Swindon tap dancer and choreographer Jo Scanlan was crowned with the fast pair of feet after smashing the record for the fastest tap dance strikes in 60 seconds live on Sky 1 on Sunday 7 June.

Jo, of Nine Elms, West Swindon improved on the 602 beats in a minute set by New Zealander Tony Adams with a super fast tap of 784 beats in the 'Boys v Girls' section of the hit show “Guinness World Records Smashed” presented by former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq and Steve Jones of T4 fame. 
 
Jo was up against one of her former pupils Joe Dodd, but she managed 98 taps more than he did. Her 784 taps in a minute means that she was striking the floor over 13 times per second.

See their YouTube tap off here.

Jo, who has been tap dancing since she was 7, qualified as a teacher at The Judith Hockaday School of Dance. She then continued her training in London achieving Fellowship status with both the ISTD and IDTA in both tap and modern dance.

Having achieved these qualifications at the youngest age possible she continued training in America where she has performed on Broadway, and since 2005 has been awarded 3 prestigious scholarships to further her studies with The Manhattan Tap Company and the University of Oklahoma.

Jo is no stranger to British TV having previously worked on shows for Sky, BBC and ITV. Her most recent appearance was last years series of The Alan Titchmarsh Show on ITV and a performance with Lionel Blair at Littlecote House.

Jo now splits her time working as a performer, choreographer and teaching at the Countries leading performing arts colleges including Italia Conti and Sylvia Young, as well as running her own tap dance company Tap Attack and managing the England Tap Team who compete at the world championships each December.   

“I get a lot of phone calls regarding different dance jobs but the call to break the record was one of the more unusual requests," said Jo. "The biggest problem with preparing for such a challenge is that I’m not sure of the exact amount of beats I’m currently doing; it’s impossible to count at the speed I dance at, so it’s a little difficult to gauge exactly where I am in my preparations.

"Because of the rehearsals for the show, I had to make sure my muscles was warm and loose for the actual bid. I really chuffedd to have broken the record by such a margin."

This article originally appeared on the Swindon Link on the 8 June 2009

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