Word to the wise:

There are two dance studios next door to each other on West 45th Street. Only one of them necessitates tap shoes.

And next door to these establishments WAS Kinky Boots, which required ridiculous heels. The show closed last weekend though, and rough-looking guys named Vinny and Dude and Here’s My Number Jake Call Me are currently hauling the remnants of the show out the side doors and across the sidewalk into trucks for what doesn’t look like a promising fate.

Oh—and tap class was the perfect level of challenging, so I therefore deem it awesome. Except the teacher randomly started many of the technique drills and combinations on the left. Which is the dance equivalent of pushing us into pits of lava, but with a compelling beat.

It’s paradiddle time!

#AnnualBucketList

So tap class was literally up a steep and very narrow stairway / to the feet like a rhythmically contrapuntal metronome

The front desk guard at the Broadway Dance Center gave me a disapproving smirk when I took this selfie, no doubt because of my dumbass-tourist T-shirt emblazoned with a massive NYC. But I more or less rocked the class, so it gets a big happy, paradiddly bucket-list checkmark.

#HowToTurn50 #AndTapLikeABOSS

#HowToTurn50

Book your Big Birthday Broadway Blowout Billion-Bucks Bash Bonanza—and pack your tap shoes for another bucket-list class at the Broadway Dance Center!

Doggie dance class

If taking a tap class with three total students and an adorable wandering-in-and-out dog named Cody where I'm the only person (or dog) wearing tap shoes so my taps are the only ones anyone can hear so I HAVE TO FOCUS ON BEING VERY VERY ACCURATE were on my bucket list, guess what I just checked off that list!

Pink Gatorade makes tap class totally brodude, yo

That. Tap. Class. Was. Amazing.

And challenging. And exhausting. And fun. And sweaty. But I'm always sweaty.

Ultimately it was just like any other good tap class I've ever taken. I don't know if I was expecting sequins and Broadway stars, but I wouldn't know about the Broadway stars anyway; nobody talked to anybody. Ever.

I was rustier than I thought I'd be -- I don't think I've even had my tap shoes on in over a year -- but I totally kept up with the class. I'd say we were all on the same level as far as our ability to learn and retain choreography accurately but when the teacher had us do technique exercises one at a time, I was definitely in the bottom third of the class.

BUT! And here's the big but: If you've ever taken a tap class with me or heard me complain about my personal tap frustrations, you know I catastrophically suck at pullbacks, which are a fundamental skill for every tapper. The Broadway Dance Center teacher -- who calls herself the best pullback teacher in New York -- worked with us one on one today in class ... and with her help I ACTUALLY DID SOME RESPECTABLE PULLBACKS! Which is the best self-birthday present ever.

Me. Pullbacks. At Broadway Dance Center. So far it's been an awesome day.

Theater. Tap. Class.

That's what it's called. And it's where all the big boys tap.

#BucketList #Squee #OhMyGodImFinallyDoingThis