Saturday, February 22, 2014

Tap Pups masterclass with a Tap Dog!

Anthony LoCascio, 16 years a Tap Dog, gave three entirely different masterclasses to the Tap Pups today!
He gave us such gems as:
  • Counting is critical.
  • Every step in tap is preparation for the next step.
  • It's not scary because of you, it's scary because it's scary.
Then he smiled, wished us "May your feet be with you," and turned on the music with a "Good luck" (and an implicit "You'll need it.").

Because he worked with a lot of counterpoint and canons, the same steps travelled across the room and back. There was a neat step where the accent was done, depending on your part, as 4x2, 1-2-2-3, or 3-3-1-1. I've sung canons since I was tiny, but doing them with my feet was new. Also new to me was dancing with my hands to walk through the steps. Additionally, a few things that Vicki has doubtless taught us, but that were phrased differently today were
  • Dance with your lower body and keep your head level.
  • Watch your lines (meaning body lines rather than lines of dancers)
  • Keep your knees over your toes.
  • Toes do treble, heels do bass.

photo source: Vicki's Tap Pups

Anthony's company is TapLife, and he posts to Youtube as just4tap
I commend to you his Blurred Lines (which song we'd used for a PopTap session earlier in the year). There also is a tutorial on the same -- thankfully he didn't run our masterclass at the same speed as he works with dance professionals!

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