-Courtney Anne Holcomb
I just got back from Point Tap Festival 2014, a large tap-dancing Festival in non-other than Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Famous tap dancers from all over the United States attend and teach master classes for the 3-day festival. This year, we took classes from: Sara Reich, Mark Goodman, Ryan Casey, and Jeannie Hill. Above is a picture from the master class with Ryan Casey.
Those who do not know me well, would not understand what a feat attending this festival was for me. I had two semester of tap in college, and cried for the beginning few weeks of each semester. For me, as a dancer who loves to loft out of gravity, and be very upright, getting down and in gravity to perform tap weight-shifts, and tap movements always proved incredibly challenging for me. I have always loved watching tap dancing, the musicality and percussive elements, and the groove of it all, but never had classified myself as a tap dancer. This weekend I learned a lot of new techniques to help me along the way, and began to refine a lot of the rudimentary skills associated with tap dancing.
This fall, I will be teaching beginning tap at the Renaissance School for the Arts High School, and am excited to transcend my new-found knowledge, and excitement about tap dancing. Below is a video taken at the festival of Jeannie Hill, my former professor and tap dancer extraordinaire, and I doing the end of class combination. A few errors from me, but oh so much fun!