Warm Up for Advanced Tap Dancing

Series Summary

The rhythmic foot stomping we call tap dancing emerged in the 1830’s from a blend of cultures in Manhattan’s original melting pot, the Five Points neighborhood (recently depicted in Scorsese’s film Gangs of New York.) Essentially a blend of African shuffle and Irish jig, tap dance became extremely popular in the first half of the 20th century. The metal plates attached to the bottom of the dancer’s shoes create a percussive rhythm which could either accompany music, or be used as an instrument itself. This popular form of entertainment soon found its way from amateur street performances, to Vaudeville, Broadway, and eventually film and television where millions were inspired by the moves of Sammy Davis, Jr., Gregory Hines, Fred Astaire, and Gene Kelly.

In this series of free video lessons you’ll learn advanced tap moves like the Pink Panther and the Maxie Ford, as well as tips on warming up, combination moves and improvisation.

Video Transcript

" Hello, I am Dani Rhodes and you could find me on the web at youtube.com/danirhodes and on behalf of expertvillage.com welcome. I am going to showing you some a little bit advanced tap notes, so if you are a advanced tapper, I think you will recognize them and the terminology I will be using if not refer back to the basic tap one. Alright, let us begin with a little bit of a warmup, shall we… put you foot into heel dig position and I want to have a brush, heel, back tap, heel, heel, tap, tap, heel, heel, alright so again it is right heel, left heel, heel, right heel, left heel, heel, back tap, heel, heel put it together, five, six, seven, eight, left heel, left tap, left heel, left heel, not let us put it together on both sides, five, six, seven, eight, left heel, left tap, left heel, left heel. "