(En anglais et en français)

A few thoughts

Before moving on to specific suggestions for each level of dancer, I’d like to share a few thoughts.

You will find that the la Technique category has the most courses of any category. That is because your entire tap dance life is based on learning good technique, creating a foundation on which you can develop. For example, so many of the steps you will do in your tap life incorporate a shuffle so learning how to do a shuffle properly is absolutely key. If you can shuffle well you will be able to use the shuffle, alter the shuffle and complicate the shuffle at will. That takes some attention to detail and some practice.

Practice your technique A LOT!

Advanced Dancers

Advanced dancers, be guided by what interests you. Look around the site and see what techniques or choreographies appeal to you or what improvisation exercises or music theory information seems most helpful to you. Jump around from course to course and use the material to enhance the technique that you already possess.

Tap Teachers

Tap Teachers, think about topics you want to explore to help your students (shuffles, flaps, a choreography, understanding the structure of a blues, for example) and jump in. You can use my material and explanations with your students or use my material and explanations as a springboard to create your own new material for class. You’ll find that I use a fair amount of exercises from my mentor, Stan Kahn, and you’ll see that I credit him when we work on one of his exercises.

The same way that I would be happy to know that you are using my material with your students, I am sure that Stan would be very happy to know that his material is living on and that current dancers are benefitting from his exercises.

Beginning and Intermediate Dancers

Beginning and Intermediate dancers, it is for you that I have the most suggestions because you are still developing your good technique.

I would suggest beginning in the la Technique category with the very first course, 01 – The Shuffle, and continuing on through the la Technique category in chronological order as I’ve set up the courses to mirror how I would lead a dancer through their development in the studio face to face, month after month, year after year.

Beginners, your path is easy to understand! Start at the beginning of the la Technique category, move in chronological order through the la Technique courses and remember to enjoy yourself!

Intermediate dancers, take the opportunity to check in on your technique and make whatever little corrections or adjustments you need to make. Even though intermediate dancers have some experience under their belt it is always a very good idea to check in with your basic technique as advanced dancing is based on beginning dancing. You’ve got to have the basics down correctly so you’ll be able to do the more advanced work down the road.

There is no need to rush!

Here is what I mean: 01 – The Shuffle is the very first course in the la Technique category. It has 18 videos in it. You begin by learning how to do a basic shuffle, then moving your foot to different positions while doing shuffles and then crossing while doing shuffles. You don’t have to do all of that in one practice session. I would focus on just getting comfortable doing great high-quality shuffles and then slowly over a matter of several hours or weeks of practice try adding the moving and then the crossing.

The 01 – The Shuffle course ends with what I call an Exercise Choreography, a complete 32 bar chorus, providing the opportunity to keep working on your technique in the context of a dance. You might feel most comfortable spending many hours on the basic techniques before even attempting the Exercise les Chorégraphies. There is no need to rush! The shuffle course has so much information in it that you could stay on this one course for many weeks before you decide to move on. You can download my MP3 for the choreography or use your own music.

Music Theory and Improvisation are for all levels

The l’Improvisation and Théorie de la musique categories are appropriate for all levels of dancers. Peppering your study of technique with improvisation and music theory will help you stay challenged, stimulated and interested and will help your ongoing study of technique, too.

les Chorégraphies

Have a good time learning dances that you can use for practice, for fun or for performances! More beginning students, when you feel ready to approach a full-length choreography, I think 06 – Samba Groove is especially nice for your level.

Go where you want to go

Even though I’ve made suggestions on how dancers of different levels might approach using the site, you are, of course, free to go to all of the categories and look at all of the courses and do whatever you want whenever you want. I just offer my suggestions as I think they will set you up for success.

Write to me

You can contact me via email: info@tapacademyonline.com with questions.

Have a great time dancing!

Steve

Et maintenant en français !

Par quel cours devrais-je commencer ?

Avant de passer à des suggestions pour chaque niveau de danseur, j’aimerais partager quelques pensées.

Vous trouverez que la catégorie la Technique a beaucoup de cours. En effet, toute votre vie de claquettes est basée sur l’apprentissage d’une bonne technique qui vous permettra de construire une base sur laquelle vous pourrez vous développer. Par exemple, tant de pas que vous ferez dans votre vie de claquettes intègrent un shuffle, il est donc absolument essentiel d’apprendre à faire un shuffle correctement. Si vous pouvez bien faire des shuffles, vous pourrez utiliser le shuffle, modifier le shuffle et compliquer le shuffle à volonté. Cela demande une certaine attention aux détails et un peu de pratique.

Pratiquez votre technique BEAUCOUP !

Danseurs avancés

Danseurs avancés, laissez-vous guider par ce qui vous intéresse. Regardez le site et voyez quelles techniques ou chorégraphies vous intéressent ou quels exercices d’improvisation ou informations sur la théorie de la musique vous semblent les plus utiles. Sautez d’un cours à l’autre et utilisez le contenu pour améliorer la technique que vous possédez déjà.

Professeurs de claquettes

Les profs de claquettes, réfléchissez aux sujets que vous souhaitez travailler pour aider vos élèves (les shuffles, les flaps, une chorégraphie, la compréhension de la structure d’un blues, par exemple) et commencez. Vous pouvez utiliser mon contenu et mes explications avec vos élèves ou utiliser mon contenu et mes explications pour vous inspirer à créer votre propre matériel de classe. Vous trouverez que j’utilise souvent des exercices de mon mentor, Stan Kahn, et vous verrez que je lui fais crédit quand on travaille un de ses exercices.

De la même manière que je serais heureux de savoir que vous utilisez mon matériel avec vos élèves, je suis sûr que Stan serait très heureux de savoir que les danseurs actuels profitent de ses exercices.

Danseurs débutants et intermédiaires

Danseurs débutants et intermédiaires, c’est pour vous que j’ai beaucoup de suggestions car vous êtes encore en train de développer votre technique.

Je suggérerais de commencer dans la catégorie la Technique avec le premier cours, 01 – Le Shuffle, et de continuer dans la catégorie la Technique dans l’ordre chronologique, car j’ai mis en place les cours pour refléter la façon dont je dirigerais un danseur tout au long de son développement dans la salle, face à face, mois après mois, année après année.

Débutants, votre chemin est facile à comprendre ! Commencez dans la catégorie la Technique avec le premier cours, avancez dans l’ordre chronologique dans la catégorie la Technique et n’oubliez pas de vous amuser !

Danseurs intermédiaires, profitez-en pour vérifier votre technique et faire les petites corrections ou ajustements nécessaires. Même si les danseurs intermédiaires ont une certaine expérience, c’est toujours une très bonne idée de vérifier votre technique de base car les pas avancés sont créées sur la base de la technique de débutant. Vous devez maîtriser correctement les pas simples pour danser les pas plus avancés dans l’avenir.

Il n’y a pas besoin de vous dépêcher !

Voici ce que je veux dire: 01 – Le Shuffle est le premier cours de la catégorie la Technique. Le cours est composé de 18 vidéos. Vous commencez par apprendre un shuffle de base. Ensuite, vous déplacez votre pied dans différentes positions, puis vous croisez les shuffles. Il ne faut pas faire tout dans une seule séance d’entraînement. Je me concentrerais simplement en devenant à l’aise avec un shuffle de base, puis lentement, après plusieurs heures ou semaines de pratique, j’essaierais d’ajouter le déplacement, puis le croisement.

Ce cours 01 – Le Shuffle se termine par ce que j’appelle une Choré d’exercice, un chorus complet de 32 mesures, offrant la possibilité de continuer à travailler la technique dans le contexte d’une choré. Vous vous sentirez peut-être plus à l’aise en passant de nombreuses heures sur les techniques de base avant même d’essayer la Choré d’exercice. Il n’y a pas besoin de vous dépêcher ! Ce cours contient tellement d’informations que vous pourriez y rester pendant plusieurs semaines avant de passer à autre chose. Vous pouvez télécharger mon MP3 pour la choré ou utiliser votre propre musique.

La theorie de la musique et l’improvisation sont pour tous les niveaux

Les catégories de l’Improvisation et de la Theorie de la musique conviennent à tous les niveaux de danseurs. Inclure dans votre étude de l’Improvisation et du Solfège vous aidera à rester stimulé et intéressé et aidera également votre étude de la technique.

Chorégraphies

Apprenez des danses que vous pouvez utiliser pour vous entraîner, vous amuser ou pour des spectacles ! Étudiants débutants, quand vous vous sentez prêt à travailler une chorégraphie complète, je pense que 06 – Samba Groove est particulièrement sympa pour votre niveau.

Allez où vous voulez aller

Même si j’ai fait des suggestions sur la façon dont les danseurs de différents niveaux pourraient utiliser le site, vous êtes bien sûr libre d’aller dans toutes les catégories et de regarder tous les cours et de faire ce que vous voulez quand vous voulez. Je propose simplement mes suggestions car je pense qu’elles vous permettront de réussir.

Écrivez-moi

Vous pouvez me contacter par e-mail: info@tapacademyonline.com avec des questions.

Amusez-vous bien !

Steve

(En anglais et en français)

For us tap dancers, this is a huge question!

Please do not dance on concrete or tile. It is bad for your body and bad for your shoes.

If you have wood floors at home, be careful as tap dancing on them could ruin them.

Obviously, carpet does not work for tap dancing!

So to practice at home or take a small dance floor to a location that has no dance floor the question becomes: What do we do?

To start this conversation, we have to understand the qualities of a good dance floor.

The best dancing surface for we tap dancers is a sprung hardwood floor, the kind you find in a good dance studio and in beautiful old theaters built in the era where tap dancing was everywhere.

There are several reasons why these floors are so nice:

  • Surface: The surface is hardwood so it sounds fabulous when the taps hit it and feels great under your feet with just the right amount of slippery to allow slides and wings and other moves that you can’t do on a sticky, marley type dance studio floor.
  • Cushioning: The floor is sprung which means there is a sub-floor underneath that gives slightly under the weight of the dancer. When the dancer moves, jumps, hops, the floor actually has give to it, cushioning the impact of dancing.
  • Resonating: The hardwood surface and the sprung sub-floor allow for some resonating (like an acoustic guitar that amplifies the sound of the guitar strings) giving a nice natural, acoustic sound where you can get nuances of heels and toes and scrapes and slides.

The big challenge with portable dance floors is that they have a lot of trouble replicating these three things that make a sprung hardwood dance floor such a pleasure to dance on.

I find the portable dance floors that we can all buy retail too often come with problems such as:

  • Too expensive
  • Too heavy
  • Too small
  • Too big
  • No spring or cushioning
  • No resonating

So, what do we do?

Buying Online

Here are some links to some products. Please understand that I am not endorsing these products in any way. I have no relationship with the people that make these floors and haven’t tried any of them. I’m just selecting some options that are available online for this discussion.

Here’s a really expensive floor that has a maple surface and some high density foam on the bottom for some cushion. I’ll bet this one sounds pretty good because of the maple. It is about $700 for 3’ x 3’.

https://sprungfloors.com/shop/wooden-dance-floors/tap-dance-floors/travel-board-xl-maple/

Here’s a floor that is $240 for about 2’ x 3’ and that you can fold up. It has no cushioning at all unless you also buy the frame they sell.

https://www.fasfoot.com/shop/

Here’s one that’s $199 for about 3’ x 4’ and they are trying to deal with the idea of some cushioning by having foam under the dancing surface.

https://portabletapfloor.com/

These above three floors and other floors like them could be worth it if you can afford them and like the way they sound and feel. The only way to know is to try them.

In my mind, we are always looking for the three elements — the surface, the cushioning and the resonance.

Do It Yourself

I have two different types of portable floors:

1 – When I use a dance studio that already has a sprung floor but they don’t want me to tap dance directly on their surface, I put a piece of plywood or masonite down right on top of their surface and that’s it. It’s a quick fix for about $30.

2 – When I need a small area to dance on where there is no dance floor I build my own and you can, too. You could go to a store like Home Depot and buy a piece of plywood or masonite (or higher-end type of wood) in the size of your choice (the standard pre-cut sizes you’ll find in the United States are 2’ x 4’ and 4’ x 8’) and for thickness I would suggest no less than 3/4” because the floor has to support your weight.

Then you could add some 1” slats of wood around the edges underneath to raise the wood up for a little resonance and use high density foam that provides some additional support to the surface and some cushion, as well. Building this would only take an hour or so and will cost you less than $100.

The bottom line

I would either spend A LOT of money on a really excellent floor like the first one I showed you or I would go the DIY route because I can’t see spending $200-$500 on a floor that you could put together yourself in an hour with supplies from Home Depot for less than $100.

I hope this provides you with some information on how to acquire or construct your own small tap surface. Remember if you construct your own, safety first. It has to be strong enough to support your weight and don’t forget to address the idea of some cushioning to protect your body.

Have fun tapping!

Steve

Et maintenant en français !

Que faire pour un sol ?

Pour nous les claquettistes, c’est une énorme question !

Veuillez ne pas danser sur du béton ou du carrelage. C’est mauvais pour votre corps et mauvais pour vos chaussures.

Si vous avez des planchers de bois à la maison, faites attention car les fers pourraient les abîmer.

De toute évidence, le tapis ne fonctionne pas pour les claquettes !

Donc, pour pratiquer à la maison ou utiliser un petit sol de danse portable où il n’y a pas de sol de danse, la question devient : que faisons-nous ?

Pour lancer cette conversation, nous devons comprendre les qualités d’un bon sol de danse.

La meilleure surface de danse pour nous les claquettistes est un plancher de bois dur suspendu, du genre que vous trouvez dans une bonne salle de danse et dans de beaux vieux théâtres construits à l’époque où les claquettes était partout.

Il y a plusieurs raisons pour lesquelles ces sols sont si beaux :

  • Surface : la surface est en bois dur, donc elle sonne fabuleuse lorsque les fers la frappent et se sent bien sous vos pieds en permettant des glisses et des wings et d’autres mouvements que vous ne pouvez pas faire sur un sol collant, comme un sol de marley.
  • Souple : Le sol est suspendu, ce qui signifie qu’il y a un sous-plancher en dessous qui cède légèrement sous le poids du danseur. Lorsque le danseur bouge et saute, le sol lui cède, amortissant l’impact de la danse.
  • Résonance : La surface en bois dur et le sous-plancher permettent une certaine résonance (comme une guitare acoustique qui amplifie le son des cordes de la guitare) donnant un joli son acoustique et naturel où vous pouvez obtenir des nuances de heel et de toe et de scrape et de glisse.

Le grand défi avec les sols de danse portables, c’est qu’elles ont beaucoup de mal à reproduire ces trois choses qui font un sol de danse en bois dur si agréable pour danser les claquettes.

Je trouve que les sols de danse portables disponibles en ligne présentent trop souvent des problèmes tels que :

  • Trop cher
  • Trop lourd
  • Trop petit
  • Trop grand
  • Pas de ressort ni d’amorti
  • Pas de résonance

Alors que faisons-nous?

Acheter en ligne

Voici quelques liens vers certains produits. Veuillez comprendre que je n’approuve en aucun cas ces produits. Je n’ai aucune relation avec les personnes qui fabriquent ces sols et je n’en ai essayé aucun. Je ne fais que sélectionner certaines options disponibles en ligne pour cette discussion.

Voici un sol très cher qui a une surface en érable et de la “high density foam” sur le fond pour la souplesse, le rebond. J’imagine que celui-ci sonne bien grâce à l’érable. C’est environ 700 $ USD pour 3′ x 3′.

https://sprungfloors.com/shop/wooden-dance-floors/tap-dance-floors/travel-board-xl-maple/

Voici un plancher qui coûte 240 $ USD pour environ 2’ x 3’ et que vous pouvez plier. Il n’a aucun rebond à moins que vous n’achetiez également le cadre qu’ils vendent.

https://www.fasfoot.com/shop/

Voici un qui coûte 199 $ USD pour environ 3 ‘x 4’ avec une certaine souplesse grâce à la “foam” sous la surface de danse.

https://portabletapfloor.com/

Ces trois sols et d’autres sols pourraient en valoir la peine si vous pouvez vous les payer et aimez la façon dont ils sonnent et ils se sentent. La seule façon de savoir est de les essayer.

Nous cherchons toujours les trois éléments : la surface, la souplesse et la résonance.

Do it yourself – Les bricoleurs

J’ai deux types différents de sols portables :

1 – Lorsque j’utilise un studio de danse qui a déjà un sol suspendu mais qu’ils ne veulent pas que je fasse des claquettes directement sur leur surface, je pose un morceau de contreplaqué ou de masonite juste au dessus de leur surface et c’est tout. C’est une solution rapide pour environ 30 $ USD.

2 – Quand j’ai besoin d’un petit surface pour danser là où il n’y a pas de sol de danse je construis le mien et vous pouvez aussi. Vous pouvez vous rendre dans un magasin comme Home Depot ou Bricomarché et acheter un morceau de contreplaqué ou de masonite (ou un autre type de bois de votre choix). Les tailles standard prédécoupées que vous trouverez aux États-Unis sont de 2′ x 4 ‘ et 4′ x 8’. Pour l’épaisseur, je suggérerais pas moins de 3/4″ parce que le sol doit supporter votre poids.

Ensuite, vous pouvez ajouter des lattes de bois de 1″ autour des bords en dessous pour élever le bois pour un peu de résonance et utiliser de la “high density foam” qui fournit un soutien supplémentaire à la surface et un rebond également. Construire cela ne prendrait qu’une heure environ et vous coûterait moins de 100 $ USD.

Quel est le résultat de ce discours ?

Soit je dépenserais BEAUCOUP d’argent sur un sol vraiment excellent comme le premier que je vous ai montré, soit je choisirais la voie du bricolage parce que je ne vois pas dépenser 200 à 500 $ USD pour un sol que vous pourriez construire vous-même dans une heure avec les provisions de Home Depot pour moins de 100 $ USD.

J’espère que cela vous fournira des informations sur la façon d’acquérir ou de construire votre propre petit sol de danse. Rappelez-vous que lorsque vous construisez le vôtre, la sécurité d’abord. Il doit être suffisamment solide pour supporter votre poids et n’oubliez pas d’aborder l’idée d’un rembourrage ou rebond pour protéger votre corps.

Have fun tapping !

Steve

Time steps are a basic part of the tap dance vocabulary. They come out of the Buck dancing of the 1800’s and although “rhythm tappers” are rarely found doing basic time steps these days (at least not without a bunch of fun complications and variations) time steps are still foundational to tap technique and typical steps in a musical theater setting. Everyone should learn basic time steps.

“The time step is executed in as many ways as there are tap dancers.”
Jack Donahue

There are countless time steps and modifications of time steps and you can feel free to invent your own but there are several time steps that most people know. If you walk into a musical theater audition and someone says, “Do you know time steps?” what they usually mean is a basic, traditional single, double or triple time step.

Even though these basic single, double and triple time steps are the “must know” time steps and everyone learns them from their dance teacher they are often misunderstood. Traditional single, double and triple time steps should start on 4 (or 8 if you like counting counts of 8) rather than on 1. This is so the accent will be on 2 and 4. They also traditionally begin with two sounds like with a shuffle, for example.

Teaching Basic Time Steps

All of us alter traditional steps and that is great. We can tweak and mess with any step we want to, especially when we are bending tap vocabulary to our tastes to build choreography. Anything is changeable and this goes for time steps, too. We can do with them what we will – but this is different from knowing how to teach or dance a basic traditional time step correctly. Modify all you want but teach the basics correctly.

Here’s my example: say you have a show on the Cooking Channel and your are dedicating one episode to how to make a basic pomodoro sauce. It’s your show so you decide to swap the tomatoes for oranges. (This sounds unappetizing to me, personally, but it’s your show) If you keep saying pomodoro sauce about your weird orange recipe and offer no explanation about how you have replaced the tomatoes with oranges then you are misleading people about what pomodoro sauce is because you don’t have a pomodoro sauce. You have an orange sauce. By all means make your weird sauce but be clear about the changes you have made, call it something like “No Tomato Orange Pomodoro Sauce” or something that isn’t misleading. Be clear about what is correct and traditional and what you have modified.

Modify all you want but teach the basics correctly

Back to tap dancing: I could start a basic single time step on 1 with a single wing if I felt like it but I would turn to my class and say, “Class, this is a modified single time step. We’ll start on 1 instead of on 4 and we’ll use a wing instead of a shuffle.” This way I communicate that I have something based on a traditional time step that is no longer a traditional time step.

Think about it like this:  If I teach my newly invented “Wing on 1” time step to someone and tell them it’s a “single” and then they show up at an audition and they do my Orange Sauce Time Step as a single and get told to leave in the first cut, they will be very upset with me. Modify all you want but teach the basics correctly.

There are lots of different time steps

There are other super basic time steps that are perhaps a little less danced but still traditional and worth knowing. Just off the top of my head there are:

Double Triple Time Steps
Extended Time Steps
Traveling Time Steps
Buck Time Steps
Fake Wing Time Steps

And for all of these time steps there are modifications, as well. You can alter the beginning. You can add cramp rolls and sneak in extra heels. You can replace hops with heels and on and on and on.

John Bubbles and rhythm time steps

And all of this talk of singles, doubles and triples is aside from a different category of time steps that comes from the great John Bubbles. Rhythm time steps. They typically take 2 bars (a count of 8) instead of 1 bar (4 counts) like the singles, doubles and triples we’ve been discussing. These rhythm time steps are super swinging and come with their own series of modifications, too. I enjoy these time steps quite a bit because they groove nicely and can be tweaked in a zillion fun ways.

There is a Basic Time Step course on Tap Academy Online. In it you will learn to dance basic, traditional single, double and triple time steps correctly. You will also learn some basic modifications like starting with dig brush and stomp brush instead of shuffle. Then we get deeper into the modifications like dancing the time steps both straight and swinging, not changing sides and extending them to take twice as long as a traditional single, double and triple.

In the style of Bill Robinson

In the Basic Time Step course, once we learn a basic triple time step and then modify it to not change sides, we learn Bill Robinson’s famous break that he does in lots of his choreographies. Generally speaking, Bill Robinson’s dancing contains lots of time steps and elements of time steps. This is most likely due to the period in which he grew up and learned to dance. He was born back in the 1870’s and was already well established in vaudeville by the beginning of World War I. (That’s around 1914 if you forgot your high school history!)

In future Tap Academy Online courses we’ll get into lots of additional types of time steps and modifications. There is so much to talk about with time steps!

Gene Kelly and time steps

If you are a Gene Kelly fan, there are also lots of time steps in his choreographies, too, specifically a certain traveling time step that he did in multiple dances in multiple movies. Even as I write this I am picturing him doing that particular traveling time step in S’Wonderful on the sidewalk in Paris.

Why are they called time steps?

The most plausible explanation I’ve heard is that time steps were intended to mark time. Say it’s 1920 and I’m a tap dancer. I could walk out on stage in a vaudeville show, for example, and start dancing time steps to give the tempo to the orchestra leader who could then count in the musicians. As the song begins I would shift seamlessly from my time steps to my choreography. Time steps as a way of giving tempo.

Everyone should learn basic time steps

So whether you are a musical theater lover who likes Gene Kelly or dancing like in the Broadway production of 42nd Street or you lean toward the old-fashioned 1920’s, jazz era steps like Bill Robinson or you are a hard core tapper who adores the style of John Bubbles, having these time steps in your toolkit and understanding how they work is smart. You’ll ace musical theater auditions and also be able to tweak and manipulate them to suit your tastes and choreography.

For more research:

Want to read a little bit more about time steps? In my university history course, I rely heavily on the the book “Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance,” by Marshall & Jean Stearns. In the book there is a chapter on King Rastus Brown that talks about time steps and ties in Bill Robninson, as well.

Learn to tap dance online with Tap Academy Online!

Now that we’ve had this discussion of time steps, how about coming to learn tap dance online with me? I’ve taught and performed all over the world for decades, have danced with the best of the best and trained countless tap dancers, tap dance teachers and dance studio owners. I can get you not only doing these basic time steps but really understanding them, as well.

Please check out Tap Academy Online to learn how to tap dance online with high-quality technique, exercises, choreography, music theory, improvisation and more! The CATÉGORIES DE COURS page will give you an idea of what you’ll be doing once you subscribe to the site!

(As a parting thought I’d just like to say that having orange pasta sauce is seeming more and more like a bad idea to me. I’m sorry I even brought it up!)

Steve loves his tap shoes!

How to tap dance with a cane

I have some very clear opinions about tap dancing with a cane and I think they come from my theater background. When I was studying theater at UCLA, I remember learning the following quote. It’s from the famous Russian playwright Anton Chekhov:

“If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don’t put it there.”

In other words, why have something onstage if you are not going to use it?

Give the Cane Purpose

I think if you come out onstage to do a tap dance with a cane and you basically strut around with it, hold it in front of you and sway side to side, tap it on the ground once or twice, put it on your shoulder like a soldier puts a rifle, then you really have no need for a cane. There’s no payoff for the audience. If you bring it out it’s got to make rhythm, it’s got to spin and flip and be there for a reason. This, of course, will take some time and practice because it’s about integrating the cane and giving it purpose rather than just holding it. If you are going to dance with a cane then, well, dance with a cane, is my view.

Why don’t I see lots of tap dances with canes now?

Tap dancing with a cane isn’t really popular anymore and that makes sense. Back when people would dance with a cane, a “walking stick” was a fashion accessory for a well-dressed man. You would see people strolling down the avenue with a bent wood cane or in white tie and tails with a formal cane. Now we think that canes are for helping people walk (and they are) but they used to be more than that.

Check out these song lyrics!

These are some of the lyrics to an old Irving Berlin song I used to use when I would audition for musical theater. The song is called My Walking Stick and it’s from the 1930’s.

“Without my walking stick
I’d go insane
Can’t look my best
I’d feel undressed without my cane.”

Wow! This person really needs their cane! We sure don’t live in that era anymore! Now the song lyrics would be something like “Without my cell phone and my bluetooth connectivity and all of the apps I’ve loaded, I would have trouble checking my email, knowing my driving directions, checking my social media, listening to music and playing games” and that just doesn’t sound like a very catchy song to me.

How I learned to dance with a cane

I don’t remember who showed me my first cane flourish, how to spin the cane through my fingers, but I remember thinking it was fun and then watching lots of movies with cane twirling tap dancers and trying to figure out what they were doing.

Over time I experimented with different styles of canes and different thicknesses and weights and I found what I prefer. In my case it’s a bent wood cane, the kind with the curved handle. I like it because of the weight and the possibilities that come with the curved handle.

Eventually I worked out my own flourishes and moves because the way other people work the cane doesn’t always feel natural to me. For example, Fred Astaire (the best of the best with canes in my opinion) loves to use his pinky with his cane moves and I don’t so I’ve found other ways. And you will, too, once you get into it.

Then the next level of practice is being able to do the manipulations and dance at the same time. I have dropped a lot of canes in the rehearsal studio, that’s for sure (stand far away from breakable things for a while, is my advice) and I’ve cracked a few canes in half, too.

You can learn how to tap dance with a cane

Now that we’ve been having this discussion, why not come and learn how to really manipulate a cane and integrate it into your tap dancing and choreography? I’ve got two full cane courses on Tap Academy Online — the first explains the different kinds of canes that you can buy and where you can buy them and then moves on to teach some cane manipulations. The second course is an actual tap dance you can learn and use onstage yourself or with your students! There is an Mp3 track included that fits the dance perfectly.

And there’s lots more other than canes on www.TapAcademyOnline.com!

Learn how to tap dance online with high-quality technique, exercises, choreography, music theory, improvisation and more!

The Berry Brothers and Fred Astaire

If you cruise around the internet looking for people who dance with a cane, don’t forget to check out The Berry Brothers in the 1942 movie Panama Hattie. Not only do they dance with a cane but they mix that in with their very intense flash moves like splits and flips and a mind-blowing ending that I won’t spoil for you here.

There are many fabulous Fred Astaire cane dances. I particularly like Puttin’ on the Ritz and also Drum Crazy from the movie Easter Parade. In Drum Crazy the cane tricks are just at the very, very end of the dance. It’s actually pretty remarkable to me. Right at the end of the dance, Astaire grabs his cane and prepares to make his exit. In the last bars of the choreography he whips out a series of cane moves, as a total afterthought, that are complicated and fun and spectacular and then he dances out the door. To get the last extra surprise in at the end of a dance is classic Fred Astaire. I love him and he can really dance with a cane! And you can, too!

See you soon!

“What kind of tap dance shoes should I buy?”

“Are super budget tap dance shoes OK?”

“Is there a price point I should look at for tap dance shoes?”

“What style of tap dance shoe should I buy?”

“Where do I buy tap dance shoes?”

“What’s the best tap dance shoe?”

These are questions I get asked by a lot of people! I have students at CSU, Long Beach and Santa Monica College and at dance studios all over the world who want to know the answers to these questions. Even experienced tap dancers want to talk about what tap dance shoe is the best.

Spoiler alert: There is no best tap dance shoe because it is an extremely personal decision. (Some people like chocolate and some people like vanilla.)

A variety of tap dance shoes, learn to choose the best tap dance shoes for you!

What kind of tap dance shoes should I buy?

Option 1 – The Perfect World Scenario: In a perfect world, you want a decent quality shoe, oxford style, hard leather sole (not a floppy split-sole) that will feel comfortable and sound good. You can expect to pay somewhere between $55 and $80 for an entry level shoe in this category or as much as $300 to $450 for a pair of high end tap dance shoes.

Spoiler alert: Not every super expensive tap dance shoe is worth the money. (I always laugh at advertisements for the $5,000 handbag. What’s wrong with the $4,000 handbag? Is the $500 handbag really that horrible?)

Option 2 – The Real World Scenario: In the real world, you probably make your decision largely based on cost. My university students don’t have a lot of money and other students might not want to invest in an expensive shoe if they are just giving tap dance a try to see if they like it. Fair enough, I say. I play jazz guitar and my first guitar was a piece of junk from a pawn shop. Now I have two nice guitars!

The benefits of a quality tap dance shoe are that it will feel comfortable, last reasonably long and sound good.

The benefit of the cheap, budget tap dance shoe is that you don’t have a lot of financial skin in the game to give tap dancing a try.

Where do I buy tap dance shoes?

Buy tap dance shoes in a dance supply store, theatrical supply store or online.

For super cheap tap dance shoes:

Your first stop should be to check out a discount dance supply store near you that is maybe blowing out tap shoes for $10 or $20. Walmart, believe it or not, often has cheap tap shoes and even a reputable brand like Capezio offers a style around $35 that you could find online.

For decent lower cost tap dance shoes:

For a decent quality shoe with a hard leather sole at an entry level price point of around $60 to $80, almost every brand has their version of it. Try searching for Bloch, Capezio, Danshuz, So Dança. There are other brands but these can help you begin your search.

For medium price point tap dance shoes:

For nicer leather and better construction and comfort at a medium price point of somewhere around $100 to $200, again, almost every brand has versions of those, too. Try searching for Bloch, Capezio, Danshuz, So Dança. There are other brands but these can help you begin your search.

For high end tap dance shoes:

If you want to go high end ($200 to $500) and even have the ability to customize the shoe for insoles or orthotics or pick your own custom color, you could try Capezio, Miller & Ben, Rubén Sánchez Dance Wear. Again, there are other brands but these can help you begin your search.

And here are two more things that come up when people ask about buying tap dance shoes:

“How should my shoes feel?”

Don’t believe the salesperson who says “It’s normal for your toes to feel like they are in a vice.” It’s tap dancing, everyone, and not the Spanish Inquisition. If a shoe isn’t relatively comfortable in the store it probably never will be, just like when you buy street shoes.

“Should I buy tap dance shoes with heels?”

I tell my students that flat, oxford style shoes will most likely feel better and sound better than heels but if they are a female in the musical theater world, it could be good for them to get comfortable dancing in a character shoe. After all, if you do a production of a classic old musical like “No, No, Nanette” or “42nd Street” or “Anything Goes” the women will almost certainly be costumed in heels for the tap sequences.

The bottom line about buying tap dance shoes:

Just as a professional musician will try a few different models of an instrument before they decide what is best for them, tap shoes require a bit of experimentation over time which is a little bit frustrating because it can get expensive to experiment! I myself have a few pairs of shoes in my closet that I acquired and tried and said, “This one is OK but it just isn’t for me.”

In the end, I tell my students to buy what they are comfortable buying which usually means a discussion based on price. The more and more into tap you get you will keep on trading up on quality and you will eventually arrive at the more high end shoes. It’s almost inevitable if you become passionate about tap dancing. So start practicing and start saving your money!

I hope this answers some of your questions about tap dance shoes! Feel free to ask a question or leave a comment.

Now it’s time to learn how to tap dance!

Once you have shoes, how about coming to learn tap dance online with me? I’ve taught and performed all over the world for decades, have danced with the best of the best and trained countless tap dancers, tap dance teachers and dance studio owners.

Please check out www.TapAcademyOnline.com to learn how to tap dance online with high-quality technique, exercises, choreography, music theory, improvisation and more!

I am so excited to share this course! We start with a discussion of the history of the blues (the who, what, when, where, why) and then move on to a discussion of the 12 bar structure and the 3 chords that make the harmony of a basic blues. You will really be ready to dance to a blues tune! All of this is in Music Theory 7 Blues.

Have fun!

Steve

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