The World Tap Dance Championships 2008 Part 2                   

On an early Monday morning in August, 14 tap dancers arrived in Bristol from all over the country.  They had been the lucky 14 selected to be a part of The Tap Attack Youth Company. 

They would be having regular training sessions with Tarik Winston and myself as well as guest teachers from the Tap Attack faulty. The first session which lasted two days gave the dancers a chance to learn both new exercises designed to improve their technique as well as laying the foundation of the choreography for the World Championship dances.

After the initial shock in terms of the transition of styles and exactly what they had what they had let themselves in for as well as some tears of shear frustration had subsided, the dancers started to progress quickly. We could see what they were going to be capable of and how determined they were to master the choreography and technique. 

With the rehearsal schedule set for what turned out to be most Sundays in autumn we then had to re-think after losing one of the dancers. George Maycock had been training for Billy Elliott for the last 12 months and was due to have a casting but I secretly hoped they might hold out for a bit longer! George was cast as Michael and would mean him leaving immediately so he could move to London and live with the rest of the casts. It was such an amazing opportunity for him so we all we wished George all the luck in the world and held open his place in the company for him indefinitely. 

As the term progressed amidst rehearsals the company appeared on the ITV News as well as in a show at Littlecote house alongside Lionel Blair. These additional performances were in a bid to not only raise their profile, as funding had not been secured but to also act as dress rehearsals for the World Championships. Funding proved to be our biggest hurdle and in the current economic climate securing sponsorship proved almost an impossible task and we became reliant on donations from friends and families. 

Undeterred by a lack of funds I set about organising all the practical elements of competing, such as sourcing costumes, booking hotels, coach and flight tickets as well as the team tracksuits, as well as rehearsing with the company at weekends.

Many things didn’t go to plan but miraculously by Sunday 30^th November at the last rehearsal we were set to go.

On Tuesday 2^nd December I traveled with the junior members of the team and a couple of the senior team and chaperones/parents to Riesa in Germany. After a long journey we settled in to the hotel and prepared for the first day of competition for the juniors. The championship is held at The Erdgas Arena, it has seating for 7000 and is used for sporting events and concerts. On the first day Adina Nyahwa and Sophie Hammer were dancing in the junior female solo’s, we also had a junior trio and small group. The second day was the turn for Michael Guihot-Jouffray and Josh Glavin in the male solo; the rest of the senior team also arrived in preparation for the Friday. On the Friday it was the turn of the adult small groups, formations and male solo’s as well as Michael getting opportunity to dance in the next round.

The dancers did extremely well and achieved some excellent rankings. The soloists managed to rank 6^th, 10^th and 12^th, 26^th, 28^th in the world.  Groups and trios ranked 9^th, 12^th, 14^th and 16^th. Unfortunately we seemed to finish just under the qualifying mark much of the time in the sections, which even though was disappointing was still extremely encouraging on our first trip that we were on the right track! 

Many of the dancers competing from other countries had qualified through their regional competition and then to a national competition before reaching the World Championships so our almost “last minute attempt” achievements seemed all the more magnified.

There are many differences to the world championships compared to our competitions in this country. There are a range of styles ranging from rhythm to Broadway, as well as many traditional influences from the individual countries. There were sections with up to 60 dancers in a group. So many countries were surprising me in terms of their embracing of this art form, for example, I had no idea Croatia had so many tap dancers. One of my personal highlights was the fantastic opportunity for our dancers to be able to make friends with dancers from South Africa, America, Canada, France and Switzerland. Everyone was incredibly supportive and very welcoming to having the England team there at long last.

The finals of the championships took place on the last night. Unfortunately we just missed out on that final cut again but by the same token we were all excited as it gave us the opportunity to relax and enjoy the show. The opening ceremony was incredible, starting with 2 tap dancers in spotlight whilst projecting images of some of our most memorable tap dancers. It set the scene for what was to follow. A great chance to see all the dancers followed with the presentation of the nations - just like an Olympic opening ceremony with the teams emerging from around the arena, and the dancers making their way on to the main stage with their countries flag.

The finals were truly a magical evening; the Swiss team almost swept the board achieving the most medals. It was very emotional during the medal presentation to see the flags flying accompanied by the relevant national anthems. The following day we headed home with many lessons learnt. My brain was already buzzing with ideas for new choreography and despite all the hard work; I would have not missed out on giving the company the opportunity.

Many people thought I was mad to embark on a new company and get them to represent England in such a short space of time! I was incredibly proud to have a team of dancers represent our country and was proud of every one of them. So onwards now for the company, they are already in training for their busy year and will begin preparation for this year's World Championships after we have undertaken auditions to find more of our emerging tap dancers.  

This article originally appeared in the April 2009 edition of Dance Expression

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