Dance mum's/teachers - How important is tap

[Didiplanthis]

DD is 9 she loves to dance and does various genres. She can see dance might feature in her future - probably not as a performer but maybe teaching. How important is tap ? We are struggling to fit everything in and this was dropped but could possibly be fitted back in at a push but I'd rather not at this stage. Is it important and is it something that could be learned later if necessary ? Thank you !

What else does she do? Ballet is really the only non-negotiable in theatre dance genres if you want any sort of career in the future. Tap is however one of the more popular genres if she wanted to teach in the future and so useful from that point of view. Ballet, tap and jazz are generally the three to do and any others a bonus.

But it can definitely be added in later, there’s no rush.

She does ballet, modern/jazz, acro and comp classes - usually contemporary type stuff. I'm aware she only young and it's very much led by her. She does about 6 hours a week plus practice.

It sounds like she’s doing he things she enjoys and that’s far more important at her age than trying to fit in extra classes for the sake of it. I would just stick with what she’s doing and pick tap up again later when she’s older.

we have been told ballet is the non negotiable one as it forms such a strong base for everything. my girls think tap is extremely important as they both love it but personally to be honest if they don't love something then whether it is important or not in a hypothetical future is a bit pointless at this age. I agree that it is more important to do the things she enjoys.

Tap develops their sense of rhythm really well. If she is dancing recreationally (just for fun) then I would say drop it, if she is even vaguely contemplating a career in dance (apart from ballet) or musical theatre and wants to audition for a full time theatre school or college when she is older, then it's essential.
If she drops it now, it will be harder to pick up later, as the rest of the class will have moved on - would she be happy to go into a beginners class or with much younger students at a later point?

She can't sing AT ALL so MT is out !!!!

My 'can't sing, won't sing' dancer did her first song and dance solo at a festival back in May, so never say you child can't sing AT ALL.

As far as tap is concerned, it depends a lot on how good she is at other genres.

A serious ballet dancer looking for a ballet career - so aiming for Ballet at one of the 'named' dance schools - would, in fact, be encouraged NOT to do tap. Something about incompatible technique / use of feet and ankles? For such a child, ballet (lots, including probably at associates class) and contemporary would probably be the most critical.

However, an 'all rounder' - someone looking to go to an all round dance college to train as a performer or a teacher - should probably do tap. Partly because in almost all 'children's dance schools', junior teachers would be expected to teach ballet, tap and MT / Jazz classes - it would limit employment opportunities if such a teacher could only offer 1 or 2 of the genres. Also because, if she might ever want to go into the business as a performer, offering the widest possible package would maximise the (slender) chances of employment - 'we're looking for a dancer who can do some jazz numbers, one with a some acro / gymnastic skills and then the big tap finale'.

DD's dance school sends several pupils to dance college every year, all of whom have studied ballet, tap and modern theatre (as in the dance style, not the singing part), are trained to sing at least in choirs and enough solo to pass an audition, and have done solos and larger group dances of all types including contemporary, lyrical, national, character, ballet, usually song and dance, tap and modern theatre dance. It has sent pupils to pure ballet schools, often rather younger, and those children didn't always do tap - so whether to drop tap is partly an 'is she good enough at ballet to follow a ballet-only route?' question.

Really helpful comments. No she's not good enough to do pure ballet and wouldnt want to, also realistically is short legged and long bodied so not ideal ballet shape. We can work on voice later if she's interested in performance type career. She's got a decent ear but can't pitch her voice yet but this can be improved if needed and I encourage her to sing along in the car etc. She's more will sing but not in tune than can't sing won't sing !! Sounds like a fun tap class if it can be fitted in and,more importantly, enjoyed is worth a go.

Dd is about to start professional training. She has found that lots of dance schools are neglecting tap but it’s having a resurgence in the industry so those who can tap are at an advantage.

That's really interesting to hear, Alexander. Round here, pretty much all the 'serious' dance schools teach tap, and the serious dancers within them almost all do tap, usually leaving at c. Adv 1 or 2 standard. It's acro that isn't taught round here - quite 'traditional' modern theatre / jazz is the norm.

On the college audition circuit she met quite a few dancers who didn’t tap.

She’s hoping to take her Adv 1 soon. Should have been last year but teacher illness & GCSE’s got in the way.

Good luck to her as she starts college! I hope all turns out well for her and she is happy!

I'd say if she wants to do tap and you need to make time to fit in tap classes, then acro would be the one to drop.

I had wondered that, dodo - as I say, round here (several good dance schools who send dancers to colleges every year) acro isn't taught, certainly not at a weekly class level.

However, when attending festivals with dance schools from much further afield, acro-type moves seem to be a 'routine / expected' part of their 'modern' solos / groups, and so I wondered whether in fact our local 'more traditional / long established' dance schools, who offer essentially modern / ballet / tap & their very basic variants (lyrical, contemporary [for older pupils], national) were the ones who are out of step, and whether dance training does now expect a certain level of 'acro style tricks and moves' to have been mastered.

It’s perhaps relevant that vocational schools & colleges don’t allow their students to do festivals.

I know that. I probably made my point poorly.

I only refer to festivals and competitions because that is where I see dancers from a genuinely wide area, rather than our local 'bubble'. I do know, because the festivals tend to publish it, that a high proportion of the most senior solo competitors at those festivals do go on to dance colleges nationally, and also that a few younger performers go on to ballet training. I also know that most of the children going down the 'ballet route' will tend NOT to do festivals and be at associates instead.

Dodo suggested that tap might be more useful than acro. My question was whether my local perception - which would be that acro is not that vital - is accurate, or whether in fact acro is, across the country, now an 'expected' part of dance training, and this has crept up and left our local very traditional dance schools behind in a 'non acro bubble'.

I would say tap over acro. I don't actually understand the current obsession with acro. If a show needs acrobats they will hire people with a gymnastics background not acro dancers. As I understand it acro shouldn't really be in modern routines or if it is then it should only be an odd move. No festivals round us have acro sections.

Dd's dance school is recreational rather than vocational. I think it very unlikely she will persue any sort of dance career but don't want to massively limit her options if she did want to. I think it would need a change of school if she does
but her current one is incredibly supportive and inclusive and has done brilliant things for her confidence so not keen to change at present.

Re acro and the likelihood of needing it for acceptance for full-time training, please have a look at the websites of some of the vocational schools and colleges, eg. Laines, Bird, Mountview, Stella Mann, Tring, Hammond, and you will see that they all do various genres including ballet, tap, jazz (as in the west end style), contemporary, hip hop, commercial, street, acting, you name it - but they don't have acro on the syllabus.
A few have classes in things like physical theatre, stage fighting and aerial work (ideal if you want to be in Barnum or Cirque du Soleil).

Auditions for vocational training will normally be a ballet class, a jazz class and possibly contemporary or singing as well.

Acro is, in my view, very similar to freestyle & disco (and perhaps due to the Dance Moms effect) it is very popular among young dancers and is mainly seen in competitions, and only rarely in the profession. The people making a living out of acro and freestyle are running dance schools and teaching it so if you really like acro that could be an option.

Thanks dodo!

DD, though a highly competent dancer, isn't thinking of going to dance college [at present, 3 more years to make up her mind....] so i didn't think to look at the college websites.

Didi,
DD is not at a vocational dance school either, but she is at one that is at the 'more serious' end of recreational, if that makes sense? There are a lot of 2.5-5 year olds who do it all for fun at 1 end, and a 'hard core' of perhaps 4- 7 who leave each year at 18 with Advanced grades (confusingly called vocational grades, even if taken at a normal after-school dance school) at the other, of whom a few each year tend to go off to dance college but others off to 'normal' academic university courses. DD definitely started for fun, but at 15 she's at the 'hard core' end now, with just a couple of advanced grades left to take! It's almost always possible to be a 'for fun' dancer at a 'serious' dance school, and that does have the advantage that basic technique (particularly in ballet, the foundation for pretty much everything else) will be taught well from the start - it is VERY hard to come back and sort that out later.

I suppose what I'm saying is that if your DD does become serious about wanting to dance, it may be worth looking at the strength of the technique at her current dance school and, if necessary, look to move sooner rather than later.

I was talking to a teacher in a small dance college at one point, who tended to pick up those dancers who might not have been taken by 'big names' but loved dance, and they said that the 'gap' was often in basic technique / core strength & development, that would have been easy to solve in a young child but much harder to re-train at 18.

Interesting! My nine year old daughter is considering dropping tap. Her main class is ballet and she does a few hours of this alone, that’s including private lessons and ballet associate classes.
She’s going to do contemporary as replacement. I still feel a reluctance to drop it, she’s been doing it since three years. It isn’t her strongest point, but...

It helps with timing I think I recall as a positive, if not needed for anything else.

My child dropped acro. She just does a stretch class in place. It does seem to be the newest class introduced to an awful lot of local dance schools here.

She does a couple of festivals a year, but the solo acro routines I’ve seen are done on stage without mats. I would be loathe to let her do aerials and walkovers without. Especially as I have another child who does competitive gymnastics; hours of conditioning and core strength worked on, and I still wouldn’t like her to compete in the gym/acro sections in festivals.

Nine years old is very young to be doing contemporary. Its a very mature style, many dance schools don't start it until m uch later. Even at dd's vocational school aged 16 she has done very little contemporary though that will change next year now she is in Seniors.