Just The Beat Just The Feet Guestbook

That's my brother! And I love him!

xoxoxoxoxo

Just stared tap lessons for exercise and will be glad when I can get past the shuffle, shuffle, kick. Really, it is truly great!

I love tapping. Love the beat!

I grew up in the southern states of the United States watching and participating in the dances and rythms of the african americans.I am currently enjoying learning about the history of jazz and tap dance through the University,thus,I found out about your awesome web page and the great creative work that you are inspiring in London about the tapp dance.Ride on,I love your inspiration.

Dear mis Sarah Capps, Y live in São Paulo Brasil My ancentral reserch get me your name Sarah Capps. My Grand father was Lionel King his father Appleby King,and his Grandfather Edward King married with Sarah Capps King. They was living in Oxford in 1840. In Rochester in 1861 Edward was dentist and Appleby too. My frandfather bird in Margate 1887 The house is 24 Cecil Square, may you send me some informations abaut it. My mail is : kingsolamb@uol.com.br

Hi Tony,
Just to say hello, hope you still remember me your friend from the UK before. I just had a thought about u. Regards
Gloria Montejo

u sound really gud at tap dancing cud u tell me of any tap dance competions in leiestershire this yr

been tapping since 3 years old and although thought your dancing was fab i realised i am getting worse. think i need to practise more. keep tapping.really enjoyed watching and reading.

gtofepgjhtroiyjthjtryotr;eyp4h[w

hate yo chorography

really good work

What a great resource. Great work, great site!

Dear Tony

As part of my 'BA', I am working on a Tap related thesis, in which I would like to cite yourself and your article 'Dancing in the Shadow of the Masters', as part of the project. A date of publication for this article would be most helpful.

I will be happy to send you a copy of my essay on completion, and before submission to the examinging board.

Kind regards
Gladys Sutcliffe.

Dear Tony

I am currently studying for a 'BA' and I am considering a comparison of tap techniques as one of my studies. There is a vast difference between the original improvised tap and the technique generally taught in the UK. This site has been extremely enlightening. Thank you Tony.

I'm still weak with the left leg.  The fact remains, I suck. For example, let's see, how about "lessons". Also, I must address my insecurity and the strong concern that I'm not great tap dancer. Give it some thought.

I really like this site im a young tapper already but I would add a page with master stuff...

asdf asdfasd asdfasd asf dfas d

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Great site! Bought my first pair of tap shoes from a charity shop for £3 on Saturday-- Got a lot of practicing to do. !!

Just started tap.. struggling with the time step.. seeingyour videos was a big help in trying to get the rhythm.. thanks!

I enjoy your site very much! THANK YOU

i do tap myself and it is my life i have hadtap dances before and i have won many competitions and i really love your tap and i think that it is excellent!!

Thanks for sharing your knowledge, experience, and passion!! It is so neat to have those avi clips online too. Keep your Tap' up! You've done a good job!

7y

I have been dancing since the day I could walk. Awesome site man, keep it up, hit it hard and keep as we dancers say, shaking what your momma gave ya!!! Let the beat control your body.

I started tap dancing last year, this is my 2nd year. I performed at the Taste of Chicago Taste of Talent contest with my tap class, but they only gave prizes out to singers, not dancers. Heck, we were good and were on TV for about 10 seconds. so i guess it was worth it!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

an excellent site it really gives you an insite into what tap is all about.

test

I'm just about to start Tap Dancing - next tuesday, in fact! I thought I'd have a little peruse online, to see if I could find out a little more about it all, and came across your website.
I think it's pretty informative, and that your clips are really good. Although I'm (not even yet!) a beginner, I enjoyed watching them, and seeing how a tap dancer creates a rhythm/beat all of his/her own, and how into it they really get, much like a musician. It all makes perfect sense, and has really only made me even more enthusiastic about taking it up as a dance-form.
Keep up the good work '^.^'

It is very interesting to read how other people see the Interpret tap improvisation...

wow! reading and watching ur website has finally given the type of tap i've dreamed of doing since starting a name!watching the clips leaves me envious of the rhythum you create and hopefull that one day i'll be able get to where i've dreamed. thankx :)

Great site. Enjoyed it.

your page is inspirational ;)

I would like to let you know we have just visited your website. Very nice site.

Nice Site !!

Nice one.

Tony, It's interesting how you dance.

good way to fly
mugu

Thanks for the great site :)

great sound but no picture........Any ideas? Perhaps its my mac! Enjoyed the site.......At 74 I can still tap on roller skates!

What a really useful site - thanks very much. I am into Jive & Lindy Hop and there aren't any tap lessons local to me so your site has been a great introduction to the subject. I'd like to incorportate a few tap routines into my Lindy so I particularly enjoyed the beginners guide!

Hi, tony! What a great site!! Thank you so much!! I'm 62 and have just completed five and a half 8 week terms of tap lessons. My knees have arthritis, and I've strenghtened them a lot. My doctor is enthusiastic about my tap dancing, too! (But not nearly as much as **I** am!!! Everybody laughs at me!!! I can't walk downstairs, but I can tap dance. They think that's weird, but it isn't!!!)

But I want to jam (since I am a musician jammer) and so far haven't found any teacher locally who teaches tap jamming for adults.

Your web site is terrific. I had a similar one called "Free music education.com" for a couple of years -- but I closed it. It was lots of work and lots of fun while I had it. You are the only other person I've seen who really had the passion to share for free. Thanks so much!

BTW -- I can't see your videos clips, for some reason. They won't load.

Marian

Hiya! Great Site!!! You can really sense the love for tap that you have from your site!!! I love tap too!

Thanks for sharing your work on the Web!
Hayley

Nice site...If anyone is lookin' for a good hoofin' time there is a master class every saturday in San Diego...check this site out...www. danceelements.net
Peace, love, and tap dancing!!!!!!!
Much love to Gregory Hines...his style and grace shall never be forgotten....

ur tapping is not that good, i found ur website accidentally so i thought i would have a look, i have to disagree with other comments i have seen dancers like you before and they dont get anywhere. i think you need to stop being so big headed and calm down on the tap career - take the advice, believe me!
Regards,

Tom Josie

Great site! I'm very interested in learning the ways of the tap! I found your guides very informative and useful for a beginner such as myself. Thankyou for taking the time to help me start, I have recently purchased my shoes and liatard and am tapping furiously as we speak.
Yours truthfully, Jacko

Hi and thanks for a very inspirational web site. I have not tapped in almost seven years. In that time I have had two stomach operations broke a tiny chip out of my anckle and snapped my scaphoid bone in my wrist. I am also getting over agoraphobia. I am going back to tap dancing next week now a mother of five children aged between 2 and 14. I am so excited by the thought of going back. For many months while stuck at home with fear to go outside I dreamed of dancing again. I only did it as a girl from the age of 6 to 13 but it made an impression. In 1997 I went back to it at the age of 27 years old. I loved it so much. Now after reading your pages I feel very excited and am counting the days to when I can go back and learn more skills. Thanks

Nice to read your comments on taps and their relationship to percussive instruments. Have been explaining that to my students for years. They all look at me like I crazy when I ask them to tune up their instruments by loosening up the screws on their taps for better sound. But because I have been dancing for almost 60 years now, they give it a try after repeatedly asking how come their taps don't sound as good as mine. My answer is always the same. First of all if you take a bell & hold it then try to get a good bell sound out of it, it just ain't gonna happen. Second of all after 60 years of constant use, my feet pretty much have a mind of their own so ask me in 60 years.
My personal opinion is that almost (notice I say almost) anybody can tap. A good teacher helps (and I had one of the greatest). But really GREAT dancers are born and after working with and teaching all these years I have more than proved that to myself.
Keep up the good work, Marge from California

I could hardly believe my eyes when I found you on the web. My 11 year old daughter is a "natural born tapper" and loves improvising to jazz too. Don't let her age fool you - she is ISDT Advanced Tap. We had the pleasure of meeting Will Gaines and he was kind enough to sign Eleanor's tap shoes for her and said that he would have had her on stage with him had he known she was there - tap shoes and all!! And, incidentally, she wouldn't have taken any persuading!
I can't wait for her to see your website - she will be "blown away" that there is someone who loves the old Cotton-Club style of tapping as much as she does. Do you have any plans to hold "masterclasses"? I would be very interested to know.

This is a really good website from what I've seen so far. I've very much enjoy tap dancing and this is really interesting. I'm taking GSCE dance and so this website will help me with my research and it'll be a useful resource.
Thank you

Hey i am courtney and i am a tapper i love to tap i have won 1st place at most competitions i go to and i have also been awarded the supertapper at dance competitions! i love it!

Hey i am courtney and i am a tapper i love to tap i have won 1st place at most competitions i go to and i have also been awarded the supertapper at dance competitions! i love it!

I AM 7 YEARS OLD. TAP DANCING IS MY FAVOURITE HOBBY. I WON A TROPHY FOR SLOW TAP AND TAP SOLO. THIS TERM I AM LEARNING A SPEED TAP I CANT WAIT. I THINK YOUR WEB SITE IS COOL.

I was/am so pleased to have found your page. I would love so much to be able to dance again. I love Tap dance and Jazz so much. I have recently started to research dance in The United States, particulary Harlem and Broadway, I search the internet and have my own copies of books that are crammed packed with so much useful information. Your page is interesting to read. All my life I have been looking for this type of information as dance is my life. I am passionate aboout dance especially Tap and Jazz Dance. As I am Advanced in Tap dance I have yet to find any dancing pals, I once danced with The famous Will Gains back in 1986 when he visited England, and he went to South Yorkshire, at the Arts Centre by the college that I was, studying Dance at.

Great site

greatly enjoined your website...I tap with a MATURE tap group. We have been together for 15 years. There are seven of us. We rehearse three times a week and take classes.
We are called " The Grads" ( Greatly Respected Adult Dancers ).We are California state champs for our age group.
My current interest is improvising, although I haven't done much of it.Keep on tappin'..................

U r a big idiot

Love your site and your awesome tapping. I wish I could take classes from you. Do you recomend any good music to tap to, Im having trouble finding some...

hey...i have been tap dancing for about 8 years now and i love it to death!!!! i have been in many comptetions and have lessons every week! my instructor is great and my partner is too! i just wanted to share my thoughts...gotta fly-bye

Next month, I get my first taplesson, I am sixteen and had classical ballet for seven years. The last three years I stopped dancing. But I miss it really much and besides, my body is longing for it as well. Your site gives a good impression of jazz-tap. Although I don't know yet wich sort of a tapdance I prefer, but that will come in time.
Thank you,

Christine

What an inspiration you are to others. What a mover, what great sounds - have you tried tapping to some Jools Holland Boogie Woogie. Just completed a routine for a show to a track with Jools Holland and BB King - went down a treat. Keep up the brilliant foot work - I'm nearing 50 and still LOVE my tap. Haven't slowed down - yet!! Downloaded all the AVl clips - fantastic.

i really like you

Your site is very interesting. I especially found the information about the great historical tap dancers to be very informative. I really enjoyed seeing the clips that were included. I do have a suggestion--could you add some historical information on female tap dancers? I think that would make your site even better! Thanks!

Hi Tony

Reading your website with great interest. Just preparing an article for the Danceteacher magazine with information on "Paddle and Roll" supplied to me by Tobias Tak. Reading your "Swinging with the Beat" section I thought I'd better let you know that Tobias was taught by the likes of Buster Brown and Levaughan Robinson on the paddle and roll technique borne from Be Bop and that you might like to get in touch and attend one of his workshops. You may, of course, know him and his work already.

Thanks for the website I'll make the International Dance Teachers' Association members aware it exists!

Regards

Jo Christie

Hi,
I`m a begginer...actually...not even that!I`m just concidering going into jazz...but i think ur a great insipation!!!

Hi Tony,

It was great talking to you the other day after so many years. When I heard about your web-sites I thought I'd have a look. Very impressive. I'm proud of your achievements and ability to tap and produce such brilliant informative 'sites. You've come a long way since our college days. Keep up the good work!

If you're into teaching your skills to parents/adults and children in schools I might be able to point you in the right direction. Give me a call (or send an email)if you're interested.

I have always wanted to tap like Gene Kelley and have whined about my Mother not letting me take dance lessons when I was a little girl (I'm 44 now). About 2 years ago, my husband commentd that I didn't need my Mom's permission anymore and why didn't I just do it? What a novel idea! I signed up for a beginning adult tap class in the Summer of 2000 and have been tapping ever since.

I am loving every minute of it! Your website is wonderful and I can only dream that someday I might dance even a fraction as well as you do! You are inspiring! Thanks for keeping tap dance alive and spreading the joy and energy it brings!

Hello Tony,I just discovered and enjoyed your magnificent site.Together with my brother I learned to tap by studying Fred Astaire in his movies.I remember having seen "Top hat" at least 5 times.My brother became one of the best professional tapdancers of Belgium.I will send you a photo of him by e-mail.Unfortunately he died at the age of 50.As for me although already over the 70ties I still tap almost everyday just for fun.I think I may say that I do it in the same style of yours (but only with 50% of your enormous variety of tapsounds ...).My pc shows your videos very well and so you give me a phantastic pleasure with your performance.Please keep up the good work and accept my sincere congratulations.
Jos Van hove,de Gryspeerstraat 80,2100Deurne,Belgium
hortipaints@skynet.be

Hi Tony
Great site. I'll have to take your .avi video clips to someone with a PC to view them (I'm a dedicated mac man).

I started American tap last year at the age of 49 and love it, wish I'd started at 9! Still, there weren't too many tap schools in Clapham, South London back then.
Reckon I've got about 50 years work to catch up to Greg Hines.
Hope to see you in New Zealand one day.

Best wishes
Pete Robinson
(no relation to Bill)

Hi Tony,

Loved your site! Found it by accident while searching for dance schools in my area.

Especially love the avi clips!

Thanks :o)

thanks for showing me - i enjoy your style - there is hope for the way i want to do it - can you suggest a video/class
for beginers thanks
john b

Do you show steps on this web-site?

Tony, I really enjoyed looking through your homepage.
I've been thinking I was too late to start learning from the beginning. hmmmmm....but then again... maybe it's not too- late, right? I realized I'd better learn before it gets even more late..^____^;
keep tapping, Tony.
oh, and let me know when you visit Korea one day.
I will be more than glad to give you a nice guide if you could let me hear more of your tap story or teach me some. hehe...^_~

What a great site! I spent the morning trying to teach a thirteen year old how to shuffle. I've only been tapping a couple of years and see how much more I need to know before I attempt teaching another lesson! Thanks so much for your research and time putting this together!

I've been tap dancing since i was 5, and i've loved every minute of it. It is great to be able to look at such a great tap dancers history and tips. Maybe i'll have my own site someday. I've also gained loads of information for my A Level p.e coursework from the site. Thanks alot. Keep tapping.

HI I ENJOY TAP AND SO DID MY GRANDAD. I NEVER SAW HIM TAP BUT I'M TOLD HE WAS A GREAT. HIS NAME IS JOHN BUBBLES. AND I THOUGHT I WOULD TELL YOU HOW MUCH I ENJOYED YOUR SITE.

Enjoyed your site - great info and vid clips, an interesting style this jazz tap.
I'm more into show tap myself but appreciate all styles and techniques.
Once again many thanks for the insight.

Hi Tony, thanks for creating such an informative site.
I tap danced until 8yrs old but don't remember much of it
and would like to start dancing again.

Can you recomend a place in the UK where I can order beginners level tap dancing course on video. Visited a couple of sites in the US but all their video were of the format NTSC.

Best regards,
Joe

my munchkin is 5! he saw an old movie with some tap dancing and he hasn't stopped since. give me a site to tune into so i can show him more, please. thee must be a site where you're actually dancing. where can i get him started???

Hey Tony nice job. Lots of info. Check your tap history and shoe info though. The best place is The American Tap Dance Institute. They have done intensive research disproving much in most tap history books that just keep telling the same misinformation. Also, ATDI has lots of educational, outreach, performance, career information on their website. www.usatap.org. I've gone to their tap seminars, (attended by an international array of students and teachers, taught by masters) and am in training in their tap teacher certification program. Check it out. Also, there are job opportunities. Thanks. Valerie ps. I've tapped for thirty years and am so glad you, ADTI and some others are trying to get the word out, especially where this comes from.

I really enjoyed your site. Now I feel like I want to learn a tap dance. I wish I could dance like you... :( Anyway, I love your site :)))

I really didnt know that u r such a good jazz tap dancer, I have just seen ur webpage.. all of it.. and found out what an informative website.. keep it up.Salute!

WILL YOU HAVE SEX WITH ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I found your website extremly useful for my school report. THANKYOU

Good site man, good to see some hittin going on that way, not much hittin in canada, but travel down south to the states to do it. Danced for about 17 years now, enjoy ever minute of it, but there's nothin like hittin hard! keep it up, good site...

Tony. So far so good, but what we need is a forum page so that the UK hitters can discuss what's going on over here as well as in the states. We have the feet but not the comunity to get $h!t done. -

This is a very unique and interesting site. As a matter of fact I can relate to the tap improvisation with the "rave dancing" that I do. We make a circle and then we go in the middle and dance to the beat whatever comes to mind, but always to the beat. Many dancers have very much a "tap dance" style. Do know where I could find a place near me that teaches tap improvisation? Sincerely, John Walsh

Good site! I'm an advanced tap dancer and I love it! i don't understand why there isn't more interest in this country. Do you have any idea of how to get into tap professionally, for a career? Please e-mail me if you do, because I don't where to look. Also are there any other all tap musicals you know of, apart from 42nd Street? Thanks! Love and lemons! Lizzie

Joy
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Rachel Thorpe Deb_thorpe@hotmail.com
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Meghan Kissel gapgirl6188@aol.com
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url: Educationalvideosplus.com
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Geraldine Vilar jeraf@hotmail.com
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Lisa cynthiathedoll@hotmail.co m
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Patty Adams pattyadams@worldnet.att.net
url: http://www.peakdance.com
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I like your video clip you look like a great tapper!

Hi, Very interesting reading, style differs completely
to us in NZ. I've been teaching about 30yrs (sat
the old BBO tap exams to advanced)and have now been
introduced to American Tap, - very syncopated and off
beat timing - again with different arm styles. Enjoy choreographing
and moulding a person to visually look good (rhythm & projection wise).
As a music teacher I also like a good arrangement of a song where tap
accents match and/or complement music. Have saved your home
page for future perusal.
Nice one!!

I must say that your work that you had put in are so great and I am sure that those people who had signed in your Guestbook will agree with me. I get to learn steps that I do not know, in addition watching your video clips is so real and enjoyable.

great info! thanks.

Glad to find a page for those who like tap. I love it! Its my fav style of dance. Hello to others around the world who love it too!

Most people would go to night clubs when they go out of
town; Me, I go find out where the tap dance actions are
and I Always pack a pair of tap shoes when I go traveling.
What's happening in your area?

Enjoyed your site. I got into rhythum tap 6 years ago because
I wanted to improvise. It has not been easy because I never
played and instrument and I am almost 65. But it is great fun.
I appreciate your helpful comments on improv.

Nice site. I have always loved to tap, just tap,
on my own. A little music, a nice floor that's all I need.

Keep up the good work.

DOn