Why don’t you feel comfortable with improvisation?
It’s a question that I longed to understand for many years now. After all, the first time I saw the masters like Gregory Hines, Steve Condos, Jimmy Slyde, and Sammy Davis Jr. improvising in the movie Tap, all I wanted to do was to dance like them – to feel what they felt when they moved with the music.
After teaching for several years and talking to many tap dancers about it, I have finally been able to target the word that prevents tap dancers from improvising.
As tap dancers we rarely utter this word, instead we say things like… “improvisation doesn’t interest me.” Though if that were true, no one would have thought anything was special about Gregory Hines or Savion Glover. The truth is, we all love improvisation!
So what’s the word that prevents tap dancers from enjoying one of the highest expressions of our art form?
Your probably guessed by now that it’s the “F” word!
Wait! Not that one!
.
The Fear of Failure
This is a big one for most tap dancers. Ask a tap dancer to improvise and the first thing they will usually say is, “I don’t know what to do!”
What this really means is, “I can’t think of anything that I think is good enough.”
Do you notice anything strange about this statement? It’s an example of how we can be our own worst enemy when it comes to doing something new. Carefully study it and you will see that the person is really claiming two opposing positions simultaneously.
One the one hand, they are claiming to have no expertise or knowledge about improvisation. Yet on the other, they are implicitly claiming to know enough about improvisation to evaluate their own performance.
Ok…I can see your eyes glazing over!
Here is the point. It’s too early to evaluate yourself when you first start out. Do this, and fear takes over!
Improvisation, like everything else, takes practice!
That’s right…I said it! People are not born with the ability to improvise any more than they are born with the ability to do a time step. It takes practice.
When Savion Glover improvises a performance, he is operating from almost thirty years of “practicing improvisation” on a daily basis.
With improvisation - “The reason you can’t, is because you don’t.” (Most of us think it’s the other way around when we start out.)
Sign up for the articles and then click this image for the professional DVD!
Sincerely,
Terrence Taps
P.S. The rate for the DVD will be increasing very soon, so order yours today and lock in these low rates!
Why don’t you feel comfortable with improvisation?
It’s a question that I longed to understand for many years now. After all, the first time I saw the masters like Gregory Hines, Steve Condos, Jimmy Slyde, and Sammy Davis Jr. improvising in the movie Tap, all I wanted to do was to dance like them – to feel what they felt when they moved with the music.
After teaching for several years and talking to many tap dancers about it, I have finally been able to target the word that prevents tap dancers from improvising.
As tap dancers we rarely utter this word, instead we say things like… “improvisation doesn’t interest me.” Though if that were true, no one would have thought anything was special about Gregory Hines or Savion Glover. The truth is, we all love improvisation!
So what’s the word that prevents tap dancers from enjoying one of the highest expressions of our art form?
Your probably guessed by now that it’s the “F” word!
Wait! Not that one!
.
The Fear of Failure
This is a big one for most tap dancers. Ask a tap dancer to improvise and the first thing they will usually say is, “I don’t know what to do!”
What this really means is, “I can’t think of anything that I think is good enough.”
Do you notice anything strange about this statement? It’s an example of how we can be our own worst enemy when it comes to doing something new. Carefully study it and you will see that the person is really claiming two opposing positions simultaneously.
One the one hand, they are claiming to have no expertise or knowledge about improvisation. Yet on the other, they are implicitly claiming to know enough about improvisation to evaluate their own performance.
Ok…I can see your eyes glazing over!
Here is the point. It’s too early to evaluate yourself when you first start out. Do this, and fear takes over!
Improvisation, like everything else, takes practice!
That’s right…I said it! People are not born with the ability to improvise any more than they are born with the ability to do a time step. It takes practice.
When Savion Glover improvises a performance, he is operating from almost thirty years of “practicing improvisation” on a daily basis.
With improvisation - “The reason you can’t, is because you don’t.” (Most of us think it’s the other way around when we start out.)
Sign up for the articles and then click this image for the professional DVD!
Sincerely,
Terrence Taps
P.S. The rate for the DVD will be increasing very soon, so order yours today and lock in these low rates!