7 January 2025
Upon arrival, students were divided into groups to attend workshops in various tap styles, taken by industry experts from different backgrounds. Also, following the success of previous years, teachers’ workshops were again on the timetable.
Our lecturers; Leslie Garcia Bowman, Noemi Simon Couceiro, Adam Denman and Tara Yasmin, were happy to share their expertise and passion for this art form with all the attendees and despite the cold weather outside, the hundreds of assembled feet were burning the floor in the studios.
Following the presentation of the Workshop Awards, a lunch break gave everyone the time to catch their breath and get ready for the second part of the day.
In the afternoon, it was time for students to let their tap shoes do the talking, as they performed their dances in the Marjorie Davies Star Tap Awards.
The Marjorie Davies Star Tap Awards were first launched in February 1977 and following its great success, it became an important event in the Society's dance calendar. Marjorie Davies was part of a group of early pioneers whose artistic and creative ideas about Tap Dance hugely contributed to the development of the Tap branch within the ISTD. In addition, she was joint Chair of the Stage Branch of the ISTD (from 1957 to 1970) which later evolved into the two separate entities that we know today as the Tap and the Modern Theatre Faculties.
Junior and Senior participants performed their solo dances for adjudicators Helen Green (former Tap Committee Member, ISTD Examiner and a member of the Graded Lead Examining Team for both tap and modern), Andrew Hindley (Tap Committee Member and Dance Principal at Preston College) and Tara Yasmin (theatre and television performer of the Revised Advanced 1 Musical Theatre Dance Sequence).
A big thank you goes to Laine Theatre Arts for sponsoring places at their annual Summer School to winning participants of the morning workshops and to Dansez for sponsoring the student and teacher prizes (in the form of vouchers and credit to use online) for the Marjorie Davies Star Tap Awards this year.
A special thank you goes to our Tap Faculty Committee for their dedication in all aspects of Tap Fest, to our ISTD Event Team, chaperones and helpers for their support before and during the event.
Finally, thank you to our competitors, teachers and of course parents, for their continued support and for making the day so special.
See you next year!
- Antonio Barone
Workshop Winners
Group A – Dolly Hammerton
Group B – Jamiee Obeng
Group C – Erin Hughes
Prize - Laine Summer School Place
Marjorie Davies Star Tap Awards
Junior
| Winners | Candidate | Teacher |
| Junior Winner | Chloe Grace Torpey | Elizabeth Hill, Elizabeth Hill School of Dance & Drama |
| Junior Runner Up | Georgia Ashton | Andrea Ashton, Corraine Collins Dance Studios |
| Junior Commendations |
Lowri Dawe | Michelle Appleby, SJ Academy of Dance |
| Sophie Holloway | Michelle Appleby, SJ Academy of Dance | |
| Rose Richardson | Louise Rodgers, Blackheath School of Dance |
Senior
| Winners | Candidate | Teacher |
| Senior Winner | Samuel Phillippo-Clapp | Aaron Lissimore, The Company Performing Arts |
| Senior Runner Up | Lily Pearce | Kelly Sheen, Kelly Sheen School of Dance |
| Senior Commendations | Bella Gray-Pearson | Alison Brown, Julie Sianne Theatre Arts |
| Sophie Heron | Michaela Headford, Junior Masters Performing Arts | |
| Elliot Steel | Kerry Buckby, Kilburn School of Dance |
