Tap Dance Teacher Blog

It's a bit cliche, but we often hear about computers someday taking over the world.  So how will they affect the world of tap dancing?  Well I hope to be leading that charge in a positive way.  I've been working with a software programmer for a while and if all goes well I may end up with a computer program than can "hear" a students feet and draw their sounds onto a video screen in the exact way they tapped them.  Thus showing them visually when a sound was missing, early, or late.  It's not a substitute for listening to their own feet, but I think it will help train their ears to be better able to pick out "off" sounds.   That's step one of course.  Step 2 is the computer understanding what mistake they're making and then telling them how to fix it.  Truth be told, if I had the money to hire as many good programmers as I need I could make that software right now.  So mark my words that's coming down the pipeline.   Now don't misunder...

Today was my first day back for normal fall lessons.  Luckily for me it was only two hours which makes for a nice easing-back-into-things start to the new season.  The kids were were attentive, eager, and in good spirits and who doesn't love to teach to that?  These classes are at a studio I'm relatively new to (just started there about 2 months ago) so the kids are still learning my terminology. I find the terminology a tough thing.  I tell the kids to learn and remember as many names to steps as they can because that way when they take from someone else they'll hopefully be prepared for their terminology.  However regardless of how hard I try to teach new students who have had other teachers my terminology, they tend to still revert back to the very first names they learned for steps. Anyone got a solution to that? Rod at http://www.unitedtaps.com