How to Do Toe Heel Shuffles in Tap Dancing

The name of this tap dance combination is a little misleading. You will notice that you don't do a typical shuffle despite the name. A shuffle is a forward and backward brush on the ball of your foot. In the toe heel shuffle combination, the dancer does brush to the front and to the back, which is a shuffle. However, she adds a heel scuff and a heel drop, on the other foot, in between the brushes, which disqualifies the move from being your standard shuffle. The dancer does a riff (brush scuff.)

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Tap shoes

1. Brush your right foot to the front. The brush involves only the ball of your foot. The brush starts from the back and moves forward. The dancer bends her working leg to accommodate the brush.

2. Scuff your right heel as you are executing the front brush. A scuff consists of swiping the heel of your shoe against the floor. It is not a heel dig, where the dancer emphatically digs her heel into the floor; it's a swiping/forward moving step. The front brush and scuff are done on the count of "and 8," which means that the dancer is executing two steps (brush and scuff) on one count or beat of music. If the dancer were executing two steps per beat/count the notation would be "1 2."

3. Note that you have executed a riff when you do a front brush and scuff combination as you did in Steps 1 and 2.

4. Drop your left heel. You are standing on your left foot; your weight is on it. Dance on the balls of your feet so that you can easily execute heel drops when required. Simply drop the heel of your foot. Do this on the count of "and."

5. Brush your right foot to the back. Once again, only the ball of your foot makes contact with the floor when you are brushing. Your right foot has remained in the air and to the front after the brush scuff. Swipe the ball of your right foot to the back on the count of "1." The entire count for the toe heel shuffle is "and 8 and 1." This indicates the eighth note couplet count and the dancer is doing two steps on one beat of music.

Tips & Warnings

• Go to the Resources section and watch the video demonstration by dancer Emily Larew. She does a three-tap riff (brush, heel--or scuff--heel drop) followed by a ball-change. Watch the second video demonstration and see how a typical shuffle is executed.

Resources

• Tap Dancing Demo by Emily Larew
• Tap Dancing Demo by Sarah McLellan