r/TapDancing

Hi all!

I am in need of a new pair of tap shoes as my old beginner pair broke. I take tap 2-3x a week, and usually am doing stuff on my own in between, especially if I have a performance coming up, and I'd say I'm somewhere between a beginner and intermediate level. My tap teacher recommended Bloch either Respect or Chloe and Maude. Does anyone have any experience with either of these or have any different recommendations for a mid grade shoe? I have mild-moderate bunions and I also have Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder, so my feet/ankles/knees/hips are all hypermobile. I've read mixed reviews of the Chloe and Maude especially where the shoes break after a single toe stand. I've also heard the shoes are very light which might put less pressure on my joints.

Any and all thoughts are welcome!

Hello everyone!

I’ve only been dancing for a relatively short time, and tap is a new style for me.

I’d like to talk about tap shoes.

I often see posts recommending beginner shoes for beginners, and different shoes for professional or advanced dancers. Why are beginners advised to wear beginner shoes? I hope the reason is mainly the price, because more expensive shoes are much more comfortable and effective to dance in.

Good shoes can be especially helpful for beginners. For example, I feel much more confident and comfortable in my Capezio Roxies, which I switched to after spending a relatively short time dancing in Capezio TeleTone Extremes. The difference is huge. If I had known about it from the beginning, I would have started learning in Roxies right away.

So why are simpler shoe models recommended for beginners? Is it really only about the price, or are there other reasons? For example, some dancers say that heavier shoes such as Roxys can make it harder for beginners to produce clear sounds, while full-soled, low-heeled lace-up shoes may offer more stability during the early stages of learning.

What do you think?

hi all!
i’m (28f) going to be taking an adult tap class this fall— either intermediate or advanced tap, i’m going to be chatting with the studio to see which placement is best.
i took 7 years of tap as a kid/ teen and absolutely loved it and am excited to get back into it!

1. what shoes? full sole? split sole? i’ve always had split sole, but im not sure if that’s best or just what im used to. my budget is pretty small, currently looking at the Bloch Flex Slip Ons as these are what i had growing up. $100 or less is ideal.

2. what does one wear to an adult tap class? tights? leo? shorts?

help me not look like a sore thumb 😭

also, any suggestions on what skills/ tricks would be needed for either intermediate or advanced would be helpful! thanks!

I’m a tap dance teacher. I recently had a student added to one of my level 2/advanced beginner classes. The student is an absolute beginner in tap. She has danced to other styles, but knows nothing about tap. We broke down some basics and naturally she struggled with moving her feet in the right way to get certain steps and sounds. That’s all normal of a beginner. It takes a while to learn to articulate your sounds in your feet properly. That being said having to do beginner things hold the rest of the class back and we have a performance in November and the song is not a beginner song, and I feel like this girl has been set up to fail by being added to this class. I need to talk to the studio owner about this girl, but this isn’t the first time this kind of thing has happened and I don’t think anything will change. I really don’t know how to handle this because she has been set up to fail for this performance and the other students as well because we can no longer practice their song because we have to spend all of class doing the beginner basics and drills.

I ordered a pair of women’s size 8.5 wide from a semi local store almost two months ago. I wanted to try them on before ordering. Sadly they didn’t have my size anyway but I tried on a regular 8 and they were a little snug.

Now they are continually back ordered and today they don’t even show as an option on capezios website.

This is more venting than anything.

Has anyone experienced this? Will they eventually become available?

I prepaid which I now know is a mistake. At the time I thought I was showing good faith that I would take the expensive shoe they were ordering for me. I wanted the store to get the sale because they helped me.

Hi! I am my studio’s primary tap teacher and tldr: I need help making tap class more fun for my little ones

Since my studio moved elementary tap classes to their own time instead of being a part of combo classes, I have very very few tappers 1st-8th grade. Most kids choose to take just a ballet/jazz combo class and not tap. When I teach younger (5-6 year old) ballet/tap combo classes, the kids love ballet and hate tap because there are more creative movement/game opportunities in ballet. Whenever I look for tap class games, everything I find is more geared towards older kids. I’ve had some success with rhythm games pulled from music teachers, but the second I say let’s try it with our feet, they lose all interest. What are some ways I can help make tap class more fun for my little ones so that they’ll want to stick with it as they get older?