Emma Bolduc

COM 201

Prof. Rand

12-12-2016

Shanna

The brightness of the lights is blinding and makes you sweat. The divots in the

floorboards throw off your step as you walk onstage and look out over the audience, making you

question everything you are about to do. Your hearing is heightened to that of a bats as you wait

for the music to begin. Your breath is slow and deep, but your heart is racing a mile a minute. As

you begin to hear the familiar tune, your feet coincide to the beat as they attempt to blend all of

the various instruments and voices into the coherent sound of the taps on the bottom of the shoes.

A paradiddle here, a riffle there, a double-pickup-shuffle there. This is what tap dancing

feels like to Shanna Bonanno.

Ive known Shanna since we were placed into our first tap class together when I was 12

and she was 10. Even then she was a perfectionist. She would get frustrated if she could not get

the step being taught on the first try, if she did the wrong step or even if she missed a single

sound. Ive even witnessed her punch a wall after she got offstage because she knew she could

have danced better. Ive grown up with her, watching her mature, improve in her dancing and set

higher goals for herself. This year her goal was to become the world tap champion at the mere

age of seventeen.
 Shanna is a tall high school girl from Methuen, Massachusetts with Snow White like hair

and a china doll complexion. She is an introverted extrovert and takes a while to find her

comfort with acquaintances and friends. With long arms and legs, she moves with an odd grace

the clear build of a dancer. Onstage, she is everything she is not in person. She is sassy,

outgoing, wild. She goes for it.

This year, Shanna competed for her final time at the World Tap Championships in Riesa,

Germany the week after Thanksgiving. Come next fall, Shanna plans to take a leave from the

intense tap dancing world and pursue career interests in college. The World Championships, or

the Olympics of tap dance, as she called it, features nearly 40 countries from around the world

competing in three divisions (children, junior, and adult) with seven categories (female solo,

male solo, duo, trio, small group, formation, and battle of the feet.) Shanna will travel to

Germany to compete in a formation, small group, trio, the battle of the feet and, for the first time,

a female solo in the adult category, the most prestigious and most difficult category of the

championships. The adult category usually has teachers competing in it, so Ill be competing

against professionals as a seventeen-year-old.

I traveled to Germany myself back in 2013 to compete at the championships with

Shanna. The process of choosing which dances will have the chance to represent the United

States in Germany is a long and frustrating one. Those that wish to compete must send in videos

of all of the dances they would like considered for placement. Each country has a select board of

judges that watch each of the dances and choose which will have the privilege to represent. This

is done for each category. Typically, this goes on for a week. By the end of the week, the judges

must have narrowed down however many dances they were considering to three or less for each

of the seven categories in all three divisions. This usually works without a problem; however,
this year, Shanna informed me there were some disagreements when it came to choosing the

female representatives for the adult solo category. The judges had to narrow from thirty female

soloists down to just three. In the first day they watched all the solos and discussed, then cut half

of them. They watched the remaining solos again and, again, cut half. Ultimately, Shannas solo

was one of the three chosen along with with her best friend, Daphne. Shannas sister, Lauryn,

was given the alternative spot (4th).

Tap dancing runs in the family. Shanna found her love of tap dancing through her older

sister, Carly. Like most three year olds, Shanna was put in a dance class by her mom, but her

passion for the art form began watching her older sister dance and share her wisdom with her.

Carly and Shanna have had the privilege to compete alongside each other in Germany before, but

now that Carly is in college, she will not have the chance to travel to the championships with her.

Thankfully, the International Dance Organization set up a livestream for those who did not have

the championships broadcasted on TV for their country. I was up at 4 a.m. each day that week

to watch it, says Carly. Prior to Shannas departure, I asked Carly what she saw that was

different about Shannas mindset this time around. She wants to win. The first time we went to

Germany we didnt really know what it was so we didnt really expect anything out of it. As the

years progressed and Shanna got older she became more persistent on going for the gold. Now

that its her last time going she is more determined than ever.

Shanna traveled to the championships for the first time back in 2010 with her sisters

Carly and Lauryn and came home with three gold medals. At the time I didnt have a mindset

because I was a child. It was more about having fun. But, in 2013, since I had previously won

gold, my mindset was to win again, but I wasnt extremely serious because I didnt expect the

competition to increasingly get more difficult to win as you got older. That year, Shanna did not
receive any golds. Her trio and large group placed 2nd while her small group did not even place.

Determined as ever, Shanna and her trio mates returned in 2014 with their minds set on winning

the gold and reclaiming their title. They did. Since it was only our trio competing we really

wanted to win. That was our only reason for going that year.

While Germany was certainly a highlight of this tappers life, it was not the only one.

Throughout her tapping career, Shanna has performed alongside some of the best tappers such as

Anthony Morgerato, Sarah Reich and the Syncopated Ladies, Aaron Tolson, Derrick Grant and

more in showcases such as Tap United and the DC Tap fest. She has taken masterclasses with

professionals all over the world including Chicagos Human Rhythm Project, Tap into

Freedoms intensive, Taps Alive, and the Tap Music Project. Along with this impressive resume,

Shanna has performed at some incredible venues with her friends at her dance studio.We have

opened for the Rockettes at their Christmas Spectacular and performed at the Fred and Adele

Astaire Awards on Broadway in New York City.

All these opportunities do not come without an unspoken stressor. The pressure I feel at

my studio is that I need to be the best. My classmates see that I am at the better end for tap so I

feel that they expect me to always remember the choreography and that I should be the one to get

the hardest steps on the first try. Leading up to Germany, Shanna trained weekends from 8 a.m.

until 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. With these additional rehearsals, she also had dance classes

through her studio Mondays through Fridays until 9 p.m. to prepare for their upcoming

competitive season beginning in February. With a rehearsal schedule like this along with

schoolwork and applying to colleges, its a wonder how she has managed to have a social life.

When she is not at dance, Shanna tries to hang out with school friends when she has the chance.

She invites them to performances and tries to explain what it is she does that makes her so busy.
I explain it as an art form. I describe myself as being both a musician and dancer. A tap dancer

adds a visual and extra sound to a song.

Sometimes, however, she states her friends do not understand why she cant skip

practice and take the night off. The only thing I find bitter to dancing is that it is hard to explain

to people and I don't feel they understand what it actually is I do. It's something you can't

understand unless you actually experience it. For this reason, she finds comfort in seeing her

dance friends and makes the best out of the free time she has with them between rehearsals.

However, despite everything she has had to give up to pursue her love of tap dancing,

Shanna sees the benefit. Throughout her career she has made international friends competing at

Germany and partaking in international dance festivals. She has also had the chance to dance

alongside some of the greatest tap dancers currently in the world and build up her resume for

dance opportunities as well as college applications. She makes what she does look simple and

her sheer love for the art form is the reason she has given up so many other opportunities in the

past like homecoming weekends, parties, vacations and so on. To her, tap dancing is the place

she finds comfort. She gets excited to learn and master more steps and tricks from her teachers,

particularly her mentor Krissy Carberry. [Krissy] allows me to be myself and become my own

tap dancer. This way I am always learning and figuring out who I am as a person and a dancer.

Ultimately at the World Tap Championships this year, Shanna Finished 4th in her solo out

of thirty dancers in the female adult category and was very happy. She strived to do her best, not

the best and she feels as though she did. Shanna also placed 4th in her production, 4th in her trio,

3rd in battle of the feet, and 2nd in her small group, all of which were in the extremely difficult

and competitive adult category. She brought home a total of 2 medals and a lot of happy
memories. Even though I didn't come home with a gold I don't feel too upset. Maybe a little, but

a 16-30-year-old category is tough. I have no regrets for the way I danced.

As Shanna looks to head off to college next year and leave behind her dance studio and

dance friends, those around her know she has made a mark on the tap community. A friend from

her dance studio says, Shannas determination, persistence, and hard work has always been

something Ive admired and I cant wait to see what else she does with that in the future.

Shanna has always felt that in the tap world you need to be prepared to impress. If you are

noticed by a teacher for one step in one class then that automatically makes them remember you.

Being recognized is a big part of dance and dancers always feel the pressure of not only being

noticed but remembered. Even though she will be lessening her time in the tap dance

community next year, she will certainly be remembered. Not necessarily for the amount of

medals she won, but for her sheer love, dedication, and respect for the art form.