Tap Tutorials by Christa Terry

Ready to learn some tap? If you're getting ready to take an adult tap class, it's a good idea to get familiar with a couple of tap steps before your class begins!

Wondering how to do the tap step sometimes called a roller coaster... or an Alexander... or a Broadway or a Shirley Temple? This is a classic tap step that should be in every dancer's toolbox.

Paddle and roll (sometimes called a paradiddle) comes in different flavors! The most basic paddle and roll has four sounds, but you can do a five-count paddle and roll or a six-count paddle and roll, too.

Ready to learn how to do a back essence? It's one of the core classic tap dance steps! It has four sounds and is usually swung.

After you master the single back essence, why not try the double back essence (which has five sounds) and the triple back essence (which has six sounds)?

Remember that unlike ballet, the tap dance lexicon isn't fixed. One studio might call a certain tap combo or step one thing while another studio calls it something completely different!

Want to dance with tap instructor Christa Terry? Check out the Dance Enthusiasm fall season schedule here: http://www.danceenthusiasm.org/classes

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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

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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I've been tap dancing on and off the stage for about as long as I can remember. Way back when, my dance classes were definitely all about the Broadway tap (or musical tap). We had the sequins and the feathers. We had the time steps and the kicklines and the ramrod straight backs and the big flashy grins. I still have a soft spot for that kind of tap. It wasn't until many years later that I dropped into a tap class in Boston and saw a very different kind of tap. Now before I go on, I should clarify that the title of this blog post isn't actually accurate. I'm half joking, and I'll explain the title in a sec. I'm well aware that there are a number of different historical and modern tap dance styles - not just two - thanks to all of the wonderful influences from different cultures and countries and musical genres that have made tap dancing such a lively and dynamic form of dance. A lot of dance studios differentiate between rhythm tap and Broadway tap for the

You Can Tap With Christa!

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