How to Do an Alexander... Or a Broadway or a Shirley Temple or a Rollercoaster

Did you know that unlike ballet terminology, which is pretty much fixed at this point, tap dance terminology can still differ a lot between dancers and between dance studios? Take the classic Alexander (flap - heel - heel - spank - heel - toe- heel)... or maybe your studio called it a Broadway. Or a rollercoaster... or a Shirley Temple! Who's right? I know some tap dancers have pretty strong ideas about what tap terminology is right and what tap terminology is wrong, but I tend to be more flexible.

One thing I try to make sure my tap dance students understand is that there are different ways to refer to different tap steps and they may encounter different tap terminology if they move to another studio, take a master class, or continue their dance education in college. It just makes sense to learn different terms for different tap steps.

As a teacher, I've been on the receiving end of a student telling me in no uncertain terms that the tap step I'm demonstrating to the class is not called an X, but is rather called a Y. Even in my adult tap classes! My reply is always that tap dance terminology is still evolving, and that tap dancers need to be open-minded about what steps are called. Historically, the same tap steps have had many different names.

So keep that in mind on your own tap dance journey! And now let's take a look at how to do an Alexander... or is it how to do a Shirley Temple? How about how to do a rollercoaster in tap? Trick question! It's all of them :)

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About Christa Terry

Christa Terry has been dancing since age six, and while she has danced in studio and on stage in ballet and en pointe, jazz, and just about every other form of dance you can think of, tap has always been her passion. That passion grew into a love of musical theater, and she has been blessed to dance in productions of shows from Anything Goes to Sweet Charity. She got her first taste of teaching at the Levittown Public Schools Dance and Gymnastics program. A multi-year alumnus of Dance Olympus in NY, Beantown Tapfest in Boston, and many other conventions, Christa Terry studied extensively under Julia Boynton and took classes with Michelle Dorrance (founder and artistic director of Dorrance Dance) and Josh Hilberman before moving to the North Shore and jumping back into teaching tap classes. As the lead tap teacher at RDX in Beverly, MA, she taught beginner, advanced beginner tap, and fast intermediate tap dance classes to kids, teens, and grownups, and perfor...

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You Can Tap With Christa!

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