I confess I’ve never found tap dancing particularly appealing. I can acknowledge the artistry and hard work involved, but Fred and Ginger notwithstanding, I mostly find the genre choppy and awkward and unnecessarily noisy. My younger daughter, K, on the other hand, is a big fan. She’s also quite good at it and used to teach fairly advanced tap classes. But though I enjoyed watching her classes, I confess I never completely understood Baby Girl’s fondness for tap. Until now.

This is the thrilling, bold, beautiful tap choreography by the France-based RB Dance Company (not to be confused with the RB Dance Company from Cuba). Romain RB is the company’s mastermind, choreographer, and often lead dancer. He and his dancers are positively hypnotic, and even manage to make tap sexy to a tap critic like me!

About half way through their performance of Human (which is the video that first captivated me), the barefoot dancers lurking under the dance platforms jump up on stage and start a very interesting conversation between tap and modern dance with hints of hip hop and Irish dance thrown in. The choreography is absolutely mesmerizing.

Romain RB also teaches tap classes in Paris, so if you find yourself in that fairest of cities and you’ve got your claquettes with you (that’s the French word for tap shoes – how cute is that?), pop on in!

You can learn more about RB Dance Company on their website and on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and on Romain RB’s YouTube Channel.

Happy birthday, K! This one’s for you! XOXO