Tap Dance

This is a dance in which people use their feet to create sounds.  Tap dancers wear shoes with metals on the toes and heels that make loud sounds when they touch to floor. Some common beginning tap steps are “flap”, “shuffle”, “ball change”, and “cramp roll”.  Beginning steps are put together to create more advanced steps.  Tap dancing originated in the United States.  Some great , well-known tap dancers are Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly, and Shirley Temple.  Tap can be performed with or without music.  It is one of the most enjoyable types of dance.  Classic tap is the most typical type of taping.  These dancers are called “tappers”.  They usually add arms and movements into dances.  However, another type of tap dancers are called “hoofers”.  These dancers focus more on their feet.

 Below is a wonderful tap dancing scene in the movie “Singing in the Rain”.

Below is a tap class doing a dance they learned from their teacher.

There are many different types of tap shoes.  Personally, I perfer Capezio brand tap shoes that are plain black and have only a small heel. 

Another common brand is Bloch however, I feel like Capezio shoes make louder sounds.  Some tap shoes have a higher heel on them.  I like to change the laces on my tap shoes to make them my own.  Some shoes are hard and others can bend.  I believe that the hard tap shoes (as shown above) are better for you because they give your foot more support when doing certain steps such as a toe stand.

  Tap dance classes are offered at almost every dance studio.  They are extremely fun and a great work out too.  I strongly suggest you try a class and see if you like it because I tried it and fell in love with the dance!  A usual tap class is about an hour long.  A class might include, warm up, across the floor steps, and a tap combo.