photo credit: Irene Cassarino

Meet Negrita Jayde, Gregory Hines’ fiance who is still honoring his memory the tap world.

Experience Vaudeville show business with this personal account by Al Rand, who “once taught Arthur Murray.”

A brief review of “Tap Attack” currently running in Edmonton, Canada.

Robert Rice, dancer and artist, dies. He was a really interesting guy I would have enjoyed meeting.

Learn about the struggles of Edward Jackson, an unsung hero of tap dancing!

In this post, associate blogger Hillary-Marie Michael shares another lesson she learned at this year’s New York City Tap Festival! The other 2 posts in this series are about style and tap history.

The only fear of improvisation, is fearing improvisation itself.

Being afraid of improv holds you back and that fear creates a barrier that is hard to surpass.
I was at Tap City’s boat jam, and a lot of hard hitters were on that floor, such as Jason Samuels Smith, Chloe Arnold, Jason Janas, Siohban Cook and Sarah Reich.

Following them was hard, and scary. But no matter who came out on that floor, everyone was welcoming. Kids as young as age 8 were trying their hand at it. Improvisation allows you to grow, and who better to improvise for than the tap community, your tap dance family?

*Hillary-Marie*

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photo credit: bradleypjohnson

This is post #5 in the “10 Habits” series. Each post shares another key to being a better student. You can view all of the posts in this series by clicking this link.

Habit #5: Highly Effective Dancers Care For Their Bodies

No list of good habits for dancers would be complete without emphasizing the importance of proper self-care. In this post I will briefly discuss the importance of this oft-neglected aspect of being a dancer.

A dancer’s body is her instrument. It is how she expresses herself but unlike a musical instrument, you can’t just swing over to Musician’s Friend to replace it!

Speaking of musicians, most of them learn to care of their instrument before they are even allowed to play a note! The thinking is that being a good musician is not just about great performing but also respect for the art form which includes respect for your instrument.

On the other hand, in many settings dancers are lucky to receive any formal advice about self-care early in their training. Many of Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: neoliminal

Do you remember my “10 Habits” of Highly Effective Dancers” series of articles?

What ever happened to it?

I’ll tell you what happened… Over the past few weeks, I have been finding so much cool stuff to write about that I simply forgot about it!

Shame on me.

Be sure to come back later this week to see the 5th article in that popular series! In the meantime, this is a great chance for you to catch up on what’s already beed written.

Just follow these links:

Habit #1: Highly Effective Dancers Come To Class Prepared

Habit #2: Highly Effective Dancers Seek Resources Outside of Class

Habit #3: Highly Effective Dancers Practice In Between Class Meetings

Habit #4: Highly Effective Dancers Focus On Both Their Strengths & Their Weaknesses

photo credit: mangpages

Here is a review of Juba! performed by the Chicago Human Rhythm project. Sounds like another great performance to me! Is the renaissance really waning? What do you think?

This article talks about the “Tap Dancing Dads” From Temecula, California who have recently made it to the final round on America’s Got Talent! This is a beautiful thing…

The Next Step fuses Tap, Hip-Hop, and Breakdancing.

Student To Compete in Germany With the U.S. Tap Team….congratulations!