By Raven Bluford

This was my first time ever seeing someone tap dance, so I didn’t really know what to expect and I was really anxious. Once we met Kazunori Kumagai, my anxiousness turned to anticipation because when he talked about how he got into tap dancing it really showed me that there was so much more to tap dancing than what I originally thought. I learned that tap dancing tells a story and the story can be told with more than one story-teller. The story can be told with tap dancers, trumpet players, bass players, and drum players.

The performance overall was really intense and I loved seeing how everything had a solid contribution towards each other. The background music and the lights really set the mood for the music being played and made the experience more intense, which caused me to be quite emotional. I loved seeing how attuned all of the musicians were with each other, because every time the musicians played something, Kazunori knew how to tap to it in a way that made you feel like it was rehearsed, but also made you feel like it was impossible for it to not be impromptu. If given the chance again, I would love to be able to watch another tap performance.