Welcome to a special two-hour play by play with the accompaniment of my two best friends, Shauna and Jeff. I've known the both of them since high school and they are now married to each other. Shauna is a fellow dancer, and Jeff was dragged to more recitals and competitions than he can count. Congratulations to the two of them on the birth of their beautiful daughter (and my goddaughter) Ruby Mae on June 30!

Read on to hear all three of our comments on last night's top eight performances.

It is the middle of summer.  That means that your dance studio is winding down your year.  Either you are at Nationals now, will be soon, or you already competed, and are going home.  You may have a few weeks off before your fall classes start.  Or, if you coach, or are affiliated with a high school, middle school, or college dance team, camps are going on right now and your teams may restart some time in the fall.

Being a member of a competitive dance team, either with a studio or school, is a lot of very hard work.  It involves conditioning, basic drills and lots and lots of practicing.  The academic world has been debating the sport versus activity controversy for years, in various states.  

I am very curious as to how you ALL feel about this issue!

July 31 - August 2nd!

Come join us for another amazing summer intensive TAMJAMS workshop.  Our faculty includes:
Tamara Squires - TJ Executive Director
-Academy Awards, Asst. Chor for Michael Jackson's Sisterella, Tonight Show,
Densil Adams
-Joffrey, ABT, Dallas Ballet
Michelle Butterfield
-Odyssey, Touched by An Angel & Tap Dogs tour
Jaci Royal
-Faculty at Steps and Broadway Dance Center NYC & teaches in Tropea, Italy
Tiffany Carpenter
-Toured with Mia Michael's company Raw, Odyssey & Reebok
Rick Robinson
-Boyz to Men and the film Dance With Me
Cati (Dallas) Snarr
-Emmy Award winning choreographer, Ballet West, Superbowl half time

The EDGE Performing Arts Center, in cooperation with the Dance Fund, will host a summer performance called "The Space Between" on July 24, 25, 26, 31, and August 1 and 2 at Nate Holden Pac in L.A.

Participating choreographers include Mandy Moore, Andre Fuentes, Ryan Heffington, Sonya Tayeh, and many more. The cast of 50 dancers include EDGE graduating scholarship students, LADF dancers, Hysterica Dance Company, LUX Aeterna, and Stilt World. Tickets are $30 at the EDGE EShop/Box Office.

Nate Holden Pac is located at 4718 W. Washington Blvd.

How many of us ever feel like we've gone crazy over dance?  One professional dancer - Tiffany Mehling of Chicago Tap Theatre - has done just that for a role in the recent Chicago production of "The Hourglass and the Poisoned Pen," which will appear in the New York Musical Theater Festival on September 26-28, 2008.  Read on to hear about how Tiffany went a bit psycho on stage.

Due to the success of last year's festival, the Beantown Tapfest returns for a second year, expanding to a week-long schedule of classes and tripling the number of faculty.

Unlike a jazz or film festival, a tap festival's main ingredient is instruction, continuing the long-standing tradition of handing tap dance down from one generation to the next. And since tap is a theatrical art, you can't have a festival without a show.

The Beantown Tapfest sold out last year's show, delivering what is unique to tap: the performer as both dancer and musician, where the exciting rhythmic complexity of tap is seen and heard. This year, six tap soloists, two tap companies and three jazz musicians make up the cast of On Tap!, the festival's annual review.

Every art form has to educate its audiences, to some degree.  When Balanchine and Robbins re-invented modern ballet, they had to overcome the preconceptions of the entrenched ballet elite.  When Graham and Duncan struck out on their own, they had to define what their new dance forms were before they could expect to win people over to their vision.  Tap faces the same issue.  Many people have a singular vision of tap - Fred Astaire in tails, a cheerful chorus girl in 42nd Street - that may or may not jive with what you're doing.  In my online rambles, I found a great article that describes exactly the dilemma that tap dancers face and provides solid ideas for how to create your own audience.