Bad-ass tapping

I've been taking some tap dancing classes for a month now. And contrary to popular belief, the Riverdance show is NOT a tap dancing show: instead, my instructor was careful to point out to me that Riverdance was an Irish jig, and was not tap dancing per se, although there were tap dancing techniques and moves incorporated into the dance routine, for sure. I was a little disappointed at first, because damn!- those Riverdancers are bad-ass! It is quite likely I may never ever be able to dance like them, but given enough practice and lessons, I was hoping to at least be able to carry out a simple dance routine.

Having said that, and having had a month of rhythm tap dancing, I am really enjoying the classes and the learning experience. Also contrary to popular belief- tap dancing can get quite strenuous when you do the same structured exercise routines over and over again. I couldn't believe it when I realised I was sweating buckets in the class. At least it's a workout! 

I finally bought my tap shoes last week- I'm stingy, so I opted to buy ready-made ones (instead of going to a shoemaker who will measure your feet out and custom-make a pair for you: these can cost almost RM400) and managed to find a very reasonably-priced pair (under RM150) from a dancewear shop which supplies ballet leotards, skirts, shoes (including tap shoes), etc to the school where by daughter takes her ballet classes. They were a perfect fit at first, a cute-sy pair of black Mary Janes.  I tried practising some moves at home, but my flooring was ill-suited for tap dancing (slippery and shiny) so I almost fell down a few times. 

I had the opportunity to try them out for the first time last night at tap class- and they felt strange at first- but really made a difference when you're practising and doing routines. I'm really excited! I wish I had more than 1 tap class a week- I could do it every night!

Anyway, here is a video I found on Youtube, which I really liked, for some reason- seems to be a video of a practice session. The rhythm tap moves are sleek and well-planned and really very cool. Nothing super fancy, just cool and understated. I like.....