Book Review: Inside Tap by Anita Feldman

Title: Inside Tap: Technique and Improvisation for Today's Tap Dancer
Author: Anita Feldman
Source: Purchased

Format: Paperback
Publisher: Princeton Book Company (Dance Horizons)

Release date: May 1, 1995

Goodreads 

Synopsis from Goodreads:

This comprehensive guide to tap offers traditional and improvisational instruction for the beginner and new, innovative material for the intermediate and advanced dancer. It reviews the basics, and then progresses through creativity and musicality, rhythm, dynamics, and syncopation. Traditional steps such as the Shim Sham Shimmy are taught as well as contemporary tap. Easy-to-follow descriptions are given for each step.

What I thought:

I enjoy countless amazing tap dance tutorials online, but I also wanted some books. That's when I found Inside Tap by Anita Feldman. No, it's not a dictionary, but it is a very decent book focused on creativity and, as the title says, technique and improvisation. Throughout reading it is clear that Feldman presents tap through an instrumental lens. 

Even from the beginning there is a lot of encouragement for the reader to experiment. But make no mistake, there is a plethora of combinations that use the steps outlined in the key. Speaking of which, the key is in the beginning –which I like as opposed to flipping to the back and trying to hold a lot of pages open. I also like that the step acronyms give brief explanations on preforming them rather than just listing them. 

For the combinations, most of the earlier ones are simple enough. There were often certain techniques or methods done with the simpler steps. For example, the Basic Rhythm Exercise on page 44, that plays with divisions, is made up of multiple Paddle and Rolls. (After all dig, draw, step, and heel is pretty easy for me to do.) Later dances are a little more intermediate concerning step complexity, timing, and weight shifts. But, again, Feldman lays it out it a simplistic way breaking it down with tips to go along with those tricky steps. Combination instructions were spaced out nice, neat, and line by line in each chapter. The best way I can describe it is to quote from pages VII–VIII:

The notation for the combinations throughout the book is in five (and occasionally six) lines that go across the page:

1 the direction or other important information

2 which foot

3 the steps

4 the counts

5 dynamics (accents, crescendo or decrescendo, when applicable)

6 musical notation (only included occasionally for practice)

As for the rest of the writing, it’s straight forward and flows nicely without getting too repetitive.  And lastly, I really appreciate the few pictures that are in here. But there were a few in particular that were too dark in terms of leg placement (basically it was monochrome, and sometimes the clothes blended into the dark background). But then again, the magic is more in the text which provides ample descriptions.

Although this is my first tap tutorial book, overall, I enjoyed my reading and look forward to dancing through more of Inside Tap. For now, I recommend checking it out, even if you’re just a hobbyist.

Thanks for reading!