Tap Dancing Lessons: Drawbacks

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.

A recent resurgence of tap enthusiasm came in the 90’s with the infusion of new dancers, such as Savion Glover, who began to incorporate a more personal style into their performances, and essentially made tap dancing “cool” again. In this free video dance class, learn how to tap dance as a beginning tap dancer. An experienced tap dance instructor will walk you through these exciting steps that you need to know. These lessons include steps like the single, double and triple buffalo turns, the heel flap, the bombershay, shim sham and the back flap.

Video Transcript

"Now we're going to talk about drawbacks. You want to start with one heel lifted, and the opposite toe curled. You're going to brush the tap of the toe that's curled on the floor. After you brush it, you drop the opposing heel. Then you step and you repeat the whole sequence. I'm starting with my right heel raised, my left toe curled. You're going to brush the left tap on the floor, drop the right heel, and step. Now my left heel is up, so I'm going to curl my right toe. Brush, drop, and step. Brush, drop, and step. Brush, drop, and step. Brush, drop, and step. Now I'm going to show the side view of the drawback. Lift one heel, curl the opposite toe. Brush, drop, step. Brush, drop, strep. Brush, drop, step. Brush, drop, step. Brush, drop, step. Brush, drop, step. Now we're going to do the drawback traveling backwards a little bit faster. Lift the heel, curl the toe. Brush, drop, step. Brush, drop, step. Brush, drop, step. Lift the right heel, curl the toe."