Tap Dogs, London

Tesday was girls night out and what could be more appropriate than going to see six men try to make tap dancing into a macho activity!
We had bought very cheap tickets, so we had limited visibility and were unable to enjoy the opening scene and a scene where one of the dancers dances on the ceiling. We couldn't see the band, either. I do feel directors don't always take that into consideration when planning out shows, but it didn't detract too much from the entertainment, and we knew not to expect much from seats that only cost ten pounds!
The dancing was lovely. The overall vibe they were going for was to ooze sex appeal and I think that all the girls who were there would agree that they achieved that. Sometimes, I felt that they were trying too hard to create a macho atmosphere. In fact I could just imagine the producers and directors sitting around a table brainstorming "macho" and then incorporating all their ideas into the show and re-iterating the fact just before each show starts.
Musically, the intriguing thing for me was the creation of rhythm using tap shoes. My favourite example of this was a copy cat effect created in a duet. One dancer (Adam Garcia) created a rhythm using his feet and the other imitated it. The rhythms became progressively more intricate and then turned into canon with the "copycat" being a few beats behind the leader. It was wonderful and has inspired me to try and re-create that idea in some of the rhythm lessons that I teach. Part of me wondered how much of the tapping sound we were hearing was in fact "live" and how much wasn't and this was highlighted to me in a scene that involved "synthsized tapping". Each dancer was allocated a sound that one would hear in a drum sequence (For example, bass drum, snare, cow bell) . When the dancer's foot hit a square block, we would hear their allocated sound. The overall effect was brilliant, full of humour, and an excellent example of ensemble work, but clearly achieved with a lot of help from their band.
I have a bit of an issue with shows that try to popularize art forms. I feel that these types of shows can make light of the extreme hard work and discipline that goes into the arts, especially the more classical art forms. I understand that they are reaching out to a wider audience, and in this case making dance look a little less feminine (although the audience was predominantly female and I certainly wouldn't have invited my husband along, so I'm quite certain their target audience was a female one). I think that the show would have been amazing without the gimmicks (such as gum boot dancing in a puddle of water or dancing whilst the blade of an electric saw is creating fiery visual effects). Yes, they were entertaining, but they were far from the highlight of the show for me.
This show was a great example of light entertainment and a good giggle with the girls. As long as we don't start taking the discpline involved in being a top class dancer for granted, then these types of shows are well worth having around.

http://www.tapdogs.co.uk/