Backward and in heels

There's a delightful snarkiness in saying that Ginger Rogers did everything Fred did, but backwards and in heels.**

But I've learned something interesting. It is actually easier to tap backwards and in heels. At least for me.

The backwards thing because it is like falling - far easier to fall back than forward, right?

The heels thing I've just learned because I rewarded myself with my first pair of heeled taps for the new year. I adore them. I thought it would be hard to adjust and harder to dance but no, sir: it's a delight. Perhaps because I'm already up on the balls of my feet, or because the smaller heel tap balances better. I don't know.

Sad to say, I'm going backward in terms of tap fashion. Women aren't wearing heels as much, except in Rockette style dancing, which interests me not at all. I'm actually far more interested in rhythm tap than broadway, and of the little pictures I cut out of dancers to tape on my wall most are actually men.

But I like heels, and I have always envisioned getting to the point of tapping in heels and I'm just loving it. Who says you can't keep growing up, even at 49? I'm just getting started!

**attributed to a number of sources but probably from an old cartoon.

Comments

  1. I love the shoe in the photo :)

    I think it's great that you dance! I've always been very clumsy and unco-ordinated whenever I have tried to dance. My mother did her best to engage me in ballet as a 4-year old, but I hated it, had a meltdown and that was the end of that.

    I'm pretty sure that if I danced in those lovely black shoes I'd trip and break my ankle; but maybe I could try again (?)

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  2. Oh, Cathy, these were a compromise. These are only 1.5 inches. The ones I really covet are T-strap 2-inchers... some day!

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  3. I'm just seeing this--

    Laura, I ADORE character shoes and am so jealous. You can do anything at all in them! I haven't been to a dance class in eons--and sadly, never to a tap class--but I'd wear the tap-less version of these all the time if it wouldn't make me seem irretrieveably goofy.

    As to rhythm tap and pictures of tap-dancing men--I offer up the late Gregory Hines. He's one of my all-time favorite performers, and one of my beacons for mastering a skill. I'm confident the angels laid wood floors in heaven on anticipation of his arrival.

    Malia

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  4. Malia! Hines is the MAN! When people ask me why I tap I often say that I'm getting ready for my date with Gregory Hines in the Great Beyond (now, in my mind, with lovely hardwood).

    Such class, style, and chops!

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