murmur from US

today, i went to a tap dance class which is held by AIT in Taichung library.
(note: AIT means American Institute in Taiwan, 美國在臺協會)

Almost 15 to 20 person attended this class and half of them are small children.
We have one teacher and one translator,who is teacher's wife, in our class.
By the way, teacher's wife is Taiwanese.

The teacher of this tap dance class is Jeremy Kiesman.
He had been one of the member of "tap dogs" which is a tap dance group from Australia.
As the video shows us, the group members dance in a place which looks like a construction site.
For example, they decorate the stage with a steel bar, water pit, fire loop and so on.



But now he lives in Taiwan, and promotes tap dance to normal people.
Also, he performs tap dance in the group "Magic of the Dance" now.

In the beginning of the class, the teacher said that tap dance is really special dance which combines vision and hearing.
Then, he introduced about the history of American tap dance.
And he show us what's the difference between American tap dance and Irish one.
Along the time line, he demonstrated four or five kinds of American tap dance at different period.

A lot of  Irish people ran away from the famine in Ireland and went to American at late 18th.
At the same time, the president Lincoln emancipated African slaves.
Two kinds of people who both have abundant music and dance cultures have spark when they lived together.
After two or three generations, the American tap dance occurred!