Dads,
Daughters to Tap Temecula
Dance Company's active role for fathers
BY SHANNON STARR THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE TEMECULA
Children's
recitals are usually staged for the benefit of parents.
Except for the Temecula Dance Company's recitals.
Somehow, they manage to get parents into the act.
Along with hundreds of competitive dancers and dance
students who will showcase their talents, almost 100
father-daughter dance teams will perform in the company's
recitals over the next two weekends in a salute to
Hollywood. Also performing will be the Tapping Dads,
a group of 11 fathers in tuxedos and tap shoes dancing
to Dean Martin singing "Ain't That a Kick in the Head." The
father-daughter dance has evolved over the past six
years. It provides an opportunity for paternal involvement
that involves more than driving a car or writing a
check. "It's the hardest thing I've ever done," Bill
Stanonis said at one of the last rehearsals before
the show. Stanonis, an electrical mechanic contractor,
said his daughter Erica, 9, has been patient with
him. "She's trying to teach me, but I have three left
feet." On the athletic field, men may teach their
children how to throw a ball and swing a bat, but
on the floor of a dance studio, the fathers look to
their little girls for help in mastering the waltz
and learning to perform lifts. Girls as young as age
3 and as old as 17 take their dads aside, count out
the steps and show them one more time. Some of the
men had never had a dance lesson before getting involved.
When he was growing up, Matt Beutler said, taking
dance lessons wasn't cool. "Boys played soccer," he
said. "They didn't dance." Beutler is now getting
to fulfill a boyhood yearning to learn to dance. For
plumbing contractor David Serrano, taking part in
the annual father-daughter dance is a way to spend
one-on-one time with his daughter Alli, 9. He's also
enjoyed meeting the other dads, who come from a wide
variety of backgrounds. Serrano said the dance floor
is the great equalizer. "It doesn't matter what you
do for a living in here," Serrano said of the dance
studio. "We have a fire chief, a CPA, an airline pilot,
a corporate executive and construction workers. If
one dad can't make it, another will fill in." Since
all the men start with the same level of dance experience,
Serrano said, they don't feel stupid learning the
dance steps. This is his second year in the review.
His daughter Alli has been taking lessons for three
years. "I have a son in soccer, and this is just as
physically demanding as the soccer," he said after
the rehearsal. "I'm really sweating." Also a member
of the Tapping Dads, Serrano said that after the first
rehearsal in January, most of the men couldn't walk
the next day. They were out of breath after one run-through.
Now, after rehearsing for a solid hour, they urge
their instructor to let them try it one more time,
from the top. "This is one of my favorite classes
to teach," said dance instructor Jimmy Peters, who
choreographed both routines. The Temecula Dance Company
has approximately 700 students, 100 of whom dance
on competitive dance teams. In order to accommodate
the large number of dancers and their families, the
performances are spread over two weekends. The company
is divided into thirds, each third performing two
different shows. The Tapping Dads will perform at
all of the shows. Reach Shannon Starr at (909) 587-3136
or sstarr@pe.com DANCE RECITAL When: Show 1, 7 p.m.
today and 2 p.m. Saturday; Show 2, 7 p.m. Saturday
and 4 p.m. Sunday; Show 3, 2 and 7 p.m. July 26. Where:
Saint Jeanne De Lestonnac Center for the Performing
Arts, 32650 Avenida Lestonnac, Temecula. Tickets:
$10, available at Temecula Dance Company.
How’s this for father-child bonding? A troupe
of dads out of Temecula, California, were looking
for another way to hang out with their daughters.
So, they started taking tap-dancing lessons with
their kids. Now the group, under the direction
of Jimmy Peters, will be performing tonight, July
29, on NBC’s America’s Got Talent (9/8c).
You can see video and learn more about them at www.myspace.com/tappingdads .
Good luck to Rodney Amstutz (who sent me an e-mail
about the dads) and the rest of the tappers in
the competition and beyond!
Tapping Dads
Entertain Again This Year
BY DEIRDRE NEWMAN - STAFF WRITER THE CALIFORNIAN TEMECULA
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
TEMECULA ---- Since the golden age of Fred Astaire and Sammy
Davis Jr., male tap-dancers have mostly gone the way of
the dodo bird ---- toward extinction.
A local revival has occurred over the past few years, though.
A group of men affiliated with Temecula Dance Company -----
known tongue-in-cheek as the World Famous Tapping Dads ----
will be deftly dancing their way across a stage in eight
performances at St. Jeanne De Lestonnac School. Their performances
are included in a series of shows featuring students from
Temecula Dance Company that started Tuesday night and concludes
Sunday.
The Tapping Dads are an elite bunch
---- out of nearly 1,000 girls participating in the shows,
only 14 of their dads have the wherewithal to tap dance,
said one of them, David Serrano, a salesman whose daughter
Alli dances with the company. And they do it with the gusto
befitting a group of men participating in any sport ----
with a competitive streak, a desire to look good and a lot
of razzing on the side.
"I don't want to look
better than everyone, just the guy next to me," Serrano
joked after a rehearsal Monday evening.
Many of the dads were enticed into strapping on tap shoes
by their daughters, as was the case with Mike Ritacca, a
plant manager. His daughters, Alyssa, 16, and Annelise,
7, volunteered him.
"I had no choice," he said. "I didn't think I could do it.
The dads find they can succeed in unfamiliar territory under
the training of teacher Katie Morel and artistic director/choreographer
Jimmy Peters, although many said they were surprised at
how strenuous tap dancing can be.
"We (mostly) played sports when we were younger and dancing
was never considered one," said Nick Almond, a professional
pilot, pointing out how much he had sweat through his shirt
Monday.
The Tapping Dads
have been strutting their stuff for three years now,
Peters said. It all started when some of the girls from
the company were competing on a cruise and their dads
mentioned that they would like to participate because
they were going to be on board anyway, Peters said.
But Peters didn't
want to just shoehorn them into the show; he wanted them
to do something unique. So he gave them tap shoes.
Why tap dancing?
"They could progress more, it's more rhythmic and you can
hear the rhythms better," Peters said.
The dads take their dance number seriously, Peters said.
For nearly two months, they have held weekly practice sessions,
working on their steps for an hour or two each time. And
that pace has picked up in the last week as they prepared
for the shows.
Some of the dads have been known to practice in their offices.
Others rearrange their work schedules as the shows near
or take the week off. The group even squeezed in an extra
rehearsal Sunday because they weren't quite up to snuff,
Peters said.
The dads' physiques range from tall and lanky to short and
stocky and everything in between. Yet, the common denominator
among them as they rehearsed Monday was their intense concentration
and their beaming smiles. Between practices, they joke around
and rib each other including when one fell to the floor
in mock exhaustion as another leaned over him and pretended
to resuscitate him.
The fun the dads are having has not been lost on their wives,
said Temecula Dance Company co-owner Ed Morel.
"They say they haven't seen their husbands that happy in
an activity since they were first married and had time to
do stuff," Morel said.
That's because once kids arrive on the scene, the new dads
typically make family a priority, often sacrificing their
own interests, he added.
"The key point to this whole thing is ---- I think it brings
them a lot more joy than they experience through their job
or anything else," Morel said.
In addition, the dads say they relish the chance to share
this activity with their daughters.
"They sit at home on the couch when I practice and hoot
and squeal," said Rod Amstutz, an elementary school teacher
who has two daughters who dance.
"We're just here for our girls, so we can share this time
with them," added Ron Broussard, an automobile service manager
who also has two daughters who take classes.
During the shows, their tap-dancing number is part of the
larger Father/Daughter dance routine featuring more than
200 dads and girls. This year, the Tapping Dads are dancing
to "Mack the Knife" in their traditional tuxedoes.
When the spotlight is on them, the Tapping Dads will likely
draw an emotional reaction from the audience, even though
they aren't a novelty act anymore.
"It's the biggest hoot," Morel said. "Almost every year,
they get a standing ovation. Jimmy teaches the dads how
to play to the audience. He's taught them to perform, not
to be goofy, which I think people expected."
Contact staff writer Deirdre Newman at (951) 676-4315, Ext.
2623, or dnewman@californian.com.
TEMECULA ---- Since the golden age of Fred Astaire and Sammy
Davis Jr., male tap-dancers have mostly gone the way of
the dodo bird ---- toward extinction.