Amplifying Her Passion: The Party’s Just Begun For Rolleen Myers
With the massive popularity of TV shows like “Dancing With The Stars” sweeping the country, former professional cheerleader and current tap dance teacher Rolleen Myers feels that dance is experiencing a true renaissance and aspiring dancers should appreciate being to able to see such wonderful choreography from the comfort of their couches.
Yet, she notes that tap dancing is the least represented dance form, not only on television, but often in competitions and performances. According to Myers, a big reason for this is simply the fact that tap dance routines are often improperly microphoned, which takes away from one of the most important aspects of any tap performance: the sound of the shoes striking the floor.
“When I was growing up, there wasn’t anything on TV dedicated to dance. All we had was the 'Gong Show,'” she says jokingly. “And when it comes to tap dancing, if you do see a performance, like one I saw during a talent portion of the ‘Miss America’ pageant, the stage isn’t miked right.”
Myers goes on to explain that to truly appreciate a tap dance performance, the stage has to be engineered for sound with the same precision as a movie set.
“The problem is that during most tap performances a hand microphone is placed on the floor at one end of the stage and this allows for the dancers closer to the mic to be heard louder than those in the back, and that can throw off the flow of the sound,” she laments. “Even worse, sometimes the music is turned up so loud, you can’t even hear the sounds of the shoes tapping!”
To compensate for this problem, Myers has been working with sound engineers to develop sensors in her tap shoes so that the sound of the dancing can be channeled through an amplifier.
“I am working on a system of electronic tap dancing in which I put touch sensors in my shoes--one in the toe and the other in the heel, so the sound can be hooked up to a drum brain amplifier,” she explains. “The tricky part is getting the vibration and touch calibration right.”
A tap teacher for the past nine years at the Next Step Dance Studio in Danville, CA, Meyers' interest in developing technology to enhance the sound of tap dancing supports her belief that “a blind man should be able to appreciate what you are doing.”
“With other dance styles like ballet or jazz, the audience can feel what the dancer is trying to communicate by watching the visual, physical expression of the dancer’s body and movements,” according to Myers, “Tap is more of an aural art form. It’s not just visual and that’s why it’s essential to be able to hear the different, distinct and subtle sounds of the dancer’s shoes striking the floor.”
And Myers knows what she’s talking about when it comes to comparing the nuances of different dance styles and genres. Having started dancing at the age of 6, she studied several different styles growing up including ballet, tap, jazz, modern and even hula before becoming a professional NFL cheerleader, first with the San Francisco 49ers and then as an Oakland Raiders Raiderette.
The highlight of her pro cheerleading career came when she performed in the 1994 Super Bowl with the 49ers. When she left to become a Raiderette in 2001, she took on the challenge of helping to develop and elevate their cheer program.
“We really were the ‘Bad News Bears’ of cheerleading,” recalls Myers. “Because of my experience in San Francisco, as well as my dance background, I was immediately made line captain. Back then, most of the girls on the squad weren’t true dancers and didn’t have much formal dance training.”
She goes on to explain that what they lacked in training, they made up for in heart and they worked hard with her and the choreographer on the routines. “By the time I made the decision to leave the team to pursue teaching dance full time years later, all the girls hired for the squad had a dance background and formal training.”
The decision to leave and give up performing with the team was difficult for Myers, but she explains that the experience working with the other women as captain kindled in her a teaching desire. But because practice was held at 7:00 at night (“prime teaching hours”) coupled with the fact that pro cheerleaders get paid once a year and only after the season ends, she decided to pursue teaching full time.
She started out renting space and teaching different forms of dance privately in a one-on-one setting, but recalls that growing up she always used the art form of tap dance to “tap out her frustrations.” When the call came that a tap position was open at Next Step Dance Studio she auditioned, got the job and for the past nine years she has brought her signature style to its California classroom.
“I have real rock and roll roots and always bring that background to both my tap classes and performances,” she beams. “Sometimes when I’m performing tap, I feel that I am using my body like a drummer. I’m a big fan of Rush and I can play the drum solo from the song ‘Tom Sawyer’ with my feet.”
This exciting approach to tap makes her classes not only unique, but extremely physically challenging to her students as well. An extremely active and fit person all her life, Myers enjoys the workout that comes with practicing tap dancing. Never one to just sit on the sidelines, she leads each class by example and taps along with her students during each and every session.
The physical conditioning is an important aspect of her classes, as she understands that her students have different goals and aspirations in class. No matter what their objectives, Myers knows first hand that practicing and performing dance will have long-term positive effects for her students, including increasing their self-esteem and creating a healthier mind and body.
“I have students with a wide range of reasons for taking classes,” says Myers. “The little ones just want to make noise with the shoes and have fun, some girls have dreams of performing on Broadway or even on a cruise ship and most of the adults are just looking for a good workout. Whatever their reasons, I work to give them a fun, well-rounded experience.”
Having fun is an extremely important part of her teaching style and in her life overall. “If you’re not having fun, why do it? This is true with both dance and with life.”
This approach works for Myers. Not only are her classes heavily attended, over the years many of her students and teams have been honored with first place in several competition categories at regional dance competitions.
She breaks her classes into four levels: pre-tap for toddlers, a junior tap team for students 8 years old to 11, elite group for ages 11 to 13 and the T.A.P. team (which stands for Technical Artist Percussion) for ages 12 and up.
Frustrated by the “gigantic sound systems” at most of the competitions she attends, all members of her team members are required to go to the local shoemaker and get the “Rolleen special.”
“I have my teams modify their shoes with the largest taps to help compensate for the loud music and bad mic systems,” she explains. “This helps make the tap sound a little louder. Also, my elite groups are required to do an a cappella performance so that without music, the audience can just focus on the sounds made with their feet.”
It was this frustration with inability to hear a tap performance properly that lead Myers to work to create a system in which the sound of the tap can be channeled through the actual sound system. Next year she even plans to attend the NASA sponsored “Yuri’s Night,” a celebration of science, space, art, music and technology held at the AMES Research Center in Moffett Field, CA to showcase her idea.
“I feel that this technology would bring a lot of new ears to tap and help increase both its popularity and its exposure,” Myers says optimistically. “Using touch triggers on the floor would be great as a video game for something like Wii so people can do tap without needing the shoes or the right floor. Stay tuned, we’ll see what happens this summer!”
For more information on Rolleen Myers, please contact the Next Step Dance Studio at (925) 831-0777 or nsdancestudio@sbcglobal.net