Join us on Sunday 13 December at 7pm GMT / 8pm CET and 1pm CST for our festive London Tap Jam live on Instagram from Chicago with special guest host Jumaane Taylor. This is a FREE event!
Bring your tinsel and join in the fun, as we celebrate the festive season the only way we know how with lots of fantastic tap dance and live music. This is going to be an amazing jam! Everyone and anyone is welcome. Join in on taps/instruments or vocals or just sit back in the comfort of your own home and enjoy loads of amazing tap dance and music from people all around the world including from our band leader Michele Drees and other guest musicians from our trio. For more info on how to actively participate in the jam and for a song list (for inspiration) please see below.
Jumaane Taylor, a Chicago native made his professional debut in 2001 with the company M.A.D.D. Rhythms, where he now serves on the board of directors. He was invited to showcase his work Supreme Love, a production honouring both John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and the art of tap dance, at Jacob’s Pillow. As a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist he assembled the Jazz Hoofing Quartet, which used improvisation to continue exploring live jazz music. Jumaane was the recipient of 3Arts 2019 Award, and has performed his work for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Jazz Institute of Chicago, and abroad. His current work in progress, Ugly Flavors, uses the music of Ornette Coleman and Igor Stravinsky. He was part of the ensemble for the legendary show Imagine Tap! directed and choreographed by Derick Grant and was a principal dancer on Tap in2 Peace, directed and choreographed by Ayodele Casel and Sarah Savelli. His 20-year performance career includes appearances with Savion Glover, Dianne Walker and Jason Samuels Smith.
Instructions for those who would like to actively take part in the jam
- If you are a tap dancer, you’ll be given the opportunity to dance to a track of your choice. This track should be no longer than 4 minutes, as we'd like as many people as possible to be able to participate. You will need to put the track on yourself at your home or wherever you are dancing. This is because of potential sound delays. If you are a musician or if you have a musician that you can jam with that’s fantastic.
- When the host goes live on Instagram you will see a message on the screen saying “send a request to be in host’s live video.” If you want to take part in the jam, you will need to send a request to go live with the host and s/he will select someone to go live. If the host has selected you to jam live, you will need to accept his/her invitation. Once you’ve accepted his/her invitation, you will be live on Instagram. So, if you have sent an invitation to host to jam, you must be set up and ready to go. Once a person has been selected by the host, and you accepted his/her invitation, you will then be live with the host on a split screen. And you’ll be able to jam to a tune of your choice. Please don’t pick a tune that is too long, as we would like to get as many dancers involved as possible or you can chose to dance to part of a track only.
- Make sure that if you’ve sent a request to the host to jam, you have your board set up, your shoes are on, the music is queued and that you know where your phone is going to go in order for your performance to be filmed. Try and make sure we can see the whole of your body in the frame. If you have someone else there with you, it’s probably better if they can film you, otherwise just set up your camera on a piece of furniture or a tripod if you have one.
- Know the tune you want to dance to and have it queued up ready to go. We have a list of Jazz Standards for inspiration, which are on our website, but you’re welcome to dance to any tune. It doesn’t have to be a jazz standard.
And finally, as with any London Tap Jam everybody is very welcome to participate!
A list of jazz standards for inspiration, but you can dance to any tune you like
SWING – SLOW TEMPO
Tea for 2 (Swing or Rumba)
Sandunga (Salsa)
Sunny Side of the Street (slow/ medium)
The Very Thought of You
Lil'darllin
Summertime (slow/medium)
Over the Rainbow
SWING – FAST TEMPO
Caravan (Latin/swing?)
It Don't Mean a Thing
I Can't Give You Anything But Love
I've Got Rhythm
Lady Be Good
Take the "A" Train
Seven steps to heaven
A train (for you)
LATIN/RUMBA/BOSSA/CHACHA
Girl from Ipanema (Bossa)
Night in Tunisia (Latin/Swing)
Song For My Father (Chacha)
Sway (Rumba)
Bananeira (Bossa)
On green Dolphin street (Latin into Jazz)
St Thomas (Latin)
SWING – MEDIUM TEMPO
All of Me
All the Things You Are
April in Paris
Bemsha Swing
Don’t Get Around Much Anymore
Every Time We Say Goodbye (med/ slow)
Groovin' High
Hello Dolly
How High the Moon
I've Got You Under My Skin
Lets Face the Music and Dance
Love Me or Leave Me
Lullaby of Birdland
Mack the Knife
Me and My Shadow
My Baby Just Cares for Me
Satin Doll
Scrapple From the Apple
So What
Taking a Chance on Love (med/fast)
The Lady is a Tramp
Filthy McNasty
Moanin'
Jordu
Cute
Blue Monk
Scapple from the Apple
Tea for Two (Swing or Rumba)
Work Song
FUNK
On Broadway
Watermelon Man
Cantaloupe Island
3/4
Favourite Things
All Blues
5/4
Take 5
SONGS WITH STOPS
Gregory’s tune
Cute
Seven steps to heaven