How to Do a Shuffle Heel Tap in Tap Dancing

The shuffle is the basis for many tap-dancing combinations. In this step, the shuffle precedes a heel drop and a toe tap to the back. If you choose to add two more steps--a step and another heel drop--to the combination, the shuffle heel tap can be alternated and done first on the right foot and then on the left foot.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Tap shoes

1. Shuffle on your right foot. A shuffle is a forward brush followed by a back brush to the front, side or back, executed rapidly in a sixteenth-note rhythm and counted "a 1". (For an explanation of counts and beats, see the Tips section.) In the shuffle heel tap step, the shuffle is to the front. To execute a shuffle, your feet should be in line with your hips and your toes pointed forward. Bend your leg at the knee and strike the ball of the foot against the floor in a forward motion. Your shuffling leg is extended to the front. As you flex the right knee, strike the ball of the right foot on the floor in a backward motion.

2. Drop your left heel. You are standing on the ball of your left foot, so it's easy to drop the heel.

3. Tap your right toe to the back and behind the left foot.

4. Continue doing the shuffle heel tap starting on your right foot. However, if you want to alternate the step, step down on the final count (step and put your weight on it, rather than tapping the toe to the back) and do the shuffle on the opposite foot. Drop the heel of the foot that you're standing on (which is now your right foot), then tap your left toe to the back, behind your right foot.

5. Consider spicing up the step and adding a step and a heel drop. Shuffle on your right foot, drop the heel of your left foot, tap the toe of your right foot to the back, step down on the ball of your right foot and drop your right heel. Two additional steps (a step and heel drop) and two additional sounds have been added to the combination; this frees up your left foot so you can do do the shuffle heel tap (plus step and heel drop, if you're so inclined) on the other foot (alternating feet). The count would be: "a 1 and a 2 and."

Tips & Warnings

• When you dance, you must count. Dance notation is broken up into five components based on one measure of 4/4 music. When you see or hear the count "1 2 3 4," it indicates that four steps are done on four counts/beats. This is the quarter-note or single-time count. When you see or hear "1 and 2 and 3 and 4," that is the eight- note couplet count; the dancer is doing two steps on one beat of music. When you see or hear the count of "1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 and a ... ," that is the eighth-note triplet count; the dancer is making three taps/sounds per beat. In the sixteenth or quadruple count ("1 e and a 2 e and a 3 e and a 4 e and a..."), the dancer is making five taps/sounds per beat. There are four beats in one bar of 4/4 music. Double time would mean that there are eight beats played in that time frame. In dance notation, that would be counted as "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and ..." Follow the link in Resources and watch the video in which dancer and instructor Sarah McLellan demonstrates how to do drop steps, including heels drops. In the second video, McLellan executes a shuffle, which is a step every tap dancer must learn how to do.

Resources

• Tap-Dancing Demo by Sarah McLellan: Drop Step
• Tap-Dancing Demo by Sarah McLellan: Shuffle