This post introduces Technique 1 – Shuffle, the very first course I suggest people take when they become a new subscriber to Tap Academy Online! In the course, you will learn a lot of tap dancing and will really understand my approach to teaching tap dance, as well.

In the course, we first learn how to do a correct shuffle, working on how to move your leg to get the sounds and we learn how a basic, traditional shuffle goes with music.

Once we can do a shuffle we start to add things to it like toe, step and ball change. Each new technique comes with lots of explanation and a structured exercise for practicing. After covering the most basic version we move on to more advanced versions, like crossing, for example. Intertwined with all of this we talk about music because tap dancers need to understand music – we are, after all, adding percussion to whatever song we are dancing to!

And there is even more! Then we do a complete dance that I call an “Exercise Choreography” so we can keep practicing all of our shuffle techniques and steps but in the context of a dance – and a custom mp3 track is included!

So, the course Technique 1 – Shuffle comes with many videos, lots of technique to learn, exercises to practice, discussion of music and an Exercise Choreography with an mp3 track. Depending on where you have studied tap, this course alone could be like several months of classes at a dance studio.

Happy shuffling everyone!

Steve