A Masterclass with Adam Garcia

It's #tbt (throwback Thursday)! So...#tbt the time we met Adam Garcia! It was 2 weeks ago and we're still not over it! We wanted to share our experience with you, so read on to find out what happened at Adam Garcia’s Manchester masterclass.

Danceworks in Eccles had laid out a red carpet for Garcia to enter on, but he's actually so down to earth that he just made a joke out of himself being a celeb! We felt like we were best friends with Adam Garcia just from listening to him and watching him dance because he's so personable and nice! His passion for tap dancing shone through strongly along with his incredible sense of humour, like when he drew an invisible line with his tap shoe to keep the kids from creeping too close to their shrine (Garcia) during routines. Garcia said all night just how much he hates counting, so don't forget that even the best of dancers have something that they're not amazing at!

The masterclasses were split into two different sessions with the lower grades going first and the higher second. Both classes followed the same structure of beginning with a fun clapping exercise to see if everyone had that essential rhythm for tap, which of course they did! Garcia split the classes into 3 and gave each group a different rhythm line to follow so they could make their own "orchestra with their feet", as Garcia said. It was amazing to sit back and listen to the sound of the taps and see the happy faces on some of our models that were also there. When the class had proved their rhythm, Garcia introduced some relaxed swing music for the first group to tap to, and some cool reggae for the second.

What Tap Steps Did Adam Garcia's Masterclass Cover?

Both the intermediate and advanced tap masterclasses covered a range of different tap combinations with regular dance steps interspersed. Here's a quick summary of the main tap steps:

• Shuffle-ball-change
• Pull backs
• Toe heels
• Knocks
• Scuffs
• Chugs
• Paddles

And for the advanced class, as above plus:

• Pick ups
• Slides
• Jumps
• Knocks
• Stamp and pullback

At the end of the evening Garcia kicked off a friendly tap off with the adults to round things off where we all stood in a semi-circle and had 16 beats to show off your best moves in time, creating a stunning visual and sound that would (hopefully!) impress Garcia.

Garcia's Best Quotes:

Tap dancing is about figuring out your next move.

It's about dancing the movement. Doesn't matter if you miss a beat.

Tap dancing is like jazz dancing with shoes on.

Fun Facts About Adam Garcia:

• He'd like to be good at ballet, ballroom, flamenco and Irish dancing.
• Tap dancing is his favourite dance style.
• His favourite show is Wicked and that's a show without any tap dancing!
• He's been dancing since he was 6.

We're forever more a die-hard Adam Garcia fan! He loved our Move Dance tap shoes but of course wears his own special pair. Shop our range of tap shoes here and get practising to be as good as Garcia himself! 

                                                   Thanks for the fabulous masterclass Adam!