Welcome back to another From the Top blog post, everyone! Today we are talking a little bit about a personal dance genre favorite of mine — tap dancing! Tap is easily one of the most profound dance genres of all time. Throughout the years, tap has been a huge part of dance history in many different parts of the world. However, despite its major contribution and prevalence in dance history, tap is often not discussed nearly as much as it deserves to be in today’s modern day in age. So, that’s why today’s post is all about tap, all of its benefits and, if you’ve been on the fence about it, why you should take the plunge and sign up for a class! Let’s get to it!
Tap Benefit #1
“It Increases Musicality”
As a dancer, one the most advantageous skill sets to learn is how to form a good sense of musicality and what better way to learn this skill than by learning a dance genre that teaches you how to literally create music with your feet! Tap is all about creating different sounds and beats that coincide and compliment the music that you are dancing to. This factor within itself teaches you how to connect with music on a more intricate level! By taking a tap class, not only are you learning how to dance to the music, you are learning to become the music. Pretty deep, right?
Tap Benefit #2. “It Teaches You Proper Weight Distribution”
Another awesome benefit of taking up tap is that it teaches you proper weight distribution. In tap, proper weight distribution plays a big part in learning how to move and articulate each step in a smooth and fluid manner. This element found in tap gives dancers a benefit that can be used in so many other dance styles such as ballet, contemporary and especially pointe, where a good sense of proper weight distribution is key when learning how to dance in pointe shoes properly and safely. Also, with good weight distribution comes great balance and we all know, how important that is!
Tap #3
“Tap Teaches You Articulation”
In addition to musicality, another great “dance lesson” that tap teaches you is muscle articulation. When your dancing, it’s important to make sure that each move you do is done smoothly and cleanly. Taking a tap class is one the perfect ways to learn and/or improve that area of your dance training because in order for your taps to sound good, you must articulate each movement to create sharp, clean sounds. This, to me, is awesome because no matter what other genre you dance, this is a skill set that can be used across the board and will help you become an even better dancer in all areas!
Tap Benefit #4
“Tap Is All Around Fun!”
And lastly and most importantly, tap is an all around fun dance genre to try! It’s such a unique style of dance! It has structure, but it’s not too strict. There are rules but then again there’s not! Tap is all about being yourself, putting in your own flavor into the choreography and really just getting down, having a great time while you dance. It teaches you how to enjoy every minute, every second and every movement of what you are doing. Tap is all about being one with the music and simply just enjoying the art of dance. And though it can be a little challenging at first when you’re an absolute beginner, if you keep at it, I can guarantee that not only will it become easier to do, but that you will enjoy every moment of the experience!
That’s all for today’s post! I hope you all enjoyed reading this blog segment and I hope it inspires you to take the plunge and sign up for your local tap class! Until next Friday, have a great weekend and remember…
Keep Dancing!
-Lexi
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