Tap Dance

“What is Tap Dance? It’s the most fun you can have. Ever.”

That was how a great teacher of Tap introduced his class to a bunch of complete beginners. And he’s probably right.

Tap Dance is one of the greatest ‘feel-good’ dances you’ll ever encounter. It makes everyone smile and is quite mesmerizing when it’s done well. And the greatest thing about it is that you can learn it surprisingly quickly.

Even by the end of a couple of well-taught classes, you should be able to dance a short, simple routine that will sound ‘right’. Because, that’s the thing with Tap Dance; it’s all about the noise! It’s very evocative – it feels (or more pointedly, sounds) like ‘proper’ dancing.

It’s one of those dances that you’ll know instantly if you are doing it right or not. Somehow, we all seem to have a ‘good ear’ for Tap Dance and know what it should sound like. That means that if you are prepared to pay close attention to your teacher, you should be able to monitor your own progress after a fairly short space of time – your built-in Tap Dance ear will be a constant tutor!

It’s also possible to practice Tap Dance surreptitiously – I’ve seen people tapping out their practice routines under their desk while they are working!

It’s a great dance for feeling like a dancer and giving you a huge amount of fun and reward.

It’s not so good on the workout front until you’ve been doing it a little while. For your first few lessons, you may not use anything other than your feet to tap with and your hands to clap with. So if you are looking for a good cardio workout from your dance class, you won’t get it from tap until you are a little more proficient and are leaping all over the place. But fear not, after just a couple of lessons, you should at least be doing routines that last long enough to get the heart rate up a little! And it’s a great toner for those calf muscles.

The Class

Whether you are dancing your first class in tap shoes or not, you’ll love it. If your co-ordination is OK, you should be able to pick up the basics really quickly – certainly enough to keep on practicing at home.

And with Tap Dance, you do really need to keep practicing – kitchen floors are ideal! So you may be surprised by your first lesson and just how much you learn.

So, to get started, you may be given a short warm-up to do or may not. My preference is always for some warm-up and most good teachers offer this.

And you’ll be pleased to know that a lot of Tap Dance teachers will give the lesson a ‘show tunes’ soundtrack to really get you in the mood. Technically of course, you can Tap Dance to practically any music that has a strong beat, but it’s the show tunes that make everybody smile!

First of all, you teacher will probably slowly take you through a basic counting pattern and the separation of using the toe to tap with then the heel. These ‘isolations’ will help you start to think of your feet as each having two very different sections.

So you could find yourself spending a large part of your first lesson, just walking up and down the studio, practicing ‘toe - heel’ walking. This is covered in detail in the Moves and Steps section below.

And that is really all you need to concentrate on – just your feet and the weight you put down into your tap. No arm movements, head positions or anything else complicated will be introduced at this stage. So by solely (excuse the pun) concentrating on your feet, you do progress quite quickly.

You’ll be surprised that from just a simple ‘heel toe’ action, a good teacher will be able to mould that into a little step, by varying the tempo of the Tap, the pressure applied to the toe or heel and the order of the Taps.

You will be able to build a little routine – enough for your to practice from – from the most simple steps. In your first class, this is fantastically satisfying. And if it’s set to a show tune, what more could you want?!

There may not be any cool-down for you. But your calf muscles have been through quite a lot to it’s always worth having a quick stretch out if you can. Do ours here.

Clothes and Shoes

No good doing this in sneakers, in case you couldn’t guess.

The grip on the bottom of rubber soled shoes doesn’t allow enough slip, particularly for steps such as the shuffle. You will probably learn this on your very first lesson so why not try the lesson in outdoor shoes if you don’t have tap shoes?

If you wear an outdoor type shoe, ensure is has a smooth flat sole with no ridges. In fact this is about the best option if you don’t have tap shoes. You’ll at least hear some noise from the flat, smooth sole of an outdoor shoe or boot. Failing that, socks are actually better than sneakers until you decide to buy tap shoes.

And of course there’s another reason not to wear rubber-soled shoes – the noise. Brushing a rubber sole along the floor produces a truly nasty high-pitched squeal. It’s just not cool to be piercing your class-mates’ ear drums, or your own for that matter. Fingernails down a blackboard, anyone? Yes, it’s that bad. So, in Tap Dance, it’s all about the shoes.

I always hesitate to encourage new dance pupils to pay out huge amounts of money for all the right ‘kit’ before they’ve even had a couple of lesson to establish whether the dance is going to suit them or not.

However, I do think that Tap is one dance that you are never going to experience learning properly unless you are wearing the right shoes. So is the financial outlay worth it up front? Yes.

Go to one class with a flat soled outdoor shoe on that makes a bit of noise when your foot strikes the floor. But then, if you do enjoy your first class, try your best to invest in a pair of tap shoes.

There are some great shoes out there that do the job perfectly well and don’t cost a fortune. And it’s worth the outlay. The sound of the tap that a proper pair of tap shoes makes is unlike anything else you'll ever hear.

Oh, and by the way, it’s not actually the shoes that makes the noise. They need to have the taps screwed onto the bottom of them – one metal plate on each toe and one on each heel. And those metal plates, the Taps, come in different types. A good shoe for a beginner will have a basic set of taps screwed on to it, or, if they come without and you have to choose, you can go for a fairly cheap set to keep the cost down.

As your dancing progresses, you may want to replace them with a more expensive type that sound different - there are different tones of taps. Although this is something to consider only when you are truly comfortable with your dancing – because everyone in your street will be able to hear you with the performance taps on!

Firstly, before you even tap your first tap, keep your knees relaxed and ‘soft’. Never tap with a straight leg. Doing this can threaten injury and besides, tapping on a slightly ‘softer’ leg gives a far better tone of tap.

Also, keep your weight more on the balls of your feet. Got all that? OK, so now try to walk by putting the ball of your foot down first, then the heel.You’ll hear your teacher say ‘toe - heel, toe - heel’.‘Toe’ usually means the whole ball of the foot in any dancing where tapping is involved.

Now try the other way, heel - toe, heel - toe. Bounce these steps slightly for better tone and feel.

As mentioned above, you really are only using your ankles and knees at this stage. It’s going to be a while before you are spinning around the floor (a la Ginger Rogers) and therefore getting your heart rate up a bit. So don’t expect a massive fitness benefit from your first few classes. Concentrate on your timing, balance and technique instead.

Ready to try a basic step?
This is the ‘Shuffle’ (“your greatest friend in tap”).

You are only going to tap with your toe for this. And your ‘working leg’ (as it is in most dances) is the leg that is going to execute the step. Your other leg (the ‘supporting’ leg) is the one that will bear your weight during the step. So, lift your working leg slightly off the floor.
Bring it forward quickly, tapping your toe on the floor.
Then bring it back to the starting position, tapping the toe in the same place as your foot moves backwards.
One tap each way. The heel of the working leg should not touch the floor at any point.
Got that?! Try it here.

As mentioned in the ‘Clothes and Shoes’ section, sneakers would be making agonizing squeaking noises at this point so really aren’t a good idea!
By the time you get to practice a few toe – heel’s followed by a shuffle or two, woven into a short routine by your teacher, you’ll start to really hear the sound of the taps in unison. It truly is one of the most exciting noises you’ll ever hear. Try more basic Tap Steps here.

Yes, you’ll need to get the right shoes to Tap Dance properly and yes, you’ll need to practice often if you are going to master the rhythm and the basic steps – enough for you to dance a routine.
But is it worth it? YES. It’s a dance style that you’ll love dancing and will get huge enjoyment out of. Give it a go. You’ll be glad you did.