Tap Dancer Drawing - Keep on Your Toes

I am currently working on two new tap dancing pieces - a charcoal which I showed the start of here and a new watercolor. I am nearly finished the charcaol and am getting excited to share it. While thinking about that, I realized that I never posted my last drawing. Today seemed like a good day to remedy that oversight.

Keep on Your Toes

14"x18" charcoal on paper

copyright 2009 Stacy L. Rowan

available at the William Ris Gallery

This is my fifth drawing in my tap dancing series and the first one that I did in charcoal. (If you've missed the other drawings in the series, click the link above or type "tap" in the Blogger search bar on the upper left and the search results will show you all the tap related posts.)

Again my model for my reference photo was one of the lovely ladies of the Tap Ties company. In fact with this drawing I reached the milestone of having drawn all four pairs of feet. Surprisingly, they knew whose feet were in each drawing without me telling them!

While dancing, the tap dancer needs to keep on her toes - figuratively speaking. It is like participating in a fast moving discussion. She has to be ready for quick movements and sudden weight changes. Hesitation will be heard. Achieving a crisp sound requires everyone in the group to be perfectly synchronized. The dancer needs to know if the step requires her to keep her weight on her toes, like the cramp roll shown here, to keep the weight on her heels, say for toe taps, or to keep her weight right in the middle. Concentration, agility and grace are required to make the performance look effortless.

If you are interested, this drawing is being offered for sale through the William Ris Gallery of Stone Harbor. In fact I am very pleased to announce that they have recently added images of my tap drawings to their website.