In January of last year, Ellen Keane, tap artist and founder of Keane Sense of Rhythm, visited Sterling Dance to teach a tap masterclass. She returned to teach another class this year, March 5-7. Keane is a friend and mentor of Sterling Dance’s founder and artistic director, Renee Moe.
Ellen Keane has taught tap at the University of Minnesota and performed internationally. She has also presented multiple tap festivals featuring highly-talented tap instructors in the Twin Cities.
During this visit, Keane taught musical theater tap, tap history, and rhythm tap. She also taught “hat tricks’’ — specific hat choreography in relation to tap dance. Hat choreography includes the traditional bowler hat throws and catches. Keane also choreographed a few phrases of the tap piece for the older dancers to be performed in Sterling’s dance recital on June 29 and 30, 2024.
Students in attendance represented a wide range of ages, from the youngest dancers at two years of age to grandmothers, and Wednesday’s class was specifically for teens and adults. A student of Keane’s wrote a book about tap, which was read in part to the youngest dancers.
Lovin’ Lake County generously sponsored Ellen Keane’s classes at Sterling, and Sterling Dance would like to thank them for this “special opportunity.”
For Ava Oswald-Swenson, the class with Keane was her first time trying tap. She expressed, “I very much enjoyed learning tap and thought it was a great experience.”
“Tap with Ellen was a blast and surprisingly challenging – so good for my brain,” student Stephanie Smoot commented.
Thank you to Ellen Keane for introducing tap to new dancers and helping improve the skills of current dancers! Thank you also to Lovin’ Lake County for sponsoring this event. And thanks, Renee, for helping inspire another generation of tap dancers.
As someone once said, “Dance is a superpower: everybody has it, but only a few are brave enough to unleash it.”
