Tap that

You may have noticed...I've posted 10 blog entries already. And I've only been here like 3 days. This is in fact not because I have too much time on my hands and nothing to do (honest). I'm still slightly adjusting to the time difference - I keep waking up super early then finding myself feeling really drowsy and dizzy halfway through the day. So I'm loathe to go out during the day when I'll just end up wanting to go to bed, which is tricky to do when bed is 2 trains away.
Plus the snow is still here though much reduced, which makes travelling that bit more difficult. Having said that I am putting on my finery (and boots and parka) to pay a visit to Duane Park this evening and I cannot WAAAIT!

So today though I've been home I have been very productive. I've done lots of writing and even done some pointe practice (though not much cos these floors creak badly enough as it is without me shoe-blocking all over the place.) I have also eaten a nourishing breakfast and cooked myself a nourishing lunch of pasta with veggies and tuna. See, proper nourishing, haven't even touched my Golden Grahams yet today. Man I love Golden Grahams. I have also spent the past hour or so reading up on tap dancing - my class yesterday really got me thinking.
http://www.offjazz.com/term-tp.htm This is a list of tap terms and definitions. There are quite a few that make me go 'argh, no!' Scuffle for example.

http://www.theatredance.com/tap/ This is an interesting if brief history of tap...there's quite a lot missing, but it's got so many tangents that I now want to chase (so there goes my next hour).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH2LLy84MGA&feature=related This hasn't really taught me anything...but I rather like it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89HdVh0vksg&feature=related This is just silly. Savion Glover, trained at Broadway Dance Centre, kind of Gregory Hines' successor. And Gregory Hines was Sammy Davis Jr's successor...almost officially.
'In 1990, Hines visited with his idol, Sammy Davis Jr, as the great entertainer lay dying, unable to speak. After Davis died, a choked-up Hines spoke at Davis's funeral of how Sammy had made a gesture to him, "as if passing a basketball … and I caught it." Hines spoke of the honor that Sammy thought that Hines could carry on from where he left off.'Left: Hines and Glover
Above: Davis and Hines
Right: Hines






And of course we have my all-time idol and hero: the mighty Gene Kelly.

Yes Fred Astaire was good...but Gene was a perfect combination of the rhythm core of tap and the training and quality of ballet and jazz. By which I mean he can do the impressive speed-tapping and crazy syncopation as well as the next man, but he also really moves around the floor and executes perfect turns without ever compromising on tap - he doesn't stop tapping to travel and doesn't stop travelling to tap.
Plus I just love him in general.

There's too many great Youtube clips of him so I entreat the World to go and watch them.

They don't make'em like this anymore!

xxxxxx