"When you jump, try to keep your feet on the ground." What?

After spending years trying desperately to emulate ballet in my dancing (first in ballet, then in drill team, and even a little bit in swing dance (ah, the beauty of proper spotting)), it is very difficult for me to hear "you dance like a ballerina" and not take it as a compliment. But it's not... at least not in tap class anyway.

In tap class, "dancing like a ballerina" means that I'm too rigid, too structured, and working too hard for too little payoff. It means that I'm putting all the strain of every move on my weakest muscles, and making things much more difficult on myself. Basically, it means that I keep trying to point my toes.

I didn't even realize I was doing that at first! I had no idea that I was treating every shuffle and flap like a high kick (without the kicking high part)! Even had I known, I wouldn't have had the slightest inkling that that could be detrimental to my dancing. When Keira started teaching our class, though, she noticed right away the egregious error I'd been making, and tried to instill in me the proper technique. "In tap dance," she said, "you want to keep your ankles and toes as relaxed as possible. All of your movement should be coming from the top of your leg."

Even after being called out in class about it, I didn't think that pointing my toes or relaxing my ankles would make all that much of a difference, so while I tried to tap properly when I thought about it, I didn't work too hard on re-wiring my brain. That was all well and good when it came to shuffles and flaps. Worst case scenario, I would get tired out faster or maybe miss a couple sounds... not too bad. Then, we started learning pull-backs.

I don't just love this routine because
of the plaid suits, I promise!

Pull-backs are a tap dance step that involves jumping up into the air, tapping the ground with the balls of your feet whilst in the air, then landing on the balls of your feet. When done correctly, it will make two sounds. It's the gateway step to dynamic tap dancing; without it, there is little to no hope of dancing like Gene Kelly and Donald O'Conner as they performed "Fit as a Fiddle" in Singing in the Rain (which may or may not be a personal dream of mine). Though we started learning this step months ago, I never was able to do it correctly until last week. Why? Because my feet were always pointed when I'd jump.

I thought I'd tried everything to get them. I tried lifting my toes before I jumped so that they'd just brush back (which apparently is TERRIBLE technique, even though that's how our first instructor taught us to do it... w (for whatevs)). I tried jumping higher, then when that didn't work, jumping lower. I even tried following my classmate's advice, which was "when you jump, try to keep your feet on the ground." But what did I never try? Paying attention to whether my feet were pointed or not.

Pull-back instructions courtesy of the United Taps Tap Dance Forum

So finally, after a lot of frustrating hours and embarrassing attempts, I made a conscious effort to relax my ankles. Immediately, I was able to do pull-backs across the floor as if they were the easiest thing in the world.


Tl;dr: Always listen to your teachers, especially if you're a stubborn jerk like me.



Did you ever learn the hard way that dancing like a ballerina is not always a compliment? If it was when you tried incorporating arabesques and pirouettes into your krumping, will you please tell me all about it?! Does anyone else feel like a frog when doing pull-backs across a floor?



And for your enjoyment, here is a clip from Robin Hood: Men in Tights that I stole off the internet. I think it's the only routine I've seen that has been able to successfully mix hip hop and ballet.

Shim Sham Shimmy

Last night, as Song and I waited in the hallway outside Studio B for our tap class to begin, we were watching the beginner class practicing a routine that they've been learning for the past few weeks. At the time, I thought that the steps seemed vaguely familiar, but I didn't think much about it. Then, Keira (our instructor) started calling out some of the new moves that had been added this week, including the "Tackie Annie" and the "Half Break." That's when my ears perked up. I'd heard those terms before, but not in any tap classes, and I knew them well. In fact, I'd used them as recently as Saturday when a few friends and I went swing dancing. They were a part of the Shim Sham, a line dance that I learned about 5 years ago.

I first learned the Shim Sham in College Station, when I was learning to swing dance (thanks to the Texas Aggie Swing Cats). It wasn't until I started dancing in other cities and states that I realized that this wasn't a local dance, but rather, a very well known line dance in the swing dancing community. In fact, it was the most well known (because yes, there are many swing line dances, including the Jitterbug Stroll and Smiley's Charleston, which may be my favorite). Over the years, I learned that Frankie Manning, one of the founding fathers of Lindy Hop and American Swing Dance, was credited with developing the Shim Sham when he was dancing in Harlem in the 1930s (at Lindyfest in Houston a few years ago, I actually had the pleasure of doing the Shim Sham while Frankie Manning himself called out the moves at the ripe old age of 94).

Frankie Manning in Hellzapoppin', which is considered
one of the quintessential swing dance performances of all time.

Considering how swing-centric this dance is, imagine my surprise when I realized that Keira was teaching everyone a tap version of it! Imagine my further surprise when she told me that it wasn't originally a swing dance at all, but a well known tap routine that's been modified over the years to fit a number of different genres (or I guess mostly just swing dance, whatever)! As this information was pretty jarring for me, I decided to do some research.

Apparently (according to an un-cited article on wikipedia and backed up by a conversation I had in passing with my instructor... so pretty legitimate sources all around... don't judge me), the Shim Sham was first choreographed by Leonard Reed in 1927 as a tap routine. What started as a comedic act entitled "Goofus" that Leonard Reed and Willie Bryant performed when touring through the South, suddenly turned into a beloved tradition once the duo moved to the Shim Sham Club in New York. At the end of each performance, everyone would go up on stage, dancers, singers, and musicians alike, to perform the Shim Sham Shimmy together (thus renamed on account of the chorus girls' penchant for shimmying). The tap dancers would be more technical in their performance, while singers and musicians could shuffle along at their best depending on how adept they were at dancing.



How cool would it be to
see him tap dancing?

 From there, it was adapted by a number of people (including Leonard Reed himself, when he performed it with the World Heavyweight Boxing champ Joe Louis in 1948 - they called that version the Joe Louis Shuffle Shim Sham), which explains why there is currently no uniform choreography for it (everyone has the same basic gist, but with individualized flair). Frankie Manning was the one who modified it for swing dancing purposes, turning it into a line dance. He also added 2 phrases of choreography (which equates to eight 8-counts of music) including a "Boogie Back/Boogie Forward" phrase and a "Boogie Back/Shorty George" phrase (named for George "Shorty" Snowden, who was another founding father of Lindy Hop, as well as the one who gave Lindy Hop its name).

Isn't learning fun?!

Though it was a little challenging trying to re-wire my brain to learn a more technically complicated version of a dance I've done hundreds of times, I really enjoyed tap class last night. The dance as a whole was more difficult (especially when we tried speeding it up), but learning some of the steps as they were originally choreographed (or as close to it as we can get now) helped make some things in the swing version click better for me. If nothing else, it's great getting to experience first hand how different dance movements influenced each other.

As a bonus, here is a video I found on the interwebs of the Shim Sham. This video was made for Frankie Fest (also called Frankie 95), which was a celebration of Frankie Manning's 95th birthday. Unfortunately, Frankie was unable to attend the celebration, as he passed away a month before it was to take place. Not only does this video act as a beautiful tribute to a man who spent his life doing what he loved, but it also showcases how different cultures and groups have been able to take the Shim Sham and adapt it over the years.

Have you ever Shim Shammed? Should I have been so surprised that tap dance and swing dance use similar moves and dances even though they were both part of the jazz movement? Does anyone want to watch Hellzapoppin' with me later?

Intermediate/Advanced Beginner Adult Tap Class?

That doesn't seem like a confusing name at all! In fact, I would prefer if we could make it even more all encompassing by adding "Introduction to..." to the title. Regardless, today I found that this class has been added to the weekly schedule for my dance studio!

While I do think that simply calling it "Intermediate" would have served its purposes well, I can only imagine from the title (as well as many discussions in previous classes) that this class is to serve as a stepping stone between the Basics Beginner series (which I completed last month) and the Intermediate/Advanced class (which I attended only one of and realized just how much work I needed). We had discussed the possibility of offering this course with our instructor a few times during our beginner series, seeing as we had all progressed well past your basic shuffle, but not even come close to doing a pull back with any ease, but I was worried that for whatever reason, we wouldn't be able to pull off getting a course like this. I did not like the prospect of me continuing to make a fool of myself in the Intermediate/Advanced class (I was so overwhelmed by everything that I didn't know and/or couldn't keep up with the one time I went that I probably spent more than half of the class standing in the corner biting my nails as I tried to make sense of their footwork), but didn't want to have to give up tap dancing because of it. Then comes the Intermediate/Advanced Beginners Adult Tap class to the rescue!

The new class starts tomorrow evening with a different instructor than the one I've had for the past few months. While I'm bummed that I won't be learning from Carol anymore, as she was super fun and extremely talented, I've heard a lot of good things about our new instructor. At the very least, she'll have her own style that should help make us more diversified dancers.

Wish me luck!

Nine weeks down...

... and I have no idea where to go from here.


The dance school that I've been going to lately offers a multitude of adult dance classes. They have ballet of all levels, modern dance, jazz, pointe, and, of course, tap. They are one of the only schools in town that offers adult tap classes. It's kind of perfect, actually, because they hold a series of Basics Beginner Workshops which each last 8 weeks (we convinced them to extend ours one week, though, giving us 9 classes). As someone who never tap danced before in her life, this setup was ideal because I definitely needed the basics.

We started each class with warm ups on the barre, where the instructor would teach us some new step or technique to practice. Next, we would learn a routine (that was choreographed on the spot by our instructor, which I think is pretty darn impressive) that would reinforce what we had been working on. While the workshop started with about 10-12 people, by the end it was down to 4-5, giving us each more individual attention and instruction. The classes progressed pretty quickly, but not overwhelmingly so, and I learned much more than I thought I would in 8 (or 9) weeks. By the 6th week, our instructor was saying that we were hardly beginners anymore. She taught us pull backs and draw backs, 5 beat riffs and syncopated shuffles; moves she claims are unheard of in beginners classes (granted, I still almost fall over every time I draw a pull back... but at least it sounds alright). All in all, it was a successful workshop that progressed us past beginner status.

There's only one issue: now what? Sure, they have another Basics Beginners workshop starting up in a couple weeks, but the instructors have all agreed that we're way past learning the definition of a shuffle for another two months (a move involving two beats, a brush forward and a brush backwards, where your foot ends in the air). And even though we learned a lot more than we bargained for, we're by no means ready for the Intermediate/Advanced class that uses the studio after us (my classmate Song and I were watching them warm up when we were changing our shoes after class last night and it was terrifying). So what do we do?

Currently, we're lobbying for them to add a Beginner/Intermediate course to the schedule that would act as a stepping stone between the Basics workshop and the Intermediate/Advanced class. Apparently, they have a studio open on Wednesday nights, so that's promising (although, it would mean that I would have to quit my kickball team). In the meantime, Song and I plan on trying out the Intermediate/Advanced course for the next couple weeks so that we can make complete fools of ourselves while we try to pick some things up. Wish us luck!


What would be the potential downsides of trying out a class that is way out of my range? Is it weird that I think draw backs are hilariously similar to a moon walk? Why would Brian even suggest that I attempt to learn a routine from Holiday Inn that is entirely Fred Astaire showing off his tap dancing? He doesn't even have any accompaniment; it's just his fantastic tap dancing with some fireworks peppered in!

"Teacher, my shoes are making noise!"

Sometimes, at the beginning of every tap class (also during most lulls or breaks), I feel a little like Ralph Wiggum as he exclaims "Teacher, my shoes are making noise!" I realize that I've only been doing this for less than two weeks, but so far, I have not been able to get over the fact that I have noisy shoes... because let's face it, they're pretty awesome. Don't get me wrong, I still can't make them make any pretty noises yet (in fact, I tried showing off some of my newly acquired skillz to Hannah the other day, and it probably took me 10 minutes to finally get out a decent sounding shuffle ball-change), but the novelty of it is pretty fun! As you may have guessed, I love novelty.



Sometimes I fear that I'm going to have to get Professor Frink
to make me some self-tapping shoes, but at least I haven't fallen over yet.



My love of novelty is actually what made this week's tap class particularly fun. Last week (week 1), we pretty much focused on the basics. We learned basic shuffles, shuffles with toes, shuffles with heels, shuffles with hops, flaps, flaps with toes, flaps with single heels, and flaps with double heels. We learned the technique of it all and did exercises to improve our muscle memory. We only finally left the barre (which I had previously thought was exclusively for ballet) in order to learn traveling flaps (which as the name suggests, meant that we were traveling across the room, making it a bit difficult to stay on the barre). It was very technical, informative, and helpful. For a first class, it was exactly what I hoped for and expected. By the second class, though, we were finally able to mix it up some (granted, not much, as we're all still extremely green). While we still started on the barre for warm ups, our instructor shortly moved us into the middle of the room and started teaching us a routine (and kept joking (hopefully) about us performing it in the recital). This class involved a lot more movement and was much faster paced, which was awesome. We even got into groups to perform the routine for each other. What made it even better was that halfway through the class, our instructor handed us all chorus line canes to use while we danced (she usually teaches the children's class, and children, much like myself, love gimmicks).

I'm really enjoying these classes thus far, and don't foresee that changing any. The instructors have been really nice and all of the other students have been extremely friendly and supportive of one another. Since the studio is across town from me, it's a bit of a hike for a one-hour class, but I think it is definitely worth it.

Are there any classes you've always wanted to sign up for but made up a bunch of excuses not to, then when you finally did realized how fantastic it was? Do you remember how surprisingly awesome Ralph Wiggum was at tap dancing? In the event that we get to use the canes again, should I just stow my pop-up top hat in my dance bag?

Everyone is happier when we do the tap-tapioca!

I've been watching a lot of movies as of late. And yes, since the beginning of October, they have been almost exclusively Halloween-esque movies (with the one exception of a late night viewing of Sky High because Kirsten was too scared to go to sleep after watching Scream). What I've noticed is that even Halloween movies, with all of their blood, guts, and all around terror, can hardly resist the lure of dance sequences! Beetlejuice (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) features Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis using their newly acquired other worldly powers to make an entire family sing and dance to the Banana Boat Song. Leslie Neilson got to show off his (or probably a body double's) dancing ability in both waltzes and tangos in Dracula: Dead and Loving It. We get to see "Madonna" shakin' it with "Dadcula" in Hocus Pocus, Frankenstein and Frankenstein's monster acting as a chorus line in Young Frankenstein, and a romantic floating slow dance in Casper the Friendly Ghost.  Suspiria (fantastic suspense-thriller from the 80s directed by none other than Dario Argento) is about a ballet academy run by a witch/ghost. From Dusk Till Dawn is rife with vampire strippers, so some slight dancing is involved (or at least some jiggling... or whatever vampire strippers do). Gomez and Morticia Addams almost never stop dancing with each other (especially after Morticia speaks in French; Gomez loves when she speaks in French). And let's be honest, I can't be the only person who mentally superimposes the video from "Thriller" at least once during every zombie movie. Even the makers of Mad Monster Party (also the makers of classics such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus is Comin' to Town) decided to ignore the naysayers and look past the fact that swing dance translates horribly in stop motion animation movies when they made Dracula and Francesca (Dr. Frankenstein's lady robot assistant) lindy hop (Dracula's stop motion tap-dance translated even worse).



In Mad Monster Party, both Dracula and a zombie came on to Francesca
 way too strongly for a children's movie, in my opinion

In spite of how bad Dracula's tap dancing was in Mad Monster Party (Frankenstein's monster wasn't that much better), this was one of many dance numbers I've watched recently that has gotten me all the more excited for next Tuesday. "What's happening next Tuesday?" you're probably asking yourself. Well, I'll tell you! Starting next Tuesday, I will spend 8 weeks learning to shuffle, scuffle, chugg, and slap in an adult beginners tap dance workshop! (Note: it's only one 60-minute class each Tuesday, I won't be doing this for 8 weeks continuously.)

I have always wanted to tap dance. When I was young, I would frequently try to trick my mom into getting me tap shoes whenever we'd be buying dress shoes, but something about them being super loud usually tipped her off (she claimed that tap shoes were inappropriate attire for Easter Sunday mass, but I have my suspicions). I even signed up for a tap class one semester in college, but the mixture of tap shoes not being free and the school's request that all dance students wear nothing but leotards and tights (in a class where you're surrounded by stick-thin girls) was enough to make me drop it. But now, after watching Singing in the Rain, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and that one episode of Psych where Gus is an awesome tap dancer, I finally decided to get on the Google and find me a tap class in town. How fortuitous for me that there was an adult beginners workshop starting up so soon!

Even if it does mean that the next 8 weeks are going to be extremely exhausting and hectic (I also joined a recreational kickball league on Wednesdays that lasts 8 weeks... not to mention the fact that holiday season is upon us), I'm really excited about what's in store!

Have you ever tried tap-dancing? Do you think it's odd that the title of this post references one of the only dance numbers in Thoroughly Modern Millie that didn't involve tap-dancing? What's your favorite Halloween movie?