Advanced Tap Dancing: Pickup Skips Video

Pickups skips literally make it look like a tap dancer is skipping. Learn about pickup skips from a dance teacher in this free video on advanced tap dancing.

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Emily Larew is a professional dancer who has taught and choreographed for tappers all over the US. She can be found teaching tap at the Nashville Dance Center and DC Dance Factory in Nashville, TN.

Hi I'm Emily Larew and we're continuing on with our advanced tap footwork. We're now going to look at how to do some pickup skips. This is so much fun, like if you're in a routine, or if you're just wanting to go across the floor or go to the grocery store. No, I'm just kidding. I hope that you don't do this in the grocery store. Or if you do, you're going to cause everyone to laugh around you. So here we go. You're going to want to do, all you're going to do with a pickup skip is you're going to do a pullback or a pickup on one foot so it's a single, OK? And you're just going to land on the other foot as your third sound. So we've got, you're going to plie, pickup skip, that's how you start it. Then you're on your right foot, and you're going to pullback, good. Try it again. Plie...and you switch, so almost, this is kind of easier than just doing singles because you have a cheating motion, because you can push off that front foot and your back foot so you're almost starting from two feet. As you can see, I look like I'm skipping and those are why it's called a pickup skip.

Advanced Tap Dancing: Pickup Skips Video

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