Tuesday, August 05, 2008

DOUBLED

Last night was supposed to be our last tap class, but since Nadine decided not to show up for last week's class, we get an extra session. So we have one more week. Hooray!

Last night was great for two reasons: first of all, I came straight from work, and so I was wearing a dress. Tapping is ten times more fun in a dress. Secondly, I decided to double up on classes last night. Remember that I missed the very first tap class? Turns out we're allowed to make up missed classes. I had fun getting all that energy out (two hours of tapping!) but my feet really hurt by the end of the second hour.

So I pranced right on into the 6:30 "advanced" class. I say "advanced" because there was only one of the regular "advanced" students there, plus me and one girl from my regular class who is... how shall I say it... not good. So we all warmed up together and Nadine worked with the advanced girl on their class dance sequence "combination" and gave Slowsky and me our own steps to work on. We practiced jazz squares (!) and paradiddles, which you may remember that I already learned. So, I was paradiddling all over the place. Nadine came to check on me, approved my progress and taught me how to do a double paradiddle, followed by a triple paradiddle. Then I worked on combining single and double paradiddles, and then we were finished with our separate lessons. Which meant group travel time - my favorite. We worked on flapping and shuffling across the floor and then spins, which were tricky. Remember that our floor is very slick, and rather than having us travel diagonally, we were traveling straight across the floor, which is harder than you'd think.

One by one, my normal classmates trickled in. We warmed up again, did our bar exercises and then Nadine taught us something called a cramp roll. It's basically toe, toe, heel, heel really fast. We practiced them with a flap in front of them, going forward and going backwards. I like cramp rolls. They really punctuate your dance sequence "combination." Like an exclamation point!

After we mastered our cramp rolls, it was time to work on our dance sequence "combination." Of course, Nadine had forgotten the last steps she'd taught us, and to my surprise so had everyone else, except for this girl. Duh - three maxie fords! We practiced the dance sequence "combination" with the new (old) steps and then added on some Front Irishes. I must admit - the "advanced" class' dance is much, much cooler than ours is. I got to watch it during the first hour and I was jealous.

Anyway, with about 15 minutes left in the class, we cornered up and travelled across the floor. We did basic heel, toe steps then added some interesting shuffles and flaps. The steps were not too complicated but the problem was that when we dance across the floor, all it takes is one person to get off beat for all the people behind her to get off beat. And this happens more often than not. So I have learned to always go at the end and literally march to my own beat. Last night, I was going second to last: Slowsky was third to last, and Allison made me follow her so that she wouldn't get off beat by watching her. So it went Slowsky, me, then Allison.

I am very sad that next week is our last class. We haven't finished our dance sequence "combination" and I know there are still so many steps to learn! I guess I will have to find a place to keep taking tap in the fall... any takers?

1 comment:

  1. i think you need to be promoted to the advanced class...

    ReplyDelete

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