An essay to no one in particular about tap dancing
I love tap dancing. At first glance when I say that sometimes it feels so random, almost like I know someone’s gonna be suprised when they hear that statement. Like really? Tap dancing? But yeah really tap dancing.
I fell in love when I was a kid. Drawn in by a Sesame Street episode about tap and I knew I’d found it. You know THAT it. That special it that becomes your thing, the thing you love for no other reason than you’re just destined to love it because it’s you. I never stopped thinking about tap from that day forward but here’s the kicker…I never started tapping. I suppressed it too embarrassed to be a “guy that tap danced.” It’s sad really, knowing what it feels like to know the dream/desire you’re supposed to be doing and not do it. Little kid out there who wants to tap dance….DO IT.
Anyways fast forward to college and I decided I had to tap dance and I did! I took the plunge and signed for a class for my own sanity, and the moment I clicked that online class sign up was truly the moment I broke free. I never looked back since. Check part two for more tap musings.
In the past year, I have been proud to say that I have co-founded a tap dance company in Nashville. We are the Nashville Tap Experiment, and we are an eight-member ensemble made up of tap dancers from all different walks of life and different experience and skill levels.
On Saturday, three of us finally got the opportunity to show what the Experiment can do together, and we performed as a group for the first time at the annual Southern Festival of Books! It was a defining moment for us! It was a proud moment for me personally, because I put so much into making this company work, and while it hasn’t been easy at times, we finally got an idea of what we are capable of and how much we can accomplish together. We also got an idea of how much more growing we have to do, as a group and as individuals.
I hope you enjoy this video of our performance!
This is awesome! Congrats on your first performance together :)
Pop Dance Life’s Episode 5 edition of the, “If You Don’t Know, Now You Know” dance history segment featuring the late, great, Gregory Hines!
Gregory Hines was a tap dancer, actor, singer and true cross-over star. He’s one of a select few who have found great success on both the Broadway stage and in Film & Television and remained a humble, genial artist throughout his life. If you don’t know, now you know!
*End of Gregory Credit: Rose Eichenbaum from her book, “Masters of Movement” **Correction: Gregory Hines passed away August 9th, 2003.
During the 1930s and 1940s African Americans were beginning to showcase professional dances like Tap. Tap combined elements of African influenced shuffle dances, English clog dancing, and Irish jigs.
Bill “Bojangles” Robinson beamed into the national spotlight when he appeared in a film alongside Shirley Temple, becoming the first African American man caught on film dancing with a white girl. Other tap dancers like Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly helped to thrust the style forward by including it in motion pictures. Watch a clip of one of Bojangles’ appearances here: bit.ly/2qQwnWo
