Inheriting New Tap Students, Part 2: Setting a New Tone

 

In your Tap class, are you telling your Tap students what’s “right” and what’s “wrong”? 

🤔 If you are…are you absolutely sure that YOU’RE correct?

Is “right/wrong” the ideal way to keep your students clear on the standards of Tap, and open to new ideas and approaches? 

 

As you consider ways to support students who are struggling to get used to the way you teach,

 

I want you to consider a wider range of vocabulary, beyond “right/wrong”, as you introduce new things, so that when that new student is stuck on “their” way of doing things, you have more language you can use that can validate their past experience, while also opening them up to the new approach you're offering. 

Here’s what I mean.

 

“Right/Wrong” vs “Effective/Ineffective” vs “Common/Uncommon”

Inside my training program The Tap Teachers’ Lounge: Comprehensive Online Tap Teacher Training that Works, one thing that we focus heavily on is “Tap Student Development”. This is all about how we help our students become better students, or how they learn how to learn. 

 

It’s an often overlooked part of teaching Tap dance, but an important one. 

 

Our ability to help our students effectively STUDY Tap dance can be make-or-break when it comes to whether or not students believe they can pick it up, or whether discouragement or frustration will cause their enthusiasm for Tap dance to fizzle. 

 

With teachers in my training program, I strongly encourage an expanded view of our standards in class, and a humble posture of learning that helps students to unfold their arms and open their minds. 

 

With all that being said, consider this: 

 

 “Right” vs. “Wrong” as the only approach 

in Tap class can be narrow & limiting.

Right vs Wrong 

In practice I reserve “right/wrong” for VERY specific and important things, like

Musical/tempo standards - Either you hit the triplet beats or you didn’t. Either you’re matching the given tempo or you’re not. 

Tap step specifics - The order of a cramp roll is toe-toe-heel-heel, it’s not toe-heel-toe-toe.

Choreography - The combo starts on the left foot. You did that or you didn’t. 

 

Actually, I don’t use those exact words “right/wrong” too much in class, if it all. Those words hit some students really hard, so I try to keep it light as I keep it honest: 

“Yup! That’s it!” or “Nope! Hit it again!” 

Put your own spin on it, but in principle, I’ve come to realize that yes, there are high standards in the legacy of Tap, including a FEW parts of training where straight-up “right” & “wrong” makes sense to use. But there’s less cut-and-dry “right/wrong” stuff than many Tap teachers think. 

 

Let’s talk here about another way to keep the standard high. 

(looking for online tap teacher training? click here for info) 

Effective/Ineffective

HOW do you physically approach the step, so that it creates a specfic rhythm pattern, at a given tempo?  

This is where I start to think in terms of “effective” vs. “ineffective”, instead of right/wrong. 

 

As an example…too often, I’ve heard Tap teachers say 

 

“THIS is the ‘right’ way to do 4-sound pullbacks”. 👀

 

But consider this: If you’re asking a student to use a 4-sound pullback to create an 8th note rhythm (1 & 2 &) at 95 BPM for one exercise, and then, as a different exercise,

you ask the student to use that 4-sound pullback to create a triplet rhythm pattern (4 & a 1) at 230 BPM, 

would you advise the student to use the 🤔 same physical approach/pullback technique for both exercises?

I wouldn’t. 

 

One technique is not right or wrong, in this case; it just depends on what you’re trying to get the step to “say”, rhythmically. 

One technique would be more effective for one exercise, but ineffective for the other, and vice versa. 

 

In this way, we make room for more than one approach that works, and we’re keeping a clear and high standard for what we’re teaching in our Tap classes. 

 

The BIG message here is this: 

The most effective way 

to do a step has EVERYTHING 

to do what rhythm/tempo we want 

the step to actually express. 

(looking for online tap teacher training? click here for info) 

When this is the standard, we show our students that knowing how to do a list of steps is not the main definition of studying Tap. We help our students to understand that we don’t do a step only for the sake of the step itself. The purpose of each step is to CREATE a variety of clear rhythms, to create language.

Common/Uncommon

This tends to be a Tap terminology issue. In this case, it’s important to remember that Tap dance is a folk art form where terminology has evolved organically and can vary depending on where you are in the world. 

Perhaps “shuffle”, “time step”, “heel”, “dig” are some of the only terms that are universal. The rest are kinda up for grabs!

 

I do my best to let my Tap students know the terms

that are most commonly used. 

 

“Sure this could be called a Shirley Temple, but it’s also often called a Broadway, or just flap-heel-heel-brush-heel-toe-heel. It’s all good. The main point is how we do the step to make it say what we wanna say, musically.” 

I do my best to avoid terminology debates with anyone as a general rule, and I encourage you to do the same. I simply tell my students I want them to know the common terms that they’re most likely hear out in the broader Tap community. 

————

 

So there you have it! 

 

You’ve got more ways to communicate with that newly-inherited student who believes their way is the right way, and you’ve got more ways to communicate with all your students when you’re introducing new concepts.

 

Hopefully you see that there are sooooooo many ways to communicate standards about Tap dance that 

 

* Keep “right/wrong” reserved for a small group of very important things

 

* Expand our vision (and our students’ vision) of what Tap dance is really about

 

* Help to keep ALL our students in a humble posture of learning

Using these tools, you’ll quickly & easily get all your Tap students into the same groove. 😎

 

 

(looking for online tap teacher training? click here for info)