The classes just seemed to get better by the day at the New York City Tap Festival, not to mention the performances. Wednesday through Friday most classes were structured as 3-day courses which allows students to get a lot more out of the class.

In Barbara Duffy’s class we continued working on a combination she created to Miles Davis’ All Blues. She focused on encouraging us to stay “over our feet” while we danced. Her classes are just as enjoyable as they are challenging.

Here is a picture I took with Barbara Duffy on Friday after our final class meeting.

It’s hard to describe what happened in Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards’ classes over the remaining two days. The steps that seemed impossible to do on the first day, suddenly became easier to execute the next two days. By the end of the course we had a combination that included slides, turns, and intricate rhythms all executed with a musicality that I am still striving to produce in my own choreography.

Last but certainly not least was a Brazilian tap class with the amazing Christiane Matallo from Brazil. She taught a combination that incorporated the traditional rhythms and movements of Brazilian culture in a way that was unique and expressive. This class was taught with live music as her husband, Gilberto de Syllos, provided rhythmic guitar licks to accompany us. I think this class might have been better offered as a three day course to give the students more time to further explore the nuances of Brazilian tap.

The image below features Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards to my left and Christiane Matallo to my right.

Over the next few days I will be posting video clips that feature each of the instructors that I studied with in New York.

View My Previous post from the NYC Tap Festival

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 at 12:32 pm and is filed under Performances. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.