Sydney tap dancer, Aaron Noble, shares his inspiration behind his lockdown compilation video to connect with Tap dancers from around Australia & New Zealand when we could not all be in the same place to share our love of the art form.
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I was disappointed that the tap fam couldn’t all come together in person in 2020 with border closures and lockdowns. I’ve been filming my choreography for social media for a while now and it occurred to me that if a group of us filmed a short clip, then they could be edited together as one. Even though we’d still be spread across the country, we’d have something to help us feel a little closer. Someone should organise something like that, I thought. Eventually, instead of waiting for a chance that someone else had the same thought, I wondered why that person couldn’t be me. I messaged a few friends and asked what they thought. After their unconditional positive responses, I started planning in earnest and asked more people. The responses from the tap community was overwhelming.
I split the song into 16-count sections and divided them between all the tap dancers I had reached out to. After that, it was mostly waiting for everyone to send their clips and editing them together as they came in. Apart from the music and some guidelines to make editing a little easier, I didn’t have any input in what they sent through. The choreography and framing were all up to them. As I wanted this to be a true collaborative effort and not compromise the uniqueness of everyone’s performance and how they express themselves.
Tap dance can cross borders, even when we can’t cross them ourselves.
Dedicated to doing what we can to leave the isolation of 2020 behind and making 2021 a whole lot better together.