Tufts Blogs

In light of the in-person tap filming being cancelled, the Tufts Tap Ensemble turned to creating our show a different way—with Davinci Resolve. *Insert me shuddering at the thought of technology. As a very non-techy person, this was an extremely difficult process for me. 

Each dancer was instructed to take different video shots of their feet and send them to their choreographers. For example, I asked my group to send me one vertical video of their full bodies, and one horizontal video of just their feet. This was a challenge within itself because each of us had to find a quiet place to film in our dorms or homes.

After the choreographers got each dancer's videos, the real fun began. I opened Davinci Resolve in dread last Saturday, and slowly dragged each video into the work area. Then, I had to individually line up each track to make sure the taps matched the music, cut the tracks to switch from feet to body and vice versa, and position each video so that everyone could be seen “in formation.” Over 9 hours later, I produced a video.

Next, our tap presidents put the dances together with short interviews of the choreographers before each dance. I got to introduce my dance, “Footloose,” a dance I chose because in the movie Footloose, the characters are not allowed to dance, and this year at Tufts, we are not allowed to dance together. What I learned though, is that as long as we still get to dance, there’s no losing with Tufts Tap.

Our PR team produced a lovely promo picture by putting pictures of all of us in a grid as if we were Zooming. This promo picture was featured as the cover photo for the FaceBook event, and those of us who have Instagram shared it on our stories. PR also put together our traditional slideshow with pictures and jokes about all of the tappers, which was included in our show!

The show, TAPidemic, was streamed to our YouTube at 2 p.m., on Sunday, December 6, and we got to interact with audience members via the YouTube Live chat. The Tap Ensemble zoomed each other as we watched it, and we were able to Zoom chat as well. Each dance is now on the Tufts Tap YouTube channel, for viewers like you to enjoy!

While the show was not ideal, I am really glad that we got to put something together that reflected all of the hard work we put into this semester. My advice this week is to look for ways to make the most of things this year. Yes, we could not have an in-person show; however, we still got to mimic all of the components—the promo, the performance, the audience, etc. Think of the thing you miss most from normal life, and try your best to think of what components you can still salvage. Then, make it happen.