Skip to main content

What Is National Dance Day?

Every year, the third Saturday in September rolls around and I miss it *facepalm* I have literally forgotten about National Dance Day for the past five years! I don't feel bad about it, though. Judging by the Sunday National Dance Day posts on Instagram, I'm not the only one.


 So what is National Dance Day?

National Dance Day was established by American Dance Movement co-founder, Nigel Lythgoe, (also co-creator of So You Think You Can Dance) and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton in 2010. The idea was to encourage Americans of all ages - including adults - to incorporate dance into their lives and to show support for dance as a valuable form of exercise and of artistic expression.

There are a number of events, activities, and social media initiatives that happen on National Dance Day. You can see them all here, but a big part of National Dance Day is the annual routine.

Every year, there is a new National Dance Day combo tutorial, available online, that dancers and non-dancers can check out, learn, and share. The 2019 National Dance Day routine was choreographed by  Matt Steffanina to Dua Lipa’s song, Electricity. The tutorial video features dancers Chelsie Hill, Jashaun Gamble, Tatiana McQuay, Matt Steffanina, Criscilla Anderson, Will Simmons, and Hannahlei Cabanilla. How awesome it is that they include a modified version?! Dance is for EVERYONE!



There are other dance days and weeks, too, which I also forget about every year LOL:
  • International Dance Day – April 29
     
  • National Dance Week – last week of April
     
  • National Tap Dance Day – May 25 (my favorite, obviously)

Did you learn the 2019 National Dance Day routine? I'm putting it on my Google Calendar right now for next year so I actually remember!


Want to learn to tap dance? Tap instructor Christa Terry teaches kid, teen, and adult tap classes at Dance Enthusiasm in Salem, MA! Whether you've never put on a pair of tap shoes or you want to get back into tap dancing, whether you're 8 or 80, Christa knows you can do it! 

And guess what? Christa is now teaching jazz classes for kids and jazz classes for teens at Dance Enthusiasm! Call (978) 741-1900 for info or use the link to register!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

4 Reasons Why Tap Dance Is the Best Dance

It's no secret that I think tap dance is the best dance. I will literally take any kind of dance class and perform in any genre, but it's tap that has my whole heart. I just feel most comfortable with tap shoes on! Maybe you feel the same way? Or maybe you're not sure yet which style of dance you like best. That's cool - different strokes for different folks! Then again, I'm not above trying to convince people that they should try tap for themselves. So if you've been thinking about taking some tap classes in your area but you're still on the fence, here are four reasons you should give tap a try: Tap Is Entertaining Tap dancers know that our genre doesn't always get the respect it deserves from other dancers, and that's sad. But you know who loves tap? Audiences. Tap may not necessarily be the most serious or most technically challenging form of dance, but it is definitely a crowd-pleaser. People love to watch tap! Maybe because it's a fo...

Learning the BS Chorus

As much as I love tap dance, I'm not above procrastinating when it comes to learning new steps, tricks, and combos. Case in point: I've had various BS Chorus tutorials bookmarked pretty much forever, and I've been ignoring them for just as long. Why? I've been reading up on procrastination, and it turns out that procrastination is not a laziness issue. It's actually a confidence issue! The BS Chorus is one of those funny things that you find more often in tap dance than in other forms of dance. No one knows who created and performed the BS Chorus, and there are a ton of variations of the BS Chorus floating around. Here's what we do know. The variation most tap dancers are familiar with comes from The Copasetics, who would perform the BS Chorus at speeds that were pretty insane. Crazy, right? We also know that it's called the BS Chorus because inexperienced tappers have tried to fake their way through it for about a hundred years. Here's Charles Ho...

Thinking On Your Feet: Why Improv Should Be a Part of Every Tap Class

Most of my tap students (whether they're young dancers or in my adult tap classes ) are up for trying just about anything. New steps? No problem. Fast combo? They'll practice. But there's one exercise that tends to make almost all of my tap dance students feel just a little bit terrified. IMPROV! Why is improv so scary? It's not actually all that surprising. Most dance classes for kids and adults are relatively structured. The teacher shows the students technique, tricks, and combos, making corrections along the way. But when that same teacher asks students to circle up and bust out 16 counts of unchoreographed tap dancing? Even some of the more confident students may be shaking in their tap shoes. There are a lot of good reasons to jump joyfully into tap improv when your instructor tells you it's time to circle up. Here are just four of them: 1.  You'll Learn to Feel the Music This is especially important for dancers who don't have a musical back...