Love to Tap Dance

I love tap dancing. At first glance when I say that sometimes it feels so random, almost like I know someone’s gonna be suprised when they hear that statement. Like really? Tap dancing? But yeah really tap dancing.

I fell in love when I was a kid. Drawn in by a Sesame Street episode about tap and I knew I’d found it. You know THAT it. That special it that becomes your thing, the thing you love for no other reason than you’re just destined to love it because it’s you. I never stopped thinking about tap from that day forward but here’s the kicker…I never started tapping. I suppressed it too embarrassed to be a “guy that tap danced.” It’s sad really, knowing what it feels like to know the dream/desire you’re supposed to be doing and not do it. Little kid out there who wants to tap dance….DO IT.

In the past year, I have been proud to say that I have co-founded a tap dance company in Nashville. We are the Nashville Tap Experiment, and we are an eight-member ensemble made up of tap dancers from all different walks of life and different experience and skill levels.

On Saturday, three of us finally got the opportunity to show what the Experiment can do together, and we performed as a group for the first time at the annual Southern Festival of Books! It was a defining moment for us! It was a proud moment for me personally, because I put so much into making this company work, and while it hasn’t been easy at times, we finally got an idea of what we are capable of and how much we can accomplish together. We also got an idea of how much more growing we have to do, as a group and as individuals.

Shake it Out, Fitzsimmons Dance Factory

1st Place Teen Large Group Critics Choice Award Age 14 Tap League of Champions Rochester 2017

I choreographed this tap piece to Taylor Swift’s “Style” from her album, 1989.

My senior year at a fine arts high school I severely broke my ankle. I ended up having surgery and thought I wouldn’t be able to continue pursuing my dreams of dancing. Now 7 years later, my ankle is doing great, I have a degree, and I’m getting back to being healthy through exercise, a balanced diet, and dancing once again to try to make my dreams of dancing for a career come to life! From the extreme heartbreak of thinking I’d lost my life’s passion that I began as a 3 year old, to having to take a year off of college for rehabilitating my ankle, to transferring to three different schools, my passion for dancing, performing and choreographing hasn’t faltered….and I believe that means something!

My biggest dream of all dreams would be to perform with Taylor Swift on tour. I’ve had this dream for the past 6 years and I know that it’s a very lofty goal, but why not dare to dream?! I’ll regret not pursuing my dreams and passion later in life, and what better time to try than the present! My passions are dancing and traveling- so to be able to perform while traveling the world with my favorite artist (whom I respect as a person and an artist) would be the ultimate of all dreams coming true! Here’s to this 26 year old working hard to try to accomplish her dreams and not letting the fear of what others may think stand in her way! Here goes nothing! :)