Our wedding day was looming, but it wasn't the vows that made me break out in
a cold sweat; it was the first dance. The prospect of dancing in front of
friends and family is a daunting one. Luckily my betrothed felt the same
way, so we tried to think of an alternative to the traditional embarrassed
shuffle around the dance floor.
We knew people would be fighting the urge to laugh so we needed to find a way
of getting them to laugh with us rather than at us. Tap! Possibly the most
ridiculous dance known to man - it was the obvious choice.
After six months of lessons we were ready to do a 90-second dance (to Love and
Marriage, sung by Frank Sinatra). On the day looks of incredulity
transformed to hysteria, and the dance ended in a frenzy of clapping and the
award of a signed photo of Bruce Forsyth.
Cut to a dingy basement of a Soho bar a few months later. It's my birthday and
my husband has a surprise for me - I'm getting a bit worried. As we descend
the stairs I hear a three-piece jazz band and... what else? An additional
percussive beat, it's the sound of...tap! Fast, funky and furious. And the
young black bloke who's dancing looks cool.
This is Tap Jam, a bi-monthly tap improvisation night. It has been going for
two years, gaining in popularity every time. Forget top hat and tails,
you're more likely to see baggy jeans and a baseball cap. “A really wide
range of people come to Tap Jam,” says Junior Laniyan, one of the
organisers, who has taught tap at the Pineapple Dance Studios for ten years.
Dancers are aged from 18 to 80
“We have people aged between 18 and 80 coming here. Our eldest man is Will
Gaines who is 80 and has tapped with Duke Ellington. But beginners get up
and dance too.” A small stage miked for sound is at the front of the bar,
and if you put your name on a list, you can get up and dance, solo, or with
a partner.
Before the dancing starts there is a short lesson for those who want to take
part, with advice on how to move away from rigid tap routines and improvise.
Tap Jam takes tap back to its roots. Tap originally evolved in tandem with
jazz in America, where Irish jigs, English clog dancing and African music
and dance joined together in the big cultural melting pot of New York.
So improvised tap-dancing to live jazz is pretty much what tap was about until
it was brought to Britain at the beginning of the 20th century.
That's when it became the more regimented style that so many people recognise
from the dance classes of their youth. The change in style is attributed to
the many English clog dancers who became tap dancers and brought with them a
more formal dancing style.
“When people think of tap dancing they think of Singing in the Rain and Mary
Poppins,” says Dan Sheridan, another organiser. “Tap Jam makes them see it
in a whole new light; this is American-style tap or hoofing.” And people are
coming back for more. “When we started it was just us and our friends; now
we've got a much wider audience.” And it's taking off all round the country.
In Manchester the Tap Rhythm Project provides subsidised improvised tap jams,
workshops and lessons as part of a community project. “We've had students
aged 17 and 77 in the same class,” says the co-ordinator Jessica Murray.
“We don't teach an hour-long routine, instead we introduce a few steps and the
rest of the class is spent improvising. It's a way of dancing where you are
at the centre.
“It's popular with such a wide audience, lots of men join, which is unusual
for dance classes, and culturally the students are really diverse. I think
its attraction is that it means different things to different people.” Since
it began in 2005 classes have grown in popularity with more than 500 people
on the mailing list.
There is also a burgeoning scene in Edinburgh, where Jo Turbitt teaches a
similar style of tap. “People are much more turned on to being healthy and
tap is a really popular alternative to going to the gym. Films like Billy
Elliot and Happy Feet, the animated Penguin movie featuring the tap maestro
Savion Glover, have brought tap to people's attention.”
As have TV series such as Strictly Come Dancing and Britain's Got Talent. They
have made adults realise that dance classes aren't just for their children,
that they're a fun way to get healthy.
Back at Tap Jam the temperature is rising. The 130 people crammed into the
basement at Digress, a bar on Beak Street, Soho, are a disparate lot. Young
black men, old white ladies, super-cool Japanese students, well groomed
hipsters in their middle years and twentysomething barflies. It's rare to
find an 80-year-old retired secretary and a 31-year-old fire-eating belly
dancer in the same place, but it happens at Tap Jam.
“We go to weekly tap classes in Potters Bar and I have been to the Tap Jam
four times,” says Iris Ford, a blonde 80-year-old, who has come with her
troupe of fellow tap dancers. “We do chorus line routines in our lessons,
but it's much more individual here, we love it. There's real camaraderie and
it keeps me healthy and my brain sharp. When I told my doctor I was doing
tap, he told me to keep it up!”
Not everyone does it for their health. Tunji Falana, 28, an actor, taught
himself tap four years ago from books and videos. “I'm a drummer and with
tap it's like I'm doing percussion with my feet.”
Katie Mokhtar, 24, a TV researcher, takes it one step further in her band The
Optics. “I'm the percussion artist, I play the tambourine and tap dance.”
She has tapped since she was 3 and taught it at Warwick University where she
was a student. “I was so excited to find out about Tap Jam. It's rare to
find tap in the real world and not only that, but it's cool too. We came to
the last session and were so impressed we've dragged all our friends here
this time.”
Skill levels vary enormously
Sorcha Rogers, the 31-year-old fire-eating belly dancer, likes the underground
vibe. “My boyfriend is on next; he's the tap-dancing juggler.” Not everyone
has such an esoteric act. There are dancers who make the hair on the back of
your neck prick up - who'd have thought tap could do that? The pace, skill
and low-slung cool of it all, along with the rhythmic bang, gets you on a
base level. But there are also rank amateurs. One woman Anne-Marie
Ryan-Tucker, an artist, got up and gave it a go.
She'd had just three weeks of lessons - three hours - and although I'd like to
say that she was terrible (bearing in mind my six months of lessons and
continuing inability to dance), she wasn't. She was really good.
Reassuringly not everyone who dances makes your jaw fall to the floor.
When I interviewed one lady she said that she found some of the dancing “a bit
tedious” and another dancer's technique was compared with “snooker balls
being thrown down the stairs”, but each dance was met with resounding
applause and everyone recognised the guts it took to get up there in the
first place.
Ben Gambrill, 19, likes Tap Jam for precisely that reason. “It's a really good
experience coming here; it's great for your ego,” he says. After seeing him
dance you wouldn't think he needed a confidence boost but as a dwarf, albeit
one that studies at the Italia Conti drama school, dancing in an open and
friendly environment is something he looks forward to every two months.
And there's an emotional element to it for many people. Christopher Jackson,
75, and Pauline Cockburn, 43, met eight years ago at a tap course and have
remained friends ever since. “I'd wanted to learn tap since I was a child
but was stopped from doing it. As I got older I thought about this and
realised that no one was stopping me now, so I started to learn. I sing
too!” Jackson says.
Cockburn started tap in her early twenties. “I had always wanted to do it but
was ill during my teenage years. As soon as I was well again I took it up. I
think it's a fantastic thing; you can't have a sad tap dance, you can only
be happy.”
Looking at the smiling faces around me, every colour and every age, I have to
agree. And Bruce Forsyth always looks very chirpy.
The next Tap Jam is at Digress, Beak Street, London W1, January 20, www.londontapjam.org
;
Tap Rhythm Project, Manchester (www.tapproject.com
);
Jo Turbitt, Edinburgh (www.joturbitt.com
)
Fitness on tap
Tap dancing burns between 360-480 kcals per hour.
It is a moderate exercise so it's easy to enjoy and get a good workout,
rather than feel like you're dying.
Tap can help balance. As we get older we rely more on our thighs for
co-ordination. Tap exercises our lower legs and ankles, which helps to
maintain our balance.
Initially it uses the big muscle groups in the lower body, but as you
improve you exercise your upper-body muscle groups.
The better you get, the more exercise you have, until you reach a point
where your technique is so good you need to use less energy.
Exercising big muscle groups means heart rate increases.
Tap is so involved with music - you need to tap out the rhythm - and as
soon as you exercise to music you feel happier.
DR MATT WYON (expert in dance science at the University of Wolverhampton)
What is the dance style for you?
Tap
Great if you have co-ordination, but also good if you don't. The steps are so
repetitive and the beat so obvious that even the least co-ordinated person
will find the rhythm eventually. Once the out-of-time stomping becomes a
syncopated beat the dancer can get a real sense of achievement. It's popular
with men because of the loud stomping, and they are also attracted to the
Hollywood film star connotations - Gene Kelly rather than women in tutus.
It's also a great chat-up line.
Hip Hop and Street
Popular with the 16-25 age group, but also has 40 and 50-year-olds in the
classes. Appeals to equal numbers of men and women. Good for people who want
to feel a bit more confident, as it's very sociable; a chance for people to
chat and hang out. It's also a place to learn about the latest music,
fashion and dance steps.
Tango and Ballroom
As the dances are partnered it's a good way to meet people. It's popular with
professionals; lawyers and doctors. It's very structured dancing and,
although you can vary it, the basics are set in stone. It can be difficult
to dance in close partnership with someone else if you're not used to it.
Once you master the complete dance, especially a quick step such as a rumba,
it's a full workout - you'll dance a 90-second dance 10 or 11 times in a
class. The first five weeks will be spent mastering the steps and that is
more mentally stimulating.
Salsa
This is a cardiovascular workout from the beginning as it doesn't take long to
master the initial steps. Once the music starts and the hips start rolling,
there's no stopping the dancers, beginners or not. The classes contain equal
amounts of men and women. Co-ordination is an issue with all dancing, but
it's not such a big deal with salsa. You can let yourself go and be a bit
more free.
Belly-dancing
A dance for women. More spiritual and relaxed, no fast movement and it's not a
cardiovascular workout. The moves are sensual, slow and rhythmic. It's
important to isolate parts of the body, which is tricky - your hips are
doing something different from your rib cage. The women who do it are very
comfortable with their bodies.
LOUIE SPENCE
(Artistic director at Pineapple Dance Studios) To find out about tap classes
near you, log on to www.hotcourses.com
