12.09.08
Tapped in
TAP DANCE LESSON UPDATE
After six months of weekly tap dancing lessons … at last I can tap moi-self across a studio!!
It seemed a weekly torture session … mirrors the length of the room … humiliating failure every lesson … brutal confrontation with my own lack of coordination and writerly stiffness … despite those impediments … including way too much self-consciousness and formality … I have managed to tap dance!!
In a most rudimentary way, I must confess.
I have managed a compound step … pretty simple mind you … flap with one foot while doing buffaloes with the other foot … when I did that across the room last night at my lesson, I felt like … well … Ginger Rogers!!
Still working on the rather clumsy execution, however. Need to add arms, develop a style instead of lumbering … what-evs.
Have I learned anything? Find a good teacher. Try to get a few private lessons if possible. My teacher has spent time with me one-on-one to talk me through changes and combinations that aren’t clear in the class environment.
Not that I understand the fundamentals … I have no boundaries … my life-long dream of tap dancing is closer than ever. (Not giving up the day job, though.)
