I have taught tap dance for 14 and a half years and I’ve done tap dancing for a 31 years and I can honestly say that I love it!!! It gives you a great work out, improved balance, a more solid core, a better sense of rhythm and a love for old classic movies!! So I thought I’d bring my love of this dance style to you and get you started on your tap dance journey.
First things first – you’re going to need shoes. There are loads of different styles of tap shoe but the best ones I’ve found, for beginners, are these. They have a small heel but nothing too high and they tie up to give a snug fit. I have had a few who bought full lace up Oxford styles but unless you spend a fortune on them, the rubber on the sole just behind the metal toe plate is too thick and you’ll struggle to get a good sound without sticking to the floor! If you’re going to a school, check what their uniform policy is. You might need a specific style and colour. But please shop around! You will find a massive price variation across different shops.
You also need to think about practice. If you are going to a dance school to learn, you’ll be obviously fine there. But if you’re doing this at home, you’ll need a surface to practice on. Please don’t do this on your floor – I scratched my parents new tile floor as a teenager and before that I’d pulled holes in the lino with the screws in my taps! You can buy a tap dancing floor for home but they run really expensive. Your best bet is to grab an offcut of lino from your local flooring shop and pop that on top of upper hard floor (not a carpet). As long as you’ve got no screws sticking out of your taps, this will be fine!!!
And that is the starting points to get you tapping. Over the summer I will try and bring you 1 lesson a week and you should be able to grasp the basic steps by autumn. How exciting!!!
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The Busy Mommy UK 