Tag: tap dance

As a tap dancer, you’re a student of history—whether you know it or not. Tap technique today is intimately connected to the great hoofers of the past. “Tap is incredibly personal, because all of these individuals have added to the public domain, the pool of steps you draw from,” says Brian Seibert, dance critic for […]

Shut up and take my money! This summer, we shared that New York City Ballet principal Sara Mearns and dancewear outfitter Só Dança were teaming up for a capsule collection—and we promptly started saving up money to get the goods. (“Puffy coats for your calves” legwarmers? Sign. Us. Up!) We never expected to be #blessed […]

Tap has always depended on one dancer passing her knowledge down to another. So when you watch a famous hoofer perform, you’re also seeing—and hearing—her tap heritage. “In tap, through a teacher or a mentor, you’re not just learning the steps or rhythm,” says Jared Grimes. “You’re learning who you are. And that identity is […]

Remember that fabulous old-school clip of dancers tapping in pointe shoes that Tabitha and Napoleon D’umo brought to our attention back in March? As we mentioned then, toe-tap dancing was actually super popular back in the 1920s and 30s—which means there are more videos where that one came from. And because #ToeTapTuesday has a nice […]

“Imagine if a vocalist sang everything in monotone,” says Michelle Dorrance, whose company will perform its evening-length ETM: Double Down in England and Germany this summer. That’s the equivalent of a performance without a diverse array of flat slaps, deep-bass heel drops and high, tinkly taps—it’s one-note. Tappers “are dancers and musicians, and we have […]

Five women in leather-soled boots sweep their feet across a sand-covered stage, accenting the music in maraca-like rhythms. With its chugs, brushes, heel drops and slides, their movement looks a lot like tap dancing, but the sound is different—scratchier and rougher. This is sand dance. The scene described is from tap dancer/choreographer Melinda Sullivan’s 2012 […]

Oh my gosh, just watch it. A post shared by Napoleon Dumo (@nappytabs) on Mar 5, 2017 at 9:39am PST We have none other than Tabitha and Napoleon D’umo to thank for bringing our attention to this little piece of magic. They posted it yesterday, noting that it deserved to go viral, and they’re 100 […]

Talented tapper Karissa Royster made her Broadway debut this past spring in Shuffle Along, shining in Savion Glover’s stylized, 1920s-inspired choreography. Royster trained at Dance Plus in San Antonio, TX, studying ballet, jazz, modern and rhythm tap, before joining RPM Youth Tap Ensemble under the direction of Barbara Phillips. Since then, she’s performed at dance […]