The Show Must Go On.

Our annual tap-dance performance at the Collingwood Toy Library Fair* was in October rather than March this year, and as such was subject to Melbourne's famously unpredictable spring weather. Being, as it always is, an outdoor performance, we monitored the forecast all week, and saw with dismay that rain was looming. But Pollyanna-like, I crossed my fingers that it would hold off until after we'd done our performance.  And then, as all my gorgeous kid-tappers and their lovely families assembled, it became quite clear that the rain wasn't going to hold off, and it was coats on, umbrellas out and a whole lot of questioning faces looking at me to see what should happen. By then my tap boards were wet and dangerous, the stall holders had covered their wares with tarpaulins and the general public was vanishing into the stands of the old football stand where the fair was being held. It looked like we'd have to cancel so I did at first say that, and about 4 families who were feeling the cold took themselves off. But most of them hung around and a few of them started saying we could go up to the second tier of the stand, we think there's enough room there.  Which made me think well we could at least get the senior kids to perform in a limited space, so everyone hiked up and around, and there was a big enough area of concrete up there, so the Tapsters grabbed their tap-sticks and started us off.  Then the Groovers looked at me hopefully and it seemed a shame not to show off their awesome routine and before we knew it, ALL the kids were sticking their hands in the air and asking if it was them next.  So everyone got to perform, except the ones who bolted early and I felt bad about that, but seeing as it was our first time in the new surrounds and staffed by volunteers who knew nothing, it was just a hard call to make. Anyway. The Show did, in fact, Go On, and that's how I like it.



As a change and a challenge I had choreographed all the routines without music, teaching the kids to  work with just rhythms so that they made the music.  I have been incredibly impressed with the way the kids all really got on top of what they were asked to do.  Even my adorable 4 year olds were able to master an a'capella routine and some call-and-answer patterns. On the day I only had one tapper from that group, but she did a wonderful job on her own.



This was her when she'd finished; she was so delighted and cute, and her family were bursting with pride when she rejoined them



But I'm getting ahead of myself. We opened the proceedings with the most difficult of all the rhythm routines, the clever Tapsters with their tap-sticks.  This is them getting ready to start us off.



They had to tap fast, and intersperse feet rhythms with bangs of the stick on the ground.  Check out the concentration on their faces.



They're such a lovely group and their lessons are very funny because in-between being clever at learning new and hard stuff, they love to muck around with each other and they do all have loony senses of humour..



Next up was my showbiz class, the always awesome Groovers, featuring my Cherub. Their routine was called Hands and Feet because I put tap plates on their hands (© !!) and built a routine using sounds made from all the tap plates. 
 

They adored doing the routine, and loved building the music of it by contributing their individual beats. I'm very proud of this one. They did it so well and sounded great and recieved a rapturous round of applause afterwards.



They always steal the show, this lot.







Next up were the Flappers class, most of who only started tapping this year. Their routine began with us singing a little bit of I Got Rhythm, and then we tapped the rhythm of that song without the song if that makes sense. Usually we have more kids in the group but not everyone can do performance days so these two coped really well with just each other and me.  I have been really impressed with this group and thought the girls did a great job; not a single mistake and absolutely knew what they had to do. I think for both of them it was their first performance with me, and they coped with a tricky routine, no music to hide behind, unfamiliar terrain and uncomfortable conditions, and they nailed it. Fantastic.



The Shufflers, my intermediate class, were split into 3 groups and had to hold their group's rhythm against the other two groups. I thought they performed it marvellously well. It really was a challenge, their routine, and there were days when it took us so long just to get one little bit that I'd wonder if I was being crazily over-ambitious. But they are great, they never gave up and they got it. They absolutely got it. Champions. Here's Group Three.



And Group Two, well, what there was of it! This little trouper had no-one with her in her group, and did a wonderful job holding her rhythms down.



And this is Group One, plus our human metronome. In fact, he is my Saturday Morning Assistant (Nell's replacement) and generally his job is marking the roll and taking the money and a little bit of dogsboddery. But bonus skillz, he is also a drummer so I can haul him out from behind the desk when I need a beat kept for me. He did so for this routine using a drumstick and a handrail. He's so good, and a lovely young man to boot.



We finished up with the cheeky Gliders. usually we have heaps of them but we were missing at least two thirds of their class for the performance.  They were looking very worried that I might forget to give them a go, bless their hearts.



Didn't matter that they weren't all there, they absolutely knew what to do and stormed through a very tricky dance.



What a bunch of tapping superstars.





* Previous performances available by clicking this link. it's quite interesting seeing how we've grown.
Excellent photography by my sister.

Another Year, another Toy Fair

A week after the last public performance, the Tap Kids and I were once again stomping it out in the open air for a good cause. Here's the link to the photos if you like.  And here's some live footage of a couple of dances.

 Apart from the usual aceness, the only things to report here are...

1. that the boards were VERY slippery (forgot to wash them with softdrink & detergent) but hardly anyone fell over.  There's a slightly concentrating look to our movement and faces because of this.
2. that (as always happens at this particular gig) a small child from the audience endangered itself, and us, by running across the boards during a dance.  I swear every year I always catch the same expression on the guardian of the pitch-invading child - one of gentle amusement at small child's cuteness / willingness to join in, and no concept of how this might inconvenience the performers.  I believe this year it was left to me to shepherd the child off stage, rather than her being grabbed by an embarrassed carer, but maybe I've remembered that wrong.
3. that my children scored rather well at the post-show prowl round the second-hand toy stalls.  Possibly the best item was a dvd copy of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I've put off letting the kids watch this as I thought (rightly) that there was a lot of violence in it, but they seem old enough now to accept it as fantasy (I'm not sure if this is a good thing) and needed no more than an adult presence in the room with them as they watched it.  I went to provide emotional support to them when the face-melty bits started but was reassured they were both fine.  (This in stark contrast to how stressed they got that night when I read a chapter from the very old-fashioned and wholesome book The Picts & The Martyrs -one of the books in the Swallows & Amazons series- where Dick and Dorothea almost get caught by the Great Aunt breaking into Beckfoot to get Timothy's chemical equipment.)  Anyway, the next morning, Cherub woke up and informed both Fixit and me that he was now officially obsessed with Indiana Jones.

Dancing With Children

Today we had another great performance at the Collingwood Toy Library Fair.



All the kids were superb, and are, I think, starting to look like a very professional little troupe of tappers. Cherub's class are able to do their number without my help ...



... and Climber's class of 9 and 10 year olds are very impressive indeed, whether they be beating out an acapella number or a traditional Shim-sham.



But today I want to talk about one little tapper: H. He is the second child of a really really lovely family, and his adorable big sister has been dancing with me for ages. H is nearly 5, and has Aspergers. He has, I gather, been quite the handful. I do remember frequently both hearing him shriek and wail when his sister first came to dance with me, and seeing him carried outside by a parent whilst obviously in the throes of a great passionate razz. However, recently, and I believe at his own instigation, he started doing tap classes with me too, much to the delight of his family and his paediatrician. He has been coming along in leaps and bounds, and if we occasionally have problems with co-operation, they are, these days, short-lived and really, no more remarkable than other children in his age group. Actually, his mother quite often comes and thanks me for my patience with him, and I can say quite honestly that he doesn't really push my patience, that I think he's great, and doing a really good job, and coming along so well. He is certainly not the only child who has to stop the class so they can tell me something.

At today's performance, I sidled up to his Mum and said nobody else from his class group has turned up, do you think H would dance on his own with me or would it be too much for him? She was of the opinion that we should give it a go, particularly as he'd gone to the effort of dressing up for the day and was wearing his brand new, very own tap-shoes. So H and I opened the performance together, and although he became slightly distractable for a little moment during the song, (he just really needed to tell me that he had this song on their ipod) he danced the whole Yellow Submarine with me like a champion.




(Apologies for my demented son in the background.)



Proud doesn't even cover it.

Full photo set here.
Previous year performances at this event : 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007.

Kid Tappers Strike Again.

My kid tappers rock. They really do. Saturday mornings are excellent fun because I am blessed with such great students from ace families. It's true.

Today a whole heap of them came and tapped with me at the Collingwood Toy Library Fair. This is our 4th appearance there - some of the kids (including my boys) have done every one since 2007. This is what mine looked like back in those days...


Gawd, talk about babies. Anyway. If you've been reading here long, these shots are probably all starting to look a bit the same but that will not stop me from sharing some of my favourite pictures. However to add interest I'm including a line from the song they're doing and you can have a go at guessing. It's easy-peasy.

I even kissed Aunt Lou. (Tiny Tappers 3-4yos)


Bad guys go running whenever he's in town. (Junior Shufflers 5-7yos)


Put your back into it. (Gliding Groovers 6+ Intermediates)


(Bonus shot of these guys because I couldn't pick which one I liked best)


Shake til you feel better. (Tapsters 8+, advanced)


Everyone enjoyed the show, and all the kids were fabulous and adorable and danced really well. But I think the best feedback for me was several people commenting how good the Tapsters (the big kids class) sounded. Looking cute is one thing, sounding good is a whole 'nother level. They did too, with their timesteps and bombershays.

Thanks again to my roadie and photographer (Mister Fixit), my Production Manager (Nell) my Car Hire company & video recordist (Jen) and all the gorgeous families who came and danced or cheered us on.

Tapping at the Toy Library Fair 09.

Sunday March 15th, 11am.
Darling Gardens, Melbourne.


Totally adorable Small Kids. Happy Little Vegemites. And Nell in the background, borrowing the red coat and womanning the sound system. I brought my own equipment, and there were no malfunctions.


Gorgeous Middle-sized Kids. Under The Sea, a fairly complicated routine. This year each class had a brand new routine that they learned in just 4 weeks. The Middles love this one. Can we do it again? See Fixit paying close attention to his beloved family as they dance? (Edited to add that although he is talking to someone in this shot he was watching for the show and was also my number one roadie, hefting boards to and fro, and packing up on his own. So don't be misled by my flippancy, Fixit was 100% there for me.)


Totally talented Big Kids.


So clever.


Louie the Fly. Mortein genocide on all my innocent tap students. Check out Climber and [one of] his girlfriend [s] at the left of the picture, giving that extra bit of drama.


This is me wearing make-up. Doesn't actually happen a lot, and I got quite a few comments from people. Wondering if I should make more of an effort with myself now. Or if I was just freaking people out with my painted face. My FIL thought there was a stranger at family lunch that day.


Is that seriously what my butt looks like? Oh my God.


Cherub strikes a pose. It amazes me how relaxed all the kids are at the public shows. I always feel sick beforehand. They just get up and do their thing and have fun. Maybe it's because they get an icecream afterwards? Poor Climber. He was eyeing off the Mr Whippy truck all morning but Fixit said No because we were off to Grandma and Pa's for family lunch afterwards and lord knows there is no shortage of sugary treats there. But then Every Single One of his friends got to have a post-performance icecream and the poor kid was practically on his knees begging me to allow him to have one. I solved this dilemma by directing him to my Video-Cameraman (aka my Dad). Climber got the treat, parents kept face. Win-win.


I had to get one of the Mums to hold up a cheat sheet for the new routines, just so I always knew what was coming next. You can see her standing at the front of this picture, watching her son (they're both wearing black) and holding my paperwork. Although you can't see my head in this shot I am probably staring intently at her stomach. Autocue for tap-teachers, albeit a very low-tech one.


Hooray!

Toy Library Fair

A Tap-pet-ty Weekend.

Lots of pictures today...

... of some very cool tappers.

My little Tap-pets excelled themselves this weekend with 2, count 'em, TWO, public performances.

A School Fete...

... and a Toy Library Fair.

Things I love this weekend. In no particular order.

The kids. So beautiful.

My Father's car. It's a stationwagon. So we were able to transport my tap-boards around. Ummm. That sounds mean. I love my father too! He came and helped me on Sunday while my usual right-hand-persons abandoned me. (Heartlessly.) Fixit went off to marvel at the Air Show and Nell went interstate to her niece's first birthday. So Dad lent me the car all weekend, turned up to see the Toy Library Show and then walked us around spoiling the grandchildren at the toy stalls.

My handy-dandy tap boards. We can perform anywhere, anytime.

The parents of the little Tap-pets. Who lugged boards, took photos, worked cds, helped my kids with their shoes when I was running round like a blue-arsed fly, handed out flyers. And were just generally enormously nice.

Highlights from the two days...

Two of my students, sisters who have tapped with me since day one, are both very shy. This weekend, for the first time, they got up and did BOTH shows. Their mother had tears in her eyes.

The power went off at the fete show, mid-routine (very wet and rainy in Melbourne yesterday but no rain when it came to our parades thankfully). So I had to think quick! I pulled Climber up to me and said Can you show me a tap-step that you made up? Straightaway, he rose to the challenge (we do this a lot in class). His confidence meant the other kids all followed suit eagerly and we were able to fill till the music came on.

Climber. Part Spiderman, part pirate, part Harry Potter.

Cherub. All cherub.