Last Sunday, the SCC was clattering away with a room full of tap dancers, with a performance by Hooked on Tap. The show was about an hour long and was absolutely splendid. Being a tap dancer myself, I was inspired to get back into tap dancing after watching the show.

Tap dancing may look like just a bunch of people hitting their tap shoes on the ground matched with various dance moves. Tap dancing, however, is one of the most difficult dancing practices to perfect. Many people assume that it is the shoes that make the this type of dancing interesting, but the complicated movements of the foot is what truly makes this type of performance so special. It takes years to figure out how to control the shoes so that they make the sounds the audience hears. Many performers can never quite get it.

There are basic steps that a tap dancer builds upon, and with the combination of these basic foot movements, you have a tap combination, and by combining these combinations with arm movements and spins, you create a tap performance. I had no idea that the dancers at Brandeis could be so skilled to do all this.

The women in the show put in a monumental amount of work, and it paid off. By the looks on their faces, it was obvious how proud they were to be tap dancing and showing off for their friends and other students.

I caught up with Lori Shapiro ’17, a first-year who danced spectacularly. The smile on her face while she was dancing matched her words: “Tap dancing makes me feel excited and happy.”
Rehearsals started in September. Many dancers were in several dances, so participating in this show was a huge time commitment. A full semester of work that rolled over into second semester is a lot to ask. The dancers pulled it off, however, and the result was an amazing show filled with tap.

My favorite performances were “Dance with Me Tonight” and “Here We Go Again.” I loved the music and the routines showed off the dancers’ skill and technique. Many of them show years of experience, which surprised me.

According to Shapiro, she thought the tap show went really well and that people enjoyed it immensely. The show illustrated the amount of talent students have. If you missed the show, there will be more tap to come. The tap dancers will be performing in a piece during the Adagio show in April, which is a show filled with various types of dancing including many lyrical dances, hip hop and tap.