🎶 Meet Tom Fletcher: An Influence in the Tap Dancing Community

I work as a tap teacher at studios across South Florida, with permanent classes at the Beach Community Center in Fort Lauderdale and the Emma Lou Olson Civic Center in Pompano Beach. I love syncopation, putting basics into various rhythms, and adding subtle variations. I focus on learnable fundamentals at all levels. Tap is a fun and joyful form of self-expression – it also keeps us mentally flexible over time. My inspirations are Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire.

I began teaching tap in Hamburg, Germany in 1984 when I founded the dance and musical school "Die Roten Schuhe" (The Red Shoes). I moved to Berlin in 1994 to take over the Ballettcentrum & Musicalschule and serve as adjudicator with the IDO (International Dance Organization), representing Germany. Over the following 20 years I taught at the University of the Arts (Berlin), the Leipzig University of Music and Dance, and the Gret Palucca School in Dresden, and choreographed productions including Chicago, West Side Story, Gigi, Kiss Me Kate, Hair, and many more.

My performing career took me from the Metropolitan Opera House (ballet in Prince Igor) and Broadway's "Indians" to the Paris Revue "Zizie, je t'aime" (choreography: Roland Petit), the Alcazar de Paris, the Freeport Casino in the Bahamas, and television work in Paris with Carolyn Carlson's modern dance group.

I started dancing at 9 in suburban NJ: tap first, then modern jazz and exhibition ballroom. In college I studied flamenco in Spain, and during graduate school trained at conservatories across the Bay Area and later in New York.

I'd love for you to join me in class… and Follow me on Instagram for tap videos and more!