The Jamz - a recurring thanksgiving event every third week!

One of the things I love most about having moved to a big city is that it houses SO MANY amazing tap dancers, who share my love of improvisation. All you need to make that love grow into something healthy and creative, is time, will and a meeting space - which we have. And I couldn't be happier, more grateful, or feel more privileged.

We gather in Shawn B's frrresh, painted-rrrred new dance space, BDX, late on lazy Sunday evenings, on the first and third week of every month. We're there to pull on our shoes, let someone's playlist roll and whack the sprung hardwood floor with our irons, leather and sometimes bare hands (which sounds frightfully naughty, come to think of it) - we're a motley bunch, but the attitude is loving and judgment-free (cuz it's in our rules!) so we have seasoned virtuosos and jazz-musician tappers alongside intermediates and beginners just letting loose for the first time.

Mind you, tapping alongside the masterful likes of  Travis Knights, Kyle 'Low Kick Brown', Shawn B (my awesome teacher who is all about the fun :), Rebecca Lewis and Allison Toffan is, and should rightfully be, awe-inducing, which teeters close to intimidating, :0 - but  the atmosphere of 'anything goes' makes me dare to be a part of it and to encourage people from beginner-level and up to join in, always saying "I'm here to bring the level down" (which is my way of buying myself room to goof off, try-and-fail/succeed and hopefully improve ;). And almost always, the fun takes over immediately. :)

If you've never attended a tap jam, it goes something like this:

1. usually that the tappers form a circle, and then either:
2. a) take turns improvising to played music, or b) decide on a set 'pulse' that everyone taps, each taking turns improvising over that steady beat. This goes on for a certain number of beat counts that usually materializes organically...
3. Each tapper may, at their leisure, try to take an element of the previous tapper's improv and try to interpret it in their following dancing. This usually leads to some unusually impressive, cool or just silly moves being 'transplanted' from tapper to tapper.

What inspires me the most about going to these jams is that sooner or later, you find the FLOW. If it's one of those good days, your way of interpreting tap clicks naturally (pun intended...) with the music and the tapper before you. Both the feeling of community and individual expression are extra tangible, unlike in a regular class where you can 'hide' in the general noise of everyone else's taps (or conversely, not hear yourself so you know you're doing it right). Improv, for me, is the one time when I lay on the table exactly how good or bad I am. Every step is my choice (however impulsive) and the clean delivery of those choices is completely up to my abilities. Talk about a push to improve!

I'm by no means cocky about my abilities these days - but the only place where I feel truly pushed to do my best is here, in a context where it becomes evident to everyone what I'm doing, both right and wrong. At the jams, nobody is judging me so much as encouraging me, which is a good feeling -  but I can hear for myself if I'm with the beat or not, and whether my idea of a groove is transferring fast enough from my head to my feet. Mostly, not. But I don't come there to give up.


The idea of a tap jam is pretty lovely in itself, to me: while giving each other space (literally and musically) to flex our solo taps and try our wings (the pun never stops, hahahaaa ;), our appreciation for each other's dancing becomes so much clearer. We whoop and holler, whistle and go "say WHAAAAT??" when anyone does something particularly impressive or gets into a rhythmic flow. And we do it in as many ways as we are individuals. Allison and Travis have spoken of tapping as being a musician first and foremost, using their feet as instruments to be part of the music - their 'home groove' is jazzy. Shawn is all about the fun but can certainly turn a groove inside out at will (there's apparently a drummer somewhere in there), and funk is his dialect. Rebecca and Kyle are solid players in the same tradition as Shawn, but their styles are distinct: Kyle is so virtuoso and rapid that I start thinking "for reeeeeal???" before he even begins, and 'Becca is relaxed, ladylike and sure, doesn't make a big deal of things but NAILS them. As for me - well, when I talked to Allison, I explained that I try to dance first, tap second (with varying results, I admit). And personally, I feel most at home if I'm given a latino-flavoured beat. I don't know why, but samba, salsa and such do something very, very good to my tap nerves.

So we all bring different things, different interpretations of what it means to TAP, to the table (or the floor, rather). And the fun part is that we're all right - each of our ways of doing it is OK and a doorway to exploring more possibilities of layering rhythms on top of a beat. Sometimes we try to nail a rhythm while flapping our arms or hobbling about in a very silly manner. Sometimes we make it as big as possible, sometimes as small and quiet as possible. But since our 'home grooves' are all different, we always come and leave with new ideas, thanks to giving each other space, watching, listening, exchanging and stealing (which is no crime here) what we can. Sometimes, the results are just sublime. :)

Are we human, or are we dancers? Why yes. Indeed.

Thanks Shawn for the space, and all my jammers for the lovin' atmosphere :)