Introduction to Basic Tap Dancing Steps

Where to find free, online videos teaching or demonstrating the shuffle tap dancing step.

Basic Tap Dancing Steps

Toe Tap
Keep your heel on the floor and strike the ball and toe of your tap shoe on the floor. The "toe tap" is also known as a "toe drop" and the "ball drop".

Heel Drop
Keep your toe on the floor and strike the heel of your tap shoe on the floor.The "heel drop" is also known as a "heel tap".

Brush
A simple movement of the foot where one of the taps on the bottom of a tap shoe is brushed lightly across the floor. You can brush forward and backward. The brush is also the start of two other basic movements, the shuffle and the flap.

Step
A step is stepping on the balls of your foot fully. This makes a different sound then a tap would because of how the foot is positioned.

Shuffle
The shuffle is a simple step where you brush the foot forward and backward in rhythm making sure that the tap on the ball of your foot brushes the floor. Brush forward and brush backward.

Flap
The flap is similar to the shuffle where you brush the foot forward but then you step instead of brushing back again using the tap on the ball of your foot. Brush forward and step.

Ball Change
The ball change is a combination of two steps. Depending on the way the ball change is going you would step right then left making sure to accent the second step.

Shuffle Ball Change
This common tap dancing step combines the shuffle step with the ball change ste;.

Related Resources

Tap Dancing Steps A to Z

Tap Dancing Step Video Tutorials

Online Videos of Tap Dancing

All Tap Dancing Resources