Tap Dancers Anonymous

Tap dancing is an addiction for me. It is one of the only things that I 'have to have' other than the necessities (water, food, shelter). I am just starting to go through withdrawal here in Japan. I can feel in my body that I have not been tapping enough or learning new moves. I need it, I want it, and I almost can't have it. I need to remedy this urge to tap dance. I have taken a few steps to feed my addiction.

1. Making the stage at the Board of Education my own personal performance hall. I strap on my tap shoes, crank up my boombox and improv. I have even gone as far as starting to choreograph a routine for no reason other than to become creative or teach myself something.
2. I have a yearning to be taught something new. I am not creative when it comes to making up steps or routines. I have emailed past teachers to ask for their advice on videos to buy or the tap scene in Japan.
3. After some guidance from these roll models I have started to surf the internet. First, I researched the history of tap. I thought of writing an essay to send into Zenzen (the ALT newspaper in my ken), but decided that only I would take interest in that. Then I started researching tap dancers in Japan. I have stumbled on a few names.
4. I emailed these Japanese tap dancers and still waiting for a reply. I am interested in seeing a performance or taking a workshop, anything tap will do.
5. I have been showing my old videos in classes at the elementary school. They love it! I have videos from when I was 6 all the way up to last year. Obsession.
6. In my 6 nensei I taught a short little tap class. The teacher and all the students learned to shuffle and flap like the rest of them. I had one student, a boy named Tsuyoshi who got really into it. He put tacks on the bottom of his shoes and challenged me to a tap duel. For those of you that don't know, tap dancing is built around challenging and mimicking people. This boy was WAY ahead of the game. He put up a fair duel and had everyone in tears laughing.
7. This is very far fetched but satisfies my urge for rhythm. I have started taking Japanese taiko (drumming) which has allowed me to express myself using drums. Thanks to my tap background I am having a fairly easy time picking up the rhythms. That got me to thinking, how fun would it be to improv to the beat of a Japanese drum. Talk about a cultural tap jam.

This is my obsession. I feel that everyone has one, healthy or not. You can decide whether mine is healthy or not.