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Organisations
Amateur Tap Dancers, the association for adult tap dancers who dance for fun, has been re-launched under
the new name of Associated Tap Dancers (ATD).
We arrange an annual TapUK festival in May and one day workshops called Dancers Days Out (DDO) around the country
throughout the year. Membership of Associated Tap Dancers is only £15 per year and gives you:-
v All the details of TapUK
v Advance details of DDO
v Members discount for any DDO
v Timestep newsletter 3 times per
year with news, stories and future events, not only from ATD but throughout the tap world
v Annual TapUK magazine containing
pictures and stories from the festival
If you
would like more information about ATD please contact:-
TapUK
& general enquiries - Penny Smith
Membership
- Mary Lockett
Dancers
Days Out & Publications - Jo Summerfield
The ITA is an organisation for anyone with an interest in tap dancing. It was founded
in 1987 and their mission is "to promote the understanding, preservation, and development of tap dance as an art form.". Although
the ITA is a US based organisation, any serious tap dancer would find benefits with membership. Members receive the ITA publication
On Tap six times per year which contains up to date details about world-wide tap events and other information
for tappers. Annual membership costs $35 for US, $45 for Canada & Mexico and $50 for International members. If you pay
by visa there is a $2.50 surcharge so the total charge for an International member would be approximately £34.
International Tap Dance Network -
Join this network for free and receive email newsletters. Accessed via the National Tap Ensemble website.
Web Resources
There seems to be an endless amount of information on the internet regarding most subjects,
and tap is no different. I have looked at a lot of these websites and have listed below my personal favourites, and those
that contain good, regularly updated information. For other good websites please see the links page.
Tap Dance
This has to be the best tap dance site ever. It is an extremely comprehensive site covering
many aspects of tap dance. You will find just about anything you need to know on this site including tap events, books and
films, steps, dance supplies and much, much more.
Tap Dance Info
A very good US site giving lots of information about tap and internet resources. There is
a section for news articles covering many tap related subjects and a discussion forum.
National Tap Ensemble
The National Tap Ensemble is America's national tap dance company and their website is a very
detailed site with information about their training program and seminars, as well as lots of other useful information for
tappers. Includes a question and answer section which is very interesting.
United Taps
Fabulous website by Rod Howell featuring an amazing amount of video clips of tap moves. Rod
performs most of the steps in slow, medium and fast versions so you can see exactly what he's doing.
Off Jazz
This is a French site but can be translated into English. It has a section on tap terminology
plus a huge range of video clips. They include demonstrations of step, hat & cane tricks and clips of well-known dancers
including Fred Astaire, Bill Robinson and Jimmy Slyde.
Timestep
A UK site by dancer Tony Curtis detailing the basics and origins of the timestep. Includes several variations
of the many types of timestep, plus profiles of well-known dancers past and present.
Garage Tap
Garage
Tap is an online tap show hosted by Road Howell and Drew Tyler Bell. They aim to produce a new episode every couple of
weeks. The current show, plus an archive of the old ones, can be viewed at www.garagetap.com, or if you are an itunes user
you can just search for Garage Tap and the podcast will come up.
Each episode sees Rod and Drew giving us some tap news, tapping in weird and wonderful places,
a short combination, competitions and interviews and performances from guests. The combinations are available to purchase
($3) as a video download of the instructor giving a breakdown of the steps. T-shirts and CD’s are also for sale on the
site.
Discussion forums
Although there are many dance discussion forums (just use a search engine)
there are very few specifically about tap. I have found the following ones useful.
Suite 101 has a reasonably good section on tap dancing with articles and a message board
Dance Art Shout Out message board has a tap section as well as many others
Musicals although not strictly about tap, a good place to talk about specific musicals
Dance Net is a good all round dance site. This link is to the tap discussion board
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