All That Jazz 3-19-18

Hey Everyone! My name is Mckenzie Ostertag! This article is all about Dance and more dance! If you want to learn about dance or different exercises, this is the place to come! Every month, I am going to have a different theme of dance!

The theme for this month is…Drumroll…..tap!

*cheers

Ok, so I just want to warn you guys I have never done tap so I may get some things wrong! XD Now that I have warned you lets start. Tap is a very interesting dance, it is mainly only a dance that uses your legs and feet. You wear shoes with medal on the heels and on your toes, and the medal makes the taping noises. Every move has a different sound, and a very interesting look. Some people use music for their routine and some people just use the taping from their shoes as their music!

Tap first started in the 1800's by Irish tap dancers. It is a mix of Britishh Isle clog and step dancing with the African beat of a drum. The metal on the tap shoes was invented in 1915. I guess, for a while they did tap without the tap in it! I have no idea! Steve Condos was the master in rhythmic tap. His work influenced lots of famous hoofers! (Hoofers are people that almost only use their legs to dance which makes the tapping noise much louder.) Fred Astaire is one of the greatest dancers in tap, and one of the first as well!

Here is the link of the website I used for interesting facts about tap!:

https://prezi.com/1hrgw_h384z4/tap-dance-10-facts/

Here is a couple of tap routines. The first one is actually of Steve Condo! Remember I just talked about him. The second one is just a really awesome dance routine!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TECiD9ze6c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xxTkB5bGy4

This month I am going to do an interview with Madison Stroup! She used to do tap and many other dances as well! I hope you find her interview super helpful if you are debating if you want to do tap or not, so lets begin!

What dance do you do?

Right now, I'm only taking irish step dance, but I think this interview's about tap, which I took 2011-2015.

What is your favorite part about it?

I enjoy the rhythm and sounds of tap, and the steps... and most everything about it really!

What advice do you give to the people that want to start this type of dance?

It's really fun, and you should definitely consider it! Something my teacher had us do in tap 1 was to bring a notebook and write down our steps. Even if your teacher doesn't, you could consider doing that! It's helpful for practicing and remembering your steps/routines.

What is the hardest part about it?

Something that was personally hard for me was when my class got bumped up a level, it was a bit hard to catch up to some of the other people in the class. How long have you been doing dance I believe I started tap in fall 2011, and then irish step the next summer... I guess we can say six years or so?

What is your favorite routine you have done?

Hmm, I don't remember what all we did. We did one to the cup song that was fun, and some of the last routines I was in for tap were pretty cool as well

Where do you go to dance?

I go to Cannon Irish Dance, and I took tap and hip hop at Arlene Cassara Dance and Theater Center. *advertising* xD

Have you done any competitions or shows?

I haven't! I'd really like to but it's probably a little late for me to start getting into them, considering I'm a junior. If I'd stayed in my tap class another year, I think I would have been able to go to

Now for the exercise! Yay! Okay, so to start off before you do any of the exercises, STRETCH! It is so important to stretch before you do exercises. I am going to have two exercises for this month. We are going to start off with an exercise for strength, then the next one will be for more flexibility. Then after that, we are going to look at some pretty funny jokes!

For this exercise you need to go to the floor. Lay down but not face up. Lay sideways. Start lifting your leg up and down. Do this about 10 times. If you feel comfortable with more you can go up but take it slowly. Now turn to the other side and lift your other leg up the same amount you did for the last leg. I have a picture attached down below so you can get an idea of what it looks like. I hope you find this exercise super useful. Your not going to be number nine anymore but number one! You're going to be super strong!

Do you want to hear some cheesy, but funny jokes? XD I did not come up with these jokes, these are all from google! Hope you enjoy!

“What did the ballet dancer say when she lost her shoe?”

Ugh! This is pointless!

What do you call a dancing sheep?

A baaa-lerina.

I wanted to learn to dance so started with salsa

I wanted something I could dip in to.

Saw a series of insects dancing on a sports field.

It was a cricket ball.

Where does a snowman dance?

At a snowball.

I hope you guys liked this months edition! Did you like the exercises? Did you like the jokes? Did you like the verse? What about the interview? I want to give a big shout out to Madison Stroup! Thank you so much for doing the article!