Aaron Tolson Teaches a Rudiments Exercise
September 3, 2024

This fall, one of Aaron Tolson’s lifelong dreams will come true—but he’s been reluctant to share the news. “It’s such an honor, and it’s so humbling, that it’s hard for me to say,” he says. “There was a part of my life when I wanted everyone to know my name, and now there’s a program named after me and I’m embarrassed to say it.”

After 11 years as an associate professor at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where he taught all levels of tap, the New Hampshire native is assuming a new role as director of dance at the Aaron Tolson Institute of Dance at Saint Anselm College.

The institute held its inaugural event on National Tap Dance Day, May 25, with a showcase that featured youth ensembles, professional companies, soloists, adult troupes, and other tap dancers from New England and beyond.

It was the kind of event Tolson hopes to produce frequently at the private liberal arts college, which will now offer a major and minor in dance, as well as a partnership with Broadway Dance Center. “I’m looking to build strong young dancers and support them in their career choice of dance,” he says.

With four students currently on Broadway, not to mention his own experience on the Great White Way in Riverdance, Tolson certainly knows what it takes to train skilled performers. He directs a pre-professional tap company, Speaking in Taps, and has produced numerous intensives, competitions, and performances, including the acclaimed show Imagine Tap!, co-created in 2006 with business partner Derick K. Grant.

Of all his projects, Tolson, 49, says his favorites are Imagine Tap—a show he co-created, produced, and danced in with Derick Grant, and Cinnamon Tolson Crunch, the name of the trio he forms onstage with daughters Charlotte, 11, and Alexis, 8.

“I always promised myself that any effort I put into my own students, I would double that on my own children,” he says. “They get their fair share of private lessons. They’re doing their very best to be excellent tap dancers.”

Tolson’s own journey as a student is ongoing, too. “I’ve been tap dancing for all these years and I still want to get good at it,” he says. “Constantly striving for improvement allows me to improve my students at the same time.”

Photo by Bernardo Nogueira, courtesy Tolson.

Some students, like Gracie Dunn of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, have even inspired the name of a new step. Recently, Tolson has been teaching “The Gracie,” an intricate pattern of heels and toes that tests speed, clarity, and timing on both the right and left sides.

“I like to be an equal opportunist, from right foot to left,” Tolson jokes. “None of us are equally talented on both feet, but we try, and this exercise can help you do that.”

The step has three sections: a pattern danced in straight time, the same pattern performed in swing time, and a final pattern with a triplet rhythm.

Step by Step 

1. Straight pattern
Begin with your weight on your left leg. Initially, your left foot will do only heel drops.

Phrase 1: Press your right toe into the floor (1), drop the left heel (&), then alternate the right heel and left heel (2&). Repeat this pattern starting with the right toe drop (3), which twists away from your body as if in a crawl pattern. Drop the left heel, right heel, then left heel again (&4&).

Phrase 2: Add a toe drop on the right (5) to bring that foot back to a parallel position, then drop your left heel (&), which shifts your weight onto the supporting leg. Paddle [also known as a paradiddle] with your right foot: dig, spank [brush back], press, heel drop (6&7&). Your weight is now on your right side. Finish the phrase with a scuffle—dig + spank, which are also the first two sounds of a paddle—on the left foot (8&).


Phrase 3: Reverse the pattern. The right leg is now the supporting leg.

Phrase 4: The step finishes with an extension of the original sequence that serves as the break. Repeat the first phrase 3 times consecutively. On the second and third iterations, the first sound becomes a toe drop. Complete the step with Phrase 2.

You may prefer to count this pattern in 16th notes (1e&a2e&a…) rather than 8th notes. Repeat the pattern on both sides, but the supporting foot now does toe drops during Phrase 1 instead of heel drops.

2. Swing pattern

The steps remain the same, but the rhythm swings. As before, do it on both sides, then substitute the initial heel drops for toe drops. For example:


3. Triplet pattern

The footwork is similar, but the break is different. You’ll now do phrases 1 and 2 on the right and left sides, but in a triplet rhythm. Do phrase 1 again on the right side, ending on the count of 5. The end of the phrase swings. Drop your left and right heels (a6), then your left heel and right toe (a7), and finally your left heel again followed by a step on the right foot (a8), which shifts your weight to that leg.

Like its predecessors, this step can be done on both sides with either heel drops or toe drops on the supporting leg.

“This step is becoming a standard warm-up of mine,” says Tolson. “If you count it slow, it’s going to help your timing. If you do it fast, clarity will be a challenge.”