TECHNIQUE SYLLABUS & TEACHING MODULES

**21-22 Season**

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katelyn@rhythmicsoulstapcompany.com
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arie@rhythmicsoulstapcompany.com
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IN PERSON — STUDIO ADDRESS

Dana’s Coppell
225 TX-121 #115, Coppell, TX 75019

WEEKLY CLASS SAMPLE BREAKDOWN

:00-:05 Welcome students, icebreaker questions
:05-:10 Warm Up (one song only)
:10-:20 Teach Rudiment/Exercise #1 - Have them practice, walk around cleaning, offer feedback & positive reinforcement
:20-:30 Teach Rudiment/Exercise #2 or across the floor - Power minute of drilling, give feedback, repeat with power 2 minutes & show to a friend
:30-:50 Teach Both Musicality exercises - Dancers practice, have them count out loud or clap exercise
:50-:55 Post Class Check in — Biggest Take Away, What did they do good and what needs work

:55-1:00 Sweep & Sanitize

WEEK 1

01/09/2022

TECHNIQUE CLASS
Ice Breaker Question

Warm Up
Keep it to one song max & it should intentionally warm up movement that related to the rudiments below

Technique Rudiment/Exercise #1 & #2.
Any combination of Dig Brush & Loose Ankle technique, paradiddles, Shuffles

FOCUS: Explain working in the front of the body & loose ankle technique like they’ve never done it before. 

Musicality Exercise/Exercise #1 & #2.
Counting & Understanding of Bars & Quarter Note
— Use the metronome
— Have them clap, step, scat & count bars
— Have them listen to a song and clap the quarter (this can be scaled to 3/4 5/4 7/4 time)   

ALL COMPANY CLASS

Journal Prompts:
How do you want to feel in class?
What are you grateful for or what are you excited to learn?


COMPANY CLASS RUDIMENTS

Timing Rudiments
Up and down the scale with metronome

COMPANY CLASS HISTORY
CLICK HERE

WEEK 2

01/16/2022

TECHNIQUE CLASS
Ice Breaker Question: If you were famous, what would you be famous for and whats your celebrity name?

Warm Up
Keep it to one song max & it should intentionally warm up movement that related to the rudiments below
and/or get them thinking musically as well

Technique Rudiment/Exercise #1 & #2.
Focusing on Shuffle VS wing technique, brush step heel vs drawbacks, Shuffle variations (crossing and jump shuffles), & pick ups

Musicality Exercise/Exercise #1 & #2.
Counting & Understanding the Notes Quarter, 8th, triplet, 16th
— Use fruit salad (pear, apple, pineapple, watermelon)
— Have them clap, step scat & count notes (remind them of bars)
— Have them make up a song with the notes (EXP: Pear, pear, apple, pear | watermelon pear pear pineapple) they have them play that song with their feet while counting out loud

FOCUS: Reinforce working in the front of the body with loose ankles. If using behind the leg, explain that technique & break it down.
CHALLENGE: Notice in your combos if there are timing challenges -- add more pauses and moments that encourage their musicality

ALL COMPANY CLASS

Journal Prompts:
Journal Prompt:
How do you want to feel in class?
— The way we feel affect everything we do
— Have them recall a time they did something (sad, happy, angry, silly etc), then explain how we can choose the way we feel in a situation but it takes practice and intention,
— Start by having them write how they want to feel, then remind them of it during class,
What is one thing you love?
— This can be something super simple, they love their dog or tap shoes etc
— This get them thinking of something that brings up good feelings to start class with

COMPANY CLASS EXERCISE
Performance and Style Theme Exercises

COMPANY CLASS RUDIMENTS

Timing Rudiments
Up and down the scale with metronome

COMPANY CLASS HISTORY
CLICK HERE

WEEK 3

01/23/2022

TECHNIQUE

Ice Breaker Question: What’s something you’ve never done but have always wanted to try?

WARM UP TO “TAKE THE A TRAIN” or other AABA Jazz Standard
— Before starting mention the bar structure again & have them really feel it as they warm up

Musicality Exercise /Exercise #1 & #2.
FIRST THIS WEEK. Counting & Understanding RESTS & HOW to hold space
— Use fruit salad to help understand the spaces (pear, apple, pineapple, watermelon)
— Have them clap, step scat & count (remind them of bars)
— Have them make up a silly song to help them hold the space (Old Mcdonald had a farm, but then intentionally take out words & have them feel the rest but they are still singing in their minds)

Technique Rudiment/Exercise #1 & #2.
Stomp brush & Time Steps || Classic rep inspired exercises (Bill Robinson, Chuck Green, Leon Collins 53, etc) focusing on staying light & working in front of the body || Wings & Variations

FOCUS: Reinforce working in the front of the body with loose ankles. If using behind the leg, explain that technique.
CHALLENGE: Notice how you are teaching these combos -- how many different ways can you explain the technique of these steps. 

ALL COMPANY CLASS

Journal Prompts:
How do you want to feel in class?
What are you grateful for?
What’s one character trait you admire in others? EXP: work ethic, kindness, generosity etc

COMPANY CLASS EXERCISE
Performance & Interaction with other dancers, audience, and others on stage while tap dancing

Tap History 1920-1940s
What brothers were famous for their flash tap dancing? Nicholas Brothers
Who said “We did everything in show business except Opera”? Fayard Nicholas
Who danced with Fred Astaire in Begin the Beguine? Eleanor Powell
Who claimed to be able to make 500 sounds in one minute? Ann Miller, Miller preferred a vigorous approach to those steps that was athletic and speedy. Blending glamour and razzmatazz with speedy precision, Miller came as close to hoofing in high-heels as any female dancer in the Golden Age of movie musicals.
Honi Coles learned to tap dance on the streets of Philadelphia, where dancers challenged each other in time step "cutting" contests. He made his debut at the Lafayette Theatre in 1931 as one of the Three Millers, a group that performed over-the-tops, barrel turns, and wings on six-foot-high pedestals. After discovering that his partners had hired another dancer to replace him, he retreated to Philadelphia, determined to perfect his technique, and returned in 1934, confident and skilled in his ability to cram several steps into a bar of music. Performing at the Harlem Opera House and Apollo Theatre, he was reputed to have the fastest feet in show business. And at the Hoofer's Club, he was hailed as one of the most graceful dancers ever seen.
Name Famous Tap duos— Buck & Bubbles, Nicholas Brothers, Fred & Ginger Rogers, Pops & Louis, Hines Brothers, The Berry Brothers (trio),

Jazz History
Trumpeter Louis Armstrong records Body and Soul.
Bandleader Cab Calloway becomes a regular at the Cotton Club.
Duke Ellington records It Don't Mean a Thing (If it Ain't' Got That Swing), the first jazz composition to use swing in the title.
Singer Billie Holiday makes her first recording.
Lester Young records Lester Leaps In with Count Basie.

WEEK 4

01/30/2022

Technique

Ice Breaker Question: What is the best dance you’ve ever seen? Who is your favorite dancer to watch?

WARM UP
— Have them notice the notes (quarter, 8th, triplet, 16th)
— Call out note changes or have them call out the notes/count as they warm up

Musicality Exercise /Exercise #1 & #2.
Scatting & How it Helps Us Understand Rhythm & Notes
— Explain how scatting provides yet another way even beyond counts to get the music of tap dancing in our bodies
— It’s totally ok & even expected to feel weird or silly doing it

Technique Rudiment/Exercise #1 & #2.
Utilizing stomp vs step vs toe knock, chug vs slim, heel vs toe drop, crawls -- opposites in weight shifts || Grab offs & for adv w/ alternate landings — rhythm turns combos & advanced with different beginnings & endings (4ths etc)

FOCUS: Work on weight shifts and making big choices as they move from one leg to another
CHALLENGE: Create combos that have more unexpected weight shifts that provide opportunities for them to grow
RESOURCES:
Scatting 101 — Youtube
Scatting Overview— https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7QJ_XGMoMg
Ella Fitzgerald — https://americanhistory.si.edu/smithsonian-jazz/education/ellas-singing-class

ALL COMPANY CLASS

Journal Prompts:
How do you want to feel in class?
What are you grateful for?
What’s one character trait you admire in others? EXP: work ethic, kindness, generosity etc

COMPANY CLASS EXERCISE
Mastering Trick Steps in Tap

TAP HISTORY
Who was the first person to dance with an animated character? Gene Kelly with Jerry the Mouse
Why were the Copasetics founded? created to keep the memory of Bill Robinson alive & tap dance growing, the original group had 21 members to begin with
Name members of the Copasetics- First 21 members Cholly Atkins, Peg Leg Bates, Paul Black, pianist Paul Branker, Ernest Brown, Charles Honi Coles (who became the organization's first president), Chink Collins, Charles Cook, Emery Evans, fraternal twins Francis and Frank Goldberg, trumpeter Milton Larkin, LeRoy Myers Pete Nugent, Luther Preston, Henry Phace Roberts, John E. Thomas, James Walker, Elmer Waters, Eddie West, and composer and arranger Billy Strayhorn.
Name a tap dancer with one leg—- Peg Leg Bates “Mr. Bates lost his leg at age 12 in an accident at a cottonseed-gin mill where he worked. He had been dancing for his own pleasure from the age of 5, ''before I even knew I was tap dancing,'' he told Rusty E. Frank in an interview for Ms. Frank's 1990 book ''Tap!'' ''After losing the leg, for some unknown reason, I still wanted to dance,'' Mr. Bates told Ms. Frank. ''At first, I was walking around on crutches, and I started making musical rhythm with them.'…. I'm into doing things that it looks almost impossible to do.'' One reason he had mastered so many styles, he said, was to surpass two-legged dancers, adding that he often did.
Baby Lawrence - Around 1940 Baby focused on tap dancing and became a soloist. Through the decade, he danced with the big bands of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Woody Herman, and in the fifties danced in small Harlem jazz clubs. Under the influence of jazz saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker and other bebop musicians, Laurence expanded tap technique into jazz dancing. He performed with jazz pianist Art Tatum, duplicating in his feet what Tatum played with his fingers.

Jazz History
Duke Ellington's band records composer Billy Strayhorn's Take the 'A' Train, which becomes the band's signature tune.
Pianist Fats Waller appears at Carnegie Hall.
Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie join pianist Earl Hines band.
Bud Powell urges bandleader Cootie Williams to record Thelonious Monk's 'Round Midnight. This is the first known recording of this song, which has since become the most-recorded jazz standard composed by any jazz musician.
Trumpeter Miles Davis arrives in New York to study at Juilliard School of Music but promptly withdraws. He complains of the classical / European focus of the school and decides he can learn more from Parker, Gillespie and the NY jazz scene.
Dizzy Gillespie records Manteca, bringing attention to Afro-Cuban jazz.

WEEK 5

02/06/2022

Technique

Ice Breaker Question: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten? What’s a weird food you like but no one else does?

WARM UP
— Focus on their performance & how they are dancing the warm up

Musicality/Exercise #1 & #2.
How to count odd time signatures:
— Have them count bars with 3s, 5s, 6s, 7s
— Ask them to go through fruit salad (pear, apple, pineapple, watermelon) in each while clapping the quarter note
— Musicality rudiment with odd time signature, counting out loud etc

Technique Rudiment/Exercise #1 & #2.

Use only Unusual Time Signatures (3, 5, 7) (for Level 1/2 only use 3’s and 6’s)
Crawls w/ multiple heels toes, single leg crawls & working behind the leg 
Shuffle & Flap Variations & technique (one and a half, multiple sound shuffles, & any flap variation)
ALT ending to any trick steps & flying trick steps (ending with dig toe, step heel)

FOCUS: Understanding how old time signatures feel and differ from each other
CHALLENGE: Create combos that don’t get trapped in the bar — how do different pauses affect a 7/4 or what does a 5/4 groove feel like?

ALL COMPANY CLASS

Journal Prompts:
How do you want to feel in class?
What are you grateful for?
Do you have an historical tap dancers you look up to?

COMPANY CLASS EXERCISE
TAP HISTORY FOOTAGE WEEK —
watching historical videos & learning classic rep (shim sham, bs chorus etc)
Have them pretend they are getting a “one shot” take and split up into groups to film with performance, style, sounds etc.
What if they had to “dub” and be the sounds for another tap dancer?

Tap History: 1950-1970s

Jimmy Slyde (James Titus Godbolt) - In 1966, at the Berlin Jazz Festival, Slyde, Baby Laurence, James Buster Brown, and Chuck Green were hailed as "Harlem's All-Star Dancers" with a band that comprised Roy Eldridge (trumpet), Illinois Jacquet (tenor sax), Jimmy Woody (bass), Milt Buckner (piano), and Papa Jo Jones (drums). In the 1970s he expatriated to France and settled in Paris where, with the help of tap dancer Sarah Petronio, he helped introduce rhythm tap. When he returned to the states after performing in the Paris production of Black and Blue (1985), he was immediately absorbed into the burgeoning tap revival. A much-in-demand guest artist on the national and international tap festival circuit, he was active on his hometown local scene; and with the mastress of tap dance Dianne Walker, he was a strong presence in the Boston and regional tap scene, presenting tap salons and performing at Jacob's Pillow in Becket, Massachusetts. He also served as a mentor to young artists by hosting weekly sessions at the club LaCave in New York City, where he attracted an international array of dancers, including Herbin Van Cayseele (Tamango), Max Pollak, Karen Calloway, Roxane Semadini-- who he nicknamed "Butterfly"-- and Savion Glover, who called his teacher "the Godfather of tap" and "one of the true masters of the art form."
Cholly Atkins Part of the famous duo Atkins and Coles he went on to be the most prolific choreographer for Motown records and created what we know as back up dancing today — "the man with the moves" who choreographed, staged, and staged acts for countless vocal groups (between 1953-1994) He has won numerous Gold Record awards for his choreography and, in 1989, won a Tony Award, shared with Fayard Nicholas, Frankie Manning, and Henry LeTang, for his choreography in the Broadway show, Black and Blue. In 1993, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Atkins the highest honor, a three-year Choreographer's Fellowship for the Arts, to record his memoirs and tour colleges and universities, teaching vocal choreography as a dance genre. In 1999, Atkins received the Living Treasure in American Dance Award from the Oklahoma City University School of American Dance and Arts Management.
Brenda Buffalino soloist, and choreographer/director of The American Tap Dance Orchestra, collaborated with her partner and mentor the great Charles ‘Honi’ Coles, and many performances with Gregory Hines, The Nicholas Brothers, and the many giants of tap dance, she also created her own experimental work, with taps, electronics and poetry

JAZZ HISTORY
Billie Holiday performs twice at Carnegie Hall, both times breaking box-office records.
Miles Davis records Walkin' and Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants, the latter featuring Thelonious Monk and Milt Jackson.
Drummer Max Roach forms a hard bop quintet with trumpeter Clifford Brown.
Saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley performs in New York for the first time.
Miles Davis records Kind of Blue, which pioneers modal jazz, and will eventually become one of the best selling jazz albums of all time. 1959
Dave Brubeck and his quartet record Time Out, which includes Paul Desmond's hit Take Five.

WEEK 6 || IMPROV WEEK

12/05/2021

Ice Breaker Question: If you could give everyone a physical present what would it be? (snuggie, chocolate cookies, tap shoes etc)

WARM UP —

Musicality/Exercise #1 & #2.
How to count while improving & Choosing Rests in improv to make grooves/patterns

Technique Rudiment/Exercise #1 & #2.
All IMPROV Based —
Level 1/2: Really really really structured for improv for them
— Give them a time step (2 bars repeated three times) then they improv the two bar break. Feel free to even give boundaries in that short improv, they only play quarter notes, they can only use step heels etc
— Have them improv through the notes (quarter, eighth, triplet sixteenth)
— Why space is important in improv
— Give them a nursery rhyme or rhythm to Improv with (old Mcdonald and just play it with toe drops etc)
Level 3: Structure with more freedom
— Have them improv through the notes (quarter, eighth, triplet sixteenth)
— Why space is important in improv
— Use steps as prompts for improv
Level 4: Teaching them to make interesting choices in improv
— Have them improv through the notes (quarter, eighth, triplet sixteenth) & challenge them to really dance it
— Teaching them how to improv with time step repeats
— Why space is important in improv
— Use steps as prompts for improv
Level 5: Finding their style in improv & how to take more risks
— Have them improv through the notes (quarter, eighth, triplet, sixteenth) & challenge them to really dance it with step that are harder to do. You could also go through swing notes as well
— Longer improv phrases 8 bar, 16 bar etc
— How to tell a story through improv and use repetition as a tool

FOCUS: Improv & finding the fun in creating on the spot
CHALLENGE: How can you get the kids to connect with each other while improving?
RESOURCE:
INSPIRATION VIDEO TO SHOW FOR IMPROV & JAZZ (Jimmy Slyde and the drummer Jo Jones)
HERE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do5LpG3k1WM

ALL COMPANY CLASS

Journal Prompts:
How do you want to feel in class?
What are you grateful for?
How do you make music outside of your tap shoes?

COMPANY CLASS EXERCISE
Grooves & Counter rhythms
How to Play music together
Playing with “unconventional sounds and props” to create music

Tap History: 1970-1990s
Diane Walker Loving calling “Aunt Di, Walker is considered by as the transitional figure between the young generation of female dancers-- such as Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, Germaine Ingram, Ayodele Casel-- and the "forgotten black mothers of tap," such as Edith "Baby" Edwards, Jeni LeGon, Lois Miller, and Florence Covan— she generouraly shares her knowledge of tap and was a student of Leon Colins
Jane Goldberg She is the founder of the Changing Times Tap Dance Company, wrote extensive history on tap dance in 70s-90s
Gregory Hines trained under Henry Le Tang, famous for bringing tap to the forefront of Americans minds through his many famous appearances in 80s movies tap dancing and his special Tap Dancing in America
Leon Collins tap virtuoso who inspired a new blend of jazz and classical music, placing an innovative focus on melody rather than rhythm alone, and who believed that "Dancing is the poetry of the body as music is the poetry of the soul," — Dancing to such jazz standards as Dizzy Gillespie's "Night in Tunesia," Collins also interpreted Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" and Bach's "Prelude and Fugue in C Minor," dancing with disarming ease and shimmering speed. He was developing jazz tap along the rhythmic and harmonic styles of the new bebop,

Jazz History
Pianist Chick Corea records The Song of Singing, a successful experiment with atonal jazz.
Keyboardist Herbie Hancock records the jazz-rock (fusion) album Headhunters in San Francisco, the album's sales breaking all records in jazz.
Dizzy Gillespie publishes his book, To Be or Not To Bop.
Trumpeter Miles Davis comes out of retirement and records the funk and rock-influenced The Man with the Horn.
Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and vocalist Bobby McFerrin are featured at the Kool Jazz Festival.

Week 7 || Swing

12/12/2021

Ice Breaker Question: What’s your favorite music genre to listen to? Why do you like it?
WARM UP —
— Have them notice the notes (quarter, 8th, triplet, 16th)
— Challenge them to count out loud the quarter notes out loud the whole time

Musicality/Exercise #1 & #2.
2 Exercises that help them play & understand the difference between swung v straight
Best accessible comparison is 8th straight vs swung 8th notes in step heels so they feel the space swing creates
Good steps to help them feel the difference:
Flaps
Broadways
Shuffles
Paradiddles etc

Technique Rudiment/Exercise #1 & #2.
Swing rudiments only — time steps, triplets, stomp brush, triplets (slurps) and soft shoe style.
One fast swing combo, one soft shoe feel (slow, lots of space, light and relaxed), and/or a more syncopated swing with different pauses

FOCUS: Work on how swing is an entirely different feel, how they are fast and slow swing etc.
CHALLENGE: Make sure to explore the whole spectrum of swing, fast vs slow — different syncopation etc.

ALL COMPANY CLASS

Journal Prompts:
How do you want to feel in class?
What are you grateful for?
How do you make music outside of your tap shoes?

COMPANY CLASS EXERCISE
Dancing with Live Musician
- how to work with a live musician
- possibly have a live musician in person or online to interview


History
FOOTAGE WEEK: Screen share clips of your favorite tap dancers who really SWING!
See if dancers can recognize any one from the past weeks videos.
Possible footage clips (feel free to share your favorites):
Eddie Brown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKoGFmD7UnE&list=PLxBD7XM7XNKYNn6TdXIscDsV-2AjE_8QN&index=4
King for A Day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NusZgfCQ634&list=PLxBD7XM7XNKYNn6TdXIscDsV-2AjE_8QN&index=16
Begin the Beguine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZPndC-F5SE
HInes, Slyde, Briggs, Sandman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RbEBR0a_TY
Jimmy Slyde & Jo Jones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjCg7o1quAQ
Jimmy Slyde “Yardbird Suite” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10IZadzVYPg
Sandman Sims https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THc9nhOo5kQ

**REMIND DANCERS OF THEIR TAP HISTORY/JAZZ SPARK OF INSPIRATION PRESENTATION THE NEXT WEEK

Teacher Resource
Explaining Swing as Music: HERE

Week 8 || Choreo Week


Ice Breaker Question: Who is your favorite choreographer? What style of tap choreography do you find easiest?

WARM UP —
— Have them notice the notes (quarter, 8th, triplet, 16th)
— Challenge them to count out loud the quarter notes out loud the whole time

Musicality/Exercise #1 & #2.
Review how to count bars— how to recognize notes & play them with different music
Talk about how you view musicality as a choreographer, what you consider as you create
Give them 2 exercises the base their choreo off of musicality ideas

Technique Rudiment/Exercise #1 & #2.
This week you are really empowering the student to create their own mini rudiments & share with the class. These should be super quick fun and easy creations. So when giving them prompts avoid just “Hey guys make 4 bars” — structure it with prompts, clear parameters, give them 2-3 min to create, show and tell then offer feedback. Keep class moving!

PROMPT IDEAS (stick with 4 to 8 bars MAX):
Create through the notes (one bar of each note) — could do a swing version
What’s a time step (2 bar figure repeated three times with a 2 bar break) & create your own!
Creating based off rhythms
Creating based off commercial jingles “We are farmers bum bum” (this was their all time favorite)
Creating based off steps (paradiddles, shuffles etc)
Finish my phrase (you make two bars they make two etc)
Whats your favorite step? Now create something with only that step that (jumps, travels, gets low, goes slow, goes fast, and scurries)
Learning a combo & creating the last bar inspired by what the first bars were
Create with only single sound steps, double sound step etc
Create based off a feeling
Create a swing vs straight combo

ALL COMPANY CLASS

Journal Prompts:
How do you want to feel in class?
What are you grateful for?
How do you make music outside of your tap shoes?

COMPANY CLASS EXERCISE
Creating choreography continued in this class & have dancers set pieces on each other then do a fun showcase at the end.

Tap History & Jazz Show and Tell
Dancers present their favorite historical moment in Tap or jazz History
1-3min presentation of what they learned and why they love it/it inspires them

WEEK 9 || Review WEEK

Class Focus: REVIEW WEEK!!!

:00-:10
Ice Breaker Question: What was your favorite thing you learned this season? What’s something you want to learn more?
Journal Prompt:
How do you want to feel in class?
What are you grateful for?
What’s one way you can try something new or believe in yourself in class?

:10-:45
WARM UP —

Musicality
Quiz Style Tournament (they answer by typing in the chat or raising hand to show)
1. How do you count (quarter, 8th, triplet, 16th) — What is a Rest?
2. What are the fruits and notes associated with them?
3. Can you count the following? (give them how many bars and what notes, really mix it up)
4. How many bars are in a standard Jazz chorus? 32
5. What Jazz structure is Take The A Train? AABA
6. How do you count swing?
7. Name an uncommon time signature? 3/4 6/4 6/8 5/4 7/4
8. Name a famous Jazz Musician

Technique Rudiment/Exercise #1 & #2.

Create 2 -3 rudiments incorporating as much of what was taught over the season.
Quiz them on notes, what steps are called, and what corrections/technique notes they should think of for each.
Let the last rudiment have some improv aspect

RUDIMENT STEPS
Dig Brush & Loose Ankle technique, paradiddles, Shuffles, Flaps, Pick ups,
Working in the front of the body relaxed
Pick up notes & double time runs -- Beyond the Bars (not starting on 1 ending on 4) 
Shuffle vs Wing Technique 
Drawbacks, Cincinnatis, Manhattans, jump dig brush heel shuffle & other transfer of weight steps
Stomp brush & Triplets (touch dig brush)
Classic Historical steps (broadway, simple time steps, shim sham rep, bill rep, etc) 
Using your arms while dancing 
Dancing more flat footed (utilizing stomps intentionally)
Turning & Traveling Steps
Fourths & Chug/Slim
Unusual Time Signatures (3, 5, 7) 
Rhythm turns, ALT ending to trick steps (ending with dig toe, step heel)
Crawls & working behind the leg 
Improv Basics & techniques
Choreography Basics & Techniques

Tap History || Tournament Style Quiz: they answer in the chat!
Quiz through all mentioned dancers & see who/what they remember!

Tap History, 1900-1920s
When’s Bill Robinson Birthday? National Tap Dance day May 25th
What was Bill Robinsons Nickname? Bojangles
Who was the Father of Rhythm Tap? John Bubbles — because he dropped his heels on the offbeat, used the toes to accent, and extended rhythmic patterns beyond the usual eight bars of music
Who was the only women to receive an honorary Tap Doctorate? Jeni Legon

Tap History 1920-1940s
What brothers were famous for their flash tap dancing? Nicholas Brothers
Who said “We did everything in show business except Opera”? Fayard Nicholas
Who danced with Fred Astaire in Begin the Beguine? Eleanor Powell
Name Famous Tap duos— Buck & Bubbles, Nicholas Brothers, Fred & Ginger Rogers, Pops & Louis, Hines Brothers, The Berry Brothers (trio),

1930-1950s
Who was the first person to dance with an animated character? Gene Kelly with Jerry the Mouse
Why were the Copasetics founded? created to keep the memory of Bill Robinson alive & tap dance growing, the original group had 21 members to begin with
Name members of the Copasetics- First 21 members Cholly Atkins, Peg Leg Bates, Paul Black, pianist Paul Branker, Ernest Brown, Charles Honi Coles (who became the organization's first president), Chink Collins, Charles Cook, Emery Evans, fraternal twins Francis and Frank Goldberg, trumpeter Milton Larkin, LeRoy Myers Pete Nugent, Luther Preston, Henry Phace Roberts, John E. Thomas, James Walker, Elmer Waters, Eddie West, and composer and arranger Billy Strayhorn.

Name a tap dancer with one leg—- Peg Leg Bates “Mr. Bates lost his leg at age 12 in an accident at a cottonseed-gin mill where he worked. He had been dancing for his own pleasure from the age of 5, ''before I even knew I was tap dancing,'' he told Rusty E. Frank in an interview for Ms. Frank's 1990 book ''Tap!'' ''After losing the leg, for some unknown reason, I still wanted to dance,'' Mr. Bates told Ms. Frank. ''At first, I was walking around on crutches, and I started making musical rhythm with them.'…. I'm into doing things that it looks almost impossible to do.'' One reason he had mastered so many styles, he said, was to surpass two-legged dancers, adding that he often did.

Tap History: 1950-1970s
Cholly Atkins (Part of the famous duo Atkins and Coles he went on to be the most prolific choreographer for Motown records and created what we know as back up dancing today)
Honi Coles (1936 to 1939 Coles performed with the Lucky Seven Trio, who tapped on large cubes that looked like dice; the group went through ten costume changes in the course of their act. Touring with the big swing bands of Count Basie and Duke Ellington, the 6'2" Coles polished his style, melding high-speed tapping with an elegant yet close-to-the-floor style where the legs and feet did the work.)
Brenda Buffalino soloist, and choreographer/director of The American Tap Dance Orchestra, collaborated with her partner and mentor the great Charles ‘Honi’ Coles, and many performances with Gregory Hines, The Nicholas Brothers, and the many giants of tap dance, she also created her own experimental work, with taps, electronics and poetry

Tap History: 1970-1990s
Diane Walker Loving calling “Aunt Di, Walker is considered by as the transitional figure between the young generation of female dancers-- such as Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, Germaine Ingram, Ayodele Casel-- and the "forgotten black mothers of tap," such as Edith "Baby" Edwards, Jeni LeGon, Lois Miller, and Florence Covan— she generouraly shares her knowledge of tap and was a student of Leon Colins
Jane Goldberg She is the founder of the Changing Times Tap Dance Company, wrote extensive history on tap dance in 70s-90s
Gregory Hines trained under Henry Le Tang, famous for bringing tap to the forefront of Americans minds through his many famous appearances in 80s movies tap dancing and his special Tap Dancing in America

SHOW WEEKEND TECHNIQUE || Fun Combos & Teacher’s Choice

:00-:10
Ice Breaker Question: If you could pick 3 animals to put together and create a new animal, which animals would you pick?
What would it be called?
Journal Prompt:
How do you want to feel in class?
What are you grateful for?
What’s one way you can try something new or believe in yourself in class?

:10-:45
WARM UP —

Musicality
Play with grooves and teaching counter rhythm — clapping as they tap, or scatting and tapping

Technique Rudiment/Exercise & Combo #1 & #2.

Create a fun combo that goes both left and right and incorporates improv
Have them help you create a rudiment combo (they inspire the step or timing and you all create live together)

History
Share what tap history you love & any tap history stories you know!
Feel free to share footage (5min max)