Building Your Intermediate Tap Toolkit: Essential Steps & Combinations
You've mastered the basics. Your shuffles are clean, your flaps are sharp, and the rhythm feels like a second heartbeat. Now what? Welcome to the intermediate plateau—the most exciting and frustrating place a dancer can be. This is where technique transforms into artistry, and your unique voice begins to emerge. Let's build the toolkit that will get you there.
Beyond the Basics: The Mindset Shift
Intermediate work isn't just about harder steps; it's about intention, connection, and musicality. You're no longer just executing sounds; you're having a conversation with the floor, the band, and the audience. Your toolkit needs to expand in three key areas: Vocabulary, Phrasing, and Dynamics.
Essential Steps to Cement & Refine
Before we string things together, ensure these foundational moves are not just in your feet, but in your muscle memory on multiple planes and speeds.
- The Traveling Time Step Don't just do it in place. Master it moving forward, backward, and in a circle. Vary the height—try it low and grounded, then with elevated knees. This is your rhythmic Swiss Army knife.
- Pullbacks with Precision The goal isn't just the *click*, but the silent, controlled preparation. Work on single, double, and alternating pullbacks, focusing on a consistent body level and crisp, even sounds.
- Wings for Control, Not Just Flash Move beyond the basic 3-count wing. Practice 4-count (double) wings and sustained wings (holding the crossed position). The magic is in the controlled slide in and out, not just the stamp.
- Over-the-Tops & Trenches These crossing patterns are essential for lateral movement and texture. Practice the over-the-top (crossing over) and the trench (crossing behind) slowly to build clean, distinct sounds.
Pro Tip: Isolate the "and" counts. The magic of intermediate dancing lives in the &s. Practice your steps focusing only on the sounds that happen on the off-beats. This builds incredible rhythmic dexterity.
The Combination Playground: Building Blocks for Phrasing
Here’s where we start talking. Combinations are sentences. Practice these until they feel like a single thought.
Sequence: Shuffle Ball Change > Step Heel > Double Pullback > Stamp
Why it works: It takes a simple shuffle, adds a body accent (the step heel), punctuates with sharp pullbacks, and lands with authority. Perfect for ending an 8-count phrase.
Sequence: Flap Heel > Over-the-Top > Trench > Ball Change
Why it works: This combo moves you side-to-side, creating interesting visual and sonic texture. The flap heel initiates momentum, the crosses play with direction, and the ball change resets you. Great for responding to a melodic run.
Sequence: Scuffle > Flap > Step > Riffle > Toe Drop
Why it works: It starts with a brushy scuffle, moves to a clear flap, and then accelerates rhythmically into the tighter sounds of the riffle before landing on a sustained toe drop. Teaches dynamic control within a single combination.
Putting It All Together: The Intermediate Practice Routine
Structure your practice to move from technical drill to artistic play.
- Warm-up & Isolation (10 mins): Isolate just the sounds of your wings, just the brushes of your shuffles. Listen.
- Step Drill (15 mins): Take one essential step (e.g., pullbacks). Do it slow, fast, traveling, turning. Exhaust its possibilities.
- Combo Rehearsal (15 mins): Pick two combinations from above. Drill them separately, then alternate them. Change the tempo.
- Phrasing Play (15 mins): Put on a song with a clear 32-bar structure. Use your combinations as building blocks to fill two 8-count phrases. Repeat. Then improvise the transition between them.
- Cool Down & Analyze (5 mins): What felt effortless? What fell apart? Note it for next time.
The Ultimate Tool: Active Listening
Your most important tool isn't in your feet—it's in your ears. Listen to jazz, blues, funk, and hip-hop. Not just for the beat, but for the spaces, the hits, the swells. Your new steps and combos are words. The music tells you when to speak, when to shout, and when to be silent.
Building your intermediate toolkit is a lifelong process of adding, refining, and discarding. The goal is not to collect every step, but to have the right step for the right moment. So build your vocabulary, craft your sentences, and most importantly, start the conversation. The floor is waiting.
