Tap Dancing: Cincinnati Time Step

Series Summary

The rhythmic foot stomping we call tap dancing emerged in the 1830s 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.

Once you have the basics of tap dancing down, it's time to learn some time steps, rolls, heels, and turns. In this free video series, a dance teacher will show you how to do a number of tap dancing moves. Starting with the Cincinnati time step and moving on to stomp buck time steps, you'll learn how to expand your tap dancing repertoire. You'll also learn Maxie Ford change overs, scuffle heels, flap chugs, and a number of other combinations. Tap dancing is all about building on your skills, adding speed, and adding steps, so learn how to build on your tap skills today!

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Emily Larew and we are going to take a look at a bunch of different time steps and turns; starting with the Cincinnati time step. So turning around we're going to start with a backwards brush. So let's put our hands on our hips so we can totally focus on our feet. Keep your knees slightly bent and make sure your weight is in the balls of your feet. You don't want to be backwards because the Cincinnati time step starts going backwards. So, right foot we're going to pick it up, you're going to brush back. Brush, hop, shuffle, step. Now make sure that step goes behind you and not to, right next to your foot because otherwise you will not be going anywhere. So again 6, 7, 8, brush, hop, shuffle, step. Now your left foot. Brush, hop, shuffle, step. So you just have one of each and then you're going to continue on with a flap, flap, flap, flap. So it's 3 flaps. So start with your right foot. We've got flap, flap, flap. Now step on your left foot. Step, I want you to pretend like you're in soccer practice and you're going to give a scuff with your right heel. Scuff. Alright, so the difference between the brush and the scuff is the brush can either go backwards or forwards using the ball of your foot and the scuff is with your heel. Okay. So let's do it again; 6, 7, 8, brush, hop, shuffle, step, brush, hop, shuffle, step, flap, flap, flap, step, scuff. Brush, hop, shuffle, step, brush, hop, shuffle, step, flap, flap, flap, step, scuff. Brush, hop, shuffle, step. And that is your Cincinnati time step."