Advanced Tap Dancing

Roger Bennett Riggle: Hello, my name is Roger Bennett Riggle and today we are going to explore the world of advanced tap dancing. As an overview what we are going to show you today about advanced tap dancing. We are going to be demonstrating for you a single time step, then we will add to that and make it a double time step. Then we will increase the number of sounds and go into a triple time step and from the triple time step we will go into LA time step which was taught to me by one of the great dancers Mary Lou Peters. Then we will explore connectors and we will take each of those time steps and put the connector in between each. Then we will go into a traditional tap dance step called buffalo. At the end of each buffalo, we will transition and change direction of the buffalo with shuffle heel shuffle step. Then we will take the buffalos with the shuffle heel shuffle step and we will put an ending on it with a rather complicated turn with a width in it which we will show you how to do.

Let's talk about the equipment that you will need to tap dance. First of all, you will need your body and a really sharp bright bright mind. Secondly, in this professional school of ballet we have very strict dress codes and hair codes. So basically for jazz we allow the students wear jazz pants and a leotard, preferably in black. They can wear a leotard and white pink tights. Of course, you have to have tap shoes with the taps on them and the hair must be up and out of the face. Preferably put back in a bun.

As far as safety is involved almost every instructor in a professional dance school does a warm up session with the students first. This is to prevent them from being injured. In tap dancing, we specifically start to warm up the toes, the heels, the ankles, the knees. We stretched the legs and we also work on the upper body, the back and the arms for all the movement that is involved in tap dancing to warm them up and to keep them from being injured.

Just to introduce myself to you as a faculty member at the Berrend Dance Center, I am in charge of the jazz and tap education of the students. I am also a professional choreographer and director of musicals and operas and the member of the union of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers which was formulated by the great choreographer Bob Fosse and now we are going to demonstrate for you the various tap step of advanced tap dancing.