Tap Dance Tutorial – Without Tap Dance video

Tap dance is quickly becoming a huge craze amongst the youth of today. Many young mothers have decided that tap dancing is the new ballet and are opting to teach their children how to tap dance by getting them admitted into tap dance classes. While there is no better way to learn tap dancing than joining an actual class or tutorial for the art, one can also learn how to do the art by reading simple text. Tap dance may sound or look extremely difficult but in actuality, it is quite easy to execute once one gets the hang of it.

As they would tell their learners in the many a tap dance video, one needs to begin by purchasing some good quality tap dancing shoes. Remember, do not be miserly and buy low quality shoes just to save a few pennies since that would not help in the actual lessons. On the other hand, do not overspend and buy shoes that are simply too expensive and are no better than average shoes at best. Buy something in between – something that is not too expensive but still manages to boast of a good quality make. As with all other shopping endeavors, be smart with this purchase too.

When learning how to tap dance, the first step is to learn the simple stamp of the shoe. This is fairly easy since all one needs to do is to step your whole foot down on the floor. Remember to make sure that you stamp the heel and the soul down at the same time to make the required noise. Then, do the same thing with the other foot and keep on shifting weight from one foot to the other. The interval between the stamps should be regular and in rhythm so that it feels like one is making music with their feet. Next do the stomp; basically repeat the same procedure without shifting the weight from one foot to the other.

Next up, one needs to master the brush – another important aspect of tap dancing. One needs to begin by brushing the ball of the foot against the floor. Remember to keep the brush subtle and gentle; do not apply as much pressure as would be required for a stamp or a stomp. The foot needs to be relaxed and there should be no tension in the muscles of the feet since that would interfere with the accuracy of the brush. The brush can be done with both feet but remember, even though the feet are moving to and fro, the action needs to emerge from the dancer’s thigh.

Lastly, there will be a small introduction to the two-sound, two-movement step in tap dancing (very regularly taught in a typical tap dance video. This step is called the flap. It requires the dancer to do a brush and a step down, one after the other (respectively) and in quick succession. One needs to ensure that only one foot is used to execute the movement. It is sometimes also known as a ‘fal-lap’ to match the two tones that the step makes when executed.  

When did people first learn to tap dance

One of the most unique forms of dance in the entire world, tap dancing refers to that special dance where the sound of the shoe hitting the floor is used as an instrument and the music to which one is supposed to dance to. Thus, strange as it may seem, but tap dancing is also often considered a form of music. It seems as if there is a constant battle between the dance and the music industry over the true ownership of the art. When getting tap dance lessons, it is important to know the roots of this great art form and where it originally came from.

Unlike many other forms of dancing, tap dance is fairly new in the industry and was created by the influence of a number of different forms of dance that have greatly influenced tap dancing as it is known today. One can easily trace its roots back to the 1800s (specifically the mid-1800s) although the exact date of its emergence is not greatly known. It is known to be influenced by a number of different dance forms like step dancing (which is greatly popular in Ireland), the Juba dance and the English Lancashire Clog dancing – all predominantly western European influences. When people first started to learn to tap dance, these were the dance forms they looked up to.

In the 1800s, the minstrel shows were incredibly popular and that is where the first tap dance lessons seem to have come from. Well-known as Master Juba, William Henry Lane turn out to be amongst the small number of black artists to be a part of a mostly white minstrel company, and is commonly thought of as the greatest and most illustrious forerunners of tap dance. However, there came a time when the minstrel shows declined in popularity and were no longer as famous as they were a few years ago. However, tap dance did not die out fortunately. Instead, it moved to the much more popular and watched Vaudeville stage.

Like all dance forms, tap dance has also evolved and as more and more people began to learn to tap dance, they bought their own influences into the artful form of dancing. Many years later, in the 1930s tap dance emerged as a popular mixture of its old roots and Lindy hop – a widely popular dance form in the early decades of the nineties. "Flying swing outs" and "flying circles" are actually lindy hop steps that have been influenced by tap dance.

Later on, as the popularity of jazz started to grow and people started wanting more entertainment when it came to dance and music, the popularity of tap dancing greatly declined. Even though it did try to sustain its influence by merging some jazz steps into the well-known tap steps, I could not find its old popularity again.

However, even today, there are many people who want to learn this great art and for them, National Tap Dancing day is celebrated every year on the twenty-fifth of May in the united States of America – the country where tap dance is still somewhat popular.