sites on this one: Theatredance.com or Streetswing.com
What age should I start tap dancing?
Any age. I often hear adults say they're too old to learn tap dance, but the adults I teach and talk to who are taking lessons online, universally enjoy it. In fact, I find adults learn quite a bit faster than children. Also, most adults aren't out to be the best tap dancers in the world, they just want to enjoy the experience and get a little exercise doing it.
You don't have to start at age 3 to be really good either. Some tap dancers don't get into it until their late teens or early twenties. With a good amount of practice, practically anyone can be good. Try our Beginner Lessons - they are a great place to start!
What type of tap shoes should I get?
That depends. If you want a really high caliber shoe you might try a Miller and Ben shoe, a Just Tap shoe, a GS-1, a Capezio K360 (or a customized K360), Rithem Kicks, or a Ruben Sanchez shoe. I use the Bloch Jason Samuel Smith shoe because it’s very durable and moderately affordable. However, it’s also very heavy so keep that in mind.
A beginner might just want to start out with a mid-range Capezio or similar. Don't get the bottom of the line bargain basement tap shoes. They are cheap for a reason. I would recommend starting out with a mid-priced shoe ($45-95). If you don't have a lot of money you can often go to a local dance studio and buy used shoes there or online at a site like ebay.
How much should I practice?
How good do you want to be? Two half hour practice sessions a week will yield decent progress. If you really want to get good fast, try a half hour to an hour every day. Our Premium Beginner Package will ensure you have a ton of different material to work on so you don't get bored.
How many classes should I take a week?
As many as you can! The more you take, the better you will get.
Who should I take class from?
Just about anyone. Taking from a variety of teachers will quickly broaden your vocabulary and give you a wide array of techniques to pull from when you need them. Are there bad teachers out there? Sure. How do you spot them? Look for teachers who are not specific in demonstrating or teaching a step and who cannot give you clear and detailed answers to your questions. A good teacher usually has a specific way they want you to do steps and a good reason why. Your teacher should be able to explain those clearly to you.
Can you really learn how to tap by watching videos?
Yes and no. You can learn steps and technique, but if you really want to pursue this art-form you need feedback from an experienced teacher. The ideal situation is having someone beside you to give you real-time corrections.
What kind of floor should I use?
Don't tap on cement! This can do serious damage to your body. I tap on laminate wood flooring laid over top an osb subfloor cushioned by 1 inch slices of pool noodles spread 12 inches apart. You could get a 4ft by 4ft piece of 3/4 inch plywood from a store like Home Depot or Lowes and put that on top of an exercise mat or some type of non-skid cushion (cushion is key). Beware of simply placing the wood on carpet as it tends to move around as you tap (you might need to put an anti-skid runner underneath it).
Also if you do a search online you'll find several practice tap floors for sale such as The Portable Tap Floor, (use coupon code UT and save $20 on your Portable Tap Floor Purchase) The Tappin' Floor, The FasFoot floor, and the Jubilee Dance Floor.
I can't get my shuffles (flaps, brushes, etc.) clean. What should I do?
Be patient. Clean sounds take time. Some things you can do to clean your sound include:
Imagine dipping your toe tap in paint. Every time you brush, shuffle, flap, etc. imagine painting dots with your tap as opposed to stripes.
Flex your foot more and sooner. Immediately after the ball tap hits the floor it needs to be lifted off of it. If it stays against the floor even for a second it can scrape. Getting it off the floor faster prevents it from staying down long enough to scrape. This takes practice.
Don't point your toes. This goes with number 2 above but is worth saying again. Pointing leads to scraping.
Adjust the placement of your first sound. For instance, if you're doing a flap and scraping the first sound every time, it's possible when your foot first touches the floor during the brush, it's touching the floor several inches or more behind you. If you try to make it touch the floor either in line with the other foot or slightly in front of the other foot, you may have more success. This can only be taken so far though. If you make the first sound too far in front of you, you'll have a host of other problems crop up. This works for shuffles as well.
I can't do pullbacks (pick-ups, grab-offs, etc.). What can I do to get them?
There are two main approaches to these: traveling vs. in-place/up-and-down. I do the traveling approach for pullbacks and the other approach I actually call pick-ups. For pullbacks with the traveling approach here is what I recommend: Travel backwards more. Even more. Even more. Traveling more results in students getting sounds a lot of the time. Don't lean forward and look down or you'll fall.
Don't point your toes because that will result in scrapes.
Don't lift your feet more than 1-3 inches off the floor. If you lift them too high, you will not get sounds.
Relax or tighten your ankles. This is different for everyone. If your ankles are too tight/stiff you won't get sounds. In that case relax them more. If they are too relaxed/floppy you might have trouble getting sounds, in that case tighten them (this is much more rare). On a scale of 1-10, if 10 is super tight and 1 is super loose, my ankles are about a 4 or 5.
What can I do to get wings?
There are different techniques for wings. I'll walk you through mine. First of all when you scrape out (notice I did not call it a brush - brushes aren't supposed to scrape and don't start from the floor they start from the air) make sure you're on the outside of the METAL of the ball tap, not on the outside of the shoe. Why? The ball tap only covers the front part of the foot. If you roll your foot to the side you'll find that the tap is often not even touching the floor. What IS touching the floor is the rubber on the bottom of your shoe. That rubber PREVENTS the foot from scraping out resulting in pressure on your ankles causing pain.
Also, as the feet scrape out make sure your weight is going upwards so that it's not pushing down against your feet causing pain. The next problem is how/when to get the spank in. I teach my students to try to get the spank sound when their feet are at their furthest outward point. I do this because when you're learning wings you generally aren't as fast as you need to be in terms of your feet doing exactly what you want the exact second you tell them to. So what will probably happen with you (there are ALWAYS exceptions) is that you'll try to make the spank happen at your furthest outward point but it won't actually happen until about 3-4 inches in from your furthest outward point. That's okay. That's better than trying to make the spank happen 3-4 inches in from your furthest outward point and not making it happen until 8-9 inches in from your furthest outward point, where even if you did make it, it will be timed so closely to the landing that follows that it will not sound good.
Next I recommend that immediately after the spank you try to lift your feet upwards as they come in before they finally land. This is very hard to do and there isn't much time to do it. It will keep your spanks and landing separated though. How much should you lift? Probably as much as you can, but an inch or two should make a difference.
How do I get into a tap company / What should I do to pursue tap after high school?
There are many different perspectives on this so I'll give you mine. First of all you need to be good. Very good. And not just good feet, though that will get you far. People want the whole package: good feet, good performer, good teacher, good choreographer, and versatile (can jazz dance too). If you have all that going for you then you need to get in front of the right people often. Who are the "right" people? I'm actually not the best person to answer that since I tend to follow my own path. Go to as many tap festivals and workshops as you can. The people teaching at those are probably the "right" people. Introduce yourself to them. Be in front of them as much as possible. Tell them you're interested in being a part of any projects they might have going. Ask them what you need to do to get where you want to be.
If you are a stand out in their classes, are nice to them, and make it a point to be seen by them, they will learn who you are. Then, when they need a really good tap dancer like you, there's a chance they will call upon you. As for tap in college....well it depends. I'm not aware of a college tap program that is top notch and is getting people great tap jobs. There may be one, I just haven't heard of it. As for college or no college, that's a tough one. I think college could be used to augment your tapping - maybe a major in theater or arts administration etc. But be realistic too...if you'reattending college and tapping on the side while someone else is tapping every day in front of the right people, that other person is likely to get the cool tap job.
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