Tap Teacher's Toolbox

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Included Items:

30 Warm-Up Approaches

30 Fun and different ways to start class.
PDF Format with video explanations for 11 of the approaches.

30 Across the Floor Approaches

30 fresh ways to go across the floor.
PDF Format with video explanations for 9 of the approaches.

What to Listen For & How to Fix It

I share the specific items I'm always on the watch out for.
PDF Format with video explanations for each of 7 areas.

Technique Approaches

4 General and 5 specific approaches.
PDF Format with a video explanation for one approach.

Common Problems and Fixes for 75 Steps

I point out the most common problems then their solutions for 75 popular tap steps.
PDF Format with video explanations for every step.

Counting & Rhythm

I break down counting and rhythm with visual and auditory aids.
PDF Format with several video explanations.

Class Activities

I give you multiple activities across 4 general categories.
PDF Format.

Games

6 Fun games to use in your classes.
PDF Format with 4 video explanations.

Tap Dance Choreography Tools

A variety of ideas to help your choreography spread across 8 general categories (aimed more at less experienced choreographers)
PDF Format.

Cleaning Can be Fun

6 Ways to make cleaning dances more fun for you and the students.
PDF Format.

Split Level Strategies

7 Approaches to working with split level classes.
PDF Format with 1 video explanation.

Improvisation

A scaffolded approach to improvisation from beginner to advanced.
PDF Format.

8 Ways to Keep Your Students Excited About Tap

A variety of strategies to keep your students excited and engaged.
PDF Format.

8 ways to Get Your Students' Attention Without Yelling

Easy to use techniques to get them to tune in without getting angry.
PDF Format.

9 Strategies to Keep Your Students Challenged

A variety of approaches to keep your wiz kids interested and challenged.
PDF Format.

Breathe new life into your classes!

While teaching can be incredibly rewarding, we've all felt our classes get stale while we do the same old things in the same old patterns.

Class energy drops way down and we have a hard time finding that spark to feel creative and try new things.

We have some students who seem to be stuck on the same steps for months on end while others are on the fast track and get bored because the rest of the class can't keep up.

And we have to balance all that out!

There is a way to deal with all these challenges and make your classes rock!

The Tap Teacher's Toolbox will bring new life into your classes and help you rediscover the joy that teaching tap can bring.

Are those tired old warm-ups boring you to tears? We've got 30 different ways to approach warm-ups that will absolutely spice things up!

Are you doing the same old same old across the floor? We've got 30 different ways to go across the floor that will keep your students interested and simultaneously spark your creativity.

We'll help you make technique both fun and productive and learn how to manage classes with wide disparities in levels.

On special occasions, pull out one of our engaging games to really light the students up (I've got a game you've never even heard of and my students love it!).

What is this toolbox?

I want to be crystal clear about what this toolbox is and is not.

What this is not:

This is not a collection of actual tap dance content - you are not getting 30 videos of me teaching across the floor combos (we have a separate product for exactly that). You are not getting videos of me teaching choreography or warm-ups.

What this is:

You will be getting detailed guides (written out and often accompanied by videos) outlining various approaches to everything from warm-ups, to across the floor to technique and so forth.

Basically, I'm sharing every strategy, every approach and every trick I've learned over the last 30+ years of teaching. I'm giving you everything I know - I'm not holding anything back.

In fact, this is the most meaningful product I sell - the idea of helping other teachers out with all that I've learned makes my heart happy.

Below I'll go into a little more detail for each guide included.

30 Warm-Up Approaches

You get a list of 30 unique, fun, and refreshing warm-up approaches (11 have accompanying video explanations).

Here's an example:

Fun Formations - call out steps and formations such as "shuffle ball change and 2 lines in windows" and the students have to use shuffle ball change to get in that formation before you go on to the next step.

To spice this up even more, I split the class into 2 groups to see which group can form their formation both faster and more accurately (straighter lines etc.) while still keeping their footwork clean. The first group to cleanly form the formation with good footwork gets a point.

What I love about this is that it's training the students to pay attention to footwork quality and formations at the same time - but it doesn't feel like work because they're having fun trying to win the contest!

30 Across the Floor Approaches

You get a list of 30 exciting, creative and fun across the floor approaches (9 have accompanying video explanations).

Here's an example:

Side Front Swap - Have all steps that typically move to the front or back like flaps and drawbacks, move sideways. Also, have steps that typically move sideways, like bombershays, move either front or back.

To really drive this home, I would mix them together like this (BOLD = LEFT FOOT, lowercase = right):

Moving Sideways: step DRAWBACK drawback, FLAP BALL CHANGE stamp STAMP,
Moving Backwards: bombershay bombershay stamp, BOMBERSHAY BOMBERSHAY STAMP

The great thing about this approach is that it can take old familiar steps and give them new life. And because the directions are the opposite what students typically do, they have to really engage with the content - and that's what we're after!

What to Listen For & How to Fix It

Here, I'll reveal the 7 elements of footwork I'm always evaluating whenever I listen to my students' feet and what to do about any problems you hear. This list stays more general.

Here's an element I'm always listening for (I'm sure you are too):

Missing Sounds - Missing sounds are usually caused by the foot being too low, too high, or too far away from your center.

Holding one's foot too close to the floor is fairly rare (just have the student lift their feet a bit higher), but having the foot too high or too far from center, is quite common.

For a foot that is too high, simply have the student lower it closer to the floor. In some instances (when just telling them to lower their feet fails) I will even have the student imagine a subfloor 2 inches below the floor they're standing on and I'll tell them to try to tap on that subfloor.

Missing sounds from having a foot too far from your center often occur in shuffle sounds during turning sequences. Just having the dancer keep their shuffling foot closer to the standing leg will often fix that.

Again, these 7 problems I'm listening for and the adjustments to correct them, are more generalized and not so step specific.

If you're looking for strategies for for specific moves, keep reading.

Common Problems & Fixes for 75 Popular Tap Steps

This collection of troubleshooting tips and strategies is going to change your teaching life! Every single approach is both written out and documented on video!

There are some steps, like pullbacks, that students can get stuck on for months, or heaven forbid, years!

I have no patience for strategies that don't get results. Every single approach I give you, I actually use in class and have chosen that strategy over others I've been taught or tried for one reason only: it works better than anything else.

I'm not claiming 100% perfect results here - but I can tell you these strategies make all the difference in the world for both you and your students.

Let's tackle those pullbacks:

Pullbacks often take students quite some time to get. I have dramatically sped up that process with a single strategy (but I have many more...) - travel more.

Don't dismiss it because it's simple. It works - but they really have to travel. We're talking 3-6 feet of travel for one pullback. When you first tell them to travel more, they'll travel an extra 6 inches. That's not going to cut it.

I have them stand in place then I go stand about 4 feet behind them and tell them they have to make it to my foot in one pullback. They usually fail 2 or 3 times before they finally travel enough - and when they do travel enough, more often than not they will get the sounds!

Seeing their face light up when they can finally do it is GOLD!

Once they're finally getting their pullback sounds, I can have them gradually travel less without losing their sounds.

But not traveling enough is not the only problem I see for pullbacks.
Some students squish up their toes inside their shoes during the pullback. You will need to ask them directly if they are doing that. Often times they'll answer "I don't know."

No problem - have them do it again paying attention to what their toes are doing inside their shoes. If they are squeezing their toes inside their shoes for more than a split second, that will cause them to scrape the first sound of the pullback.

Another issue is students pointing their feet (especially the ones who take lots of jazz and ballet). If you point your feet as you leave the floor during a pullback, you are going to get a scrape 100% guaranteed. They need to keep their ankles relaxed, or if the pointing is a serious problem, they may even need to consider gently flexing the foot.

This is the type of detail I go into for these common problems and fixes for 75 popular tap steps - and it's all on video so you can see and hear exactly what I'm talking about. Frankly, I think this is the most important item in this toolbox.

Counting & Rhythm

In this document with accompanying videos, I break down counts and counting as well as straight rhythms, swing rhythms and syncopation.

I even have audio files and a methodology that will help you train your students to hear and count the beat as well as find count 1 in the music.

If you've ever felt lost or mystified when it comes to counts, timing and rhythm, this will clear it up for you and your students.

Games

You'll get a few tried and true classics, but the real gold lies in the ones you've never done before.

I promise I'm not trying to boast here, but in the studios I teach at, my games are legendary - especially "What Step Is This?"

Kids request that game all the time! I typically save it for the week before spring or winter break, and boy do they love it!

I'll give you the general idea below:

I split the class into two teams and each one lines up single file. The line leaders start the competition (after the line leaders go, they go to the back of the line and then the new line leaders compete, etc.).

I describe a tap move (ideally in non-tap language) like this:

"This is something you put on an envelope to mail a letter."

The first line leader to realize that "stamp" is the correct answer and to correctly execute the step with their feet, gets a point for their team. People who are not line leaders are not allowed to help in any way.

The first team to reach a predesignated score (like 20 points) wins - although sometimes I don't even bother to keep to score because the kids are having so much fun without it.

When you purchase the Tap Teacher's Toolbox you'll get a document specifically for this game that is a list of common/popular steps and over 140 fun clues like the one above (some steps have as many as 5 different clues - this helps keep it fun over time so the kids don't just memorize all the clues).

This and the other games I outline really bring the fun into tap class especially on special occasions!

Choreography Tools

This is great for less experienced choreographers or veterans who just need to be reminded of some approaches they may not have used in a while.

We'll cover different formation types and what each is good for as well as other elements to be aware of to keep your choreography from getting stale and boring.

Cleaning Can Be Fun

Oh I have some lifesavers for you! I can get so bored cleaning it's not even funny. So to combat that, I've come up with some unique and fun strategies (I include some obvious ones too).

Here's a fun one the kids really like:

I bring a deck of cards to class. I separate the black and red cards. I stipulate that the black cards to represent footwork and the red represent performance (smiling etc.).

As the students dance, I walk around and watch - when I see good footwork I hand a black card to a student. If I see good performance, I hand them a red card. At the end of the dance, the students count their cards to see how they did.

If they got 5 black cards and one red, they obviously need to work on performance (or vice versa). Because the cards are definite quantities, they can and will work to get more of a specific type of card the next round.

If you want to spice it up a level, let half the students hand out cards while the other half dances.

This is just one approach I use - I've got several more that keep the students engaged and having fun.

Split Level Strategies

Dealing with different levels within the same class is a serious challenge!

There is no silver bullet here, but I will give you several approaches to make class work better and to better accommodate the needs of the different levels than just having everyone do the same thing all the time.

Improvisation

Some students really hate improvisation - often they are afraid of it and of not knowing what to do.

I've got an approach that scaffolds even the most reluctant student from a super simple start all the way up through some seriously advanced work.

The good news is that you can jump into this scaffolding based on where your students are and you'll have a clear, easy to follow path to build up their improvisation skills.

Excitement, Attention & Challenge

I've got three guides that will help you ace three different aspects of teaching:

1. Keeping students excited and engaged - having excited students makes teaching WAY easier and a lot more fun. This results in them boosting your energy instead of sucking yours away.

2. Getting students' attention without yelling - this helps you keep order in the class without spoiling the vibe by being angry or resentful.

3. Keeping more advanced students challenged (even if they're in a lower level class) - if you're anything like me, you hate when your best student is bored because class is moving too slow for them. I'll give you some easy-to-apply techniques to keep them engaged and striving.

I've got many strategies for each of those objectives and each one contributes to a better teaching experience.

Digital Tap Short-Hand

Way back in the day I had a pocket pc and I wanted to keep my class notes on it. So I had to develop a shorthand that works on digital devices.

I'm going to give that short-hand to you, so you can do the same. I have easy to use strategies to differentiate between left and right feet (LEFT IS UPPERCASE, right is lowercase), turning vs not turning and even little tricks to reveal rhythms without the counts.

If you've ever wanted an easy way to do notes on a phone or laptop - here it is!

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens after purchase?

You’re presented with a web page and email containing links to your content (DVD orders get a separate email for tracking).

What if it's the wrong level or I'm unhappy?

You can exchange your content for a different level for free or get a refund.

How long do I own it?

Your downloaded files are yours for life and current online access is for life as well.

Take the next step!

Join more than 10,000 people who've enjoyed my videos and improved their strength, coordination and balance by tap dancing with me.

This is an investment in your health and quality of life - you'll be happier and healthier and have fun doing it!

It's time to look great, feel great and get healthy - let's tap!

Digital Download & Streaming - $99

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