We were lucky to catch up with Victoria Moore recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Victoria thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
I have never been very keen on taking big risks, especially financial risks. I like to make sure I’ve looked at whatever the situation is from every angle possible, assessing where the liabilities lie, look at all the pros and cons, and then base my decision on those factors.
Being in the arts can be a very risky proposition financially; always looking for your next show, next audition, and next paycheck. I had spent my whole life honing my craft, so I trusted and believed in my talent and ability to make a living in the arts. And I did, until COVID hit that is.
When the world shut down I had a decision to make; continue beating up my body dancing and performing, or create a business that still keeps me in the creative aspect of the arts I love, while making a difference and being the difference in others lives.
Creating a business from scratch, not knowing if it would be successful was definitely a scary proposition for me. I took it one action item at a time, trusting that if I didn’t know how to do something that I would simply figure it out. I ended up writing a book, submitting book proposals to publishers, landing a publishing deal, designing and creating the tap mittens I now use and sell, created an online course and certification so that other dance educators could adapt their instruction to include dance inclusion, and single handedly produced an online video series for those that want to take a Tap for All™ class, but are not geographically close to where I am.
With each action item I accomplished it gave me the confidence to tackle the next one. I kept telling myself, what’s the worst that can happen? All entrepreneurs stumble here and there, but I knew that if ran into a roadblock that was the wrong path to go down. By following the breadcrumbs I have launched a business I am proud of, and am staying true to my mission statement: Shifting the perspective of what dance is, what a dancer looks like, and what it means to dance.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
As a dancer, like any athlete, your professional career is brief compared to other industries. The physical demand of being an athlete is very tough at times, not only physically but also emotionally. Earning a living as a creative can also be an ongoing challenge. Many in the dance industry struggle just to pay their bills month to month. So, how do you find the right balance between doing what you know you were meant to do, and paying your bills?
I made good money straight out of college at the age of 20 with landing back to back Broadway shows. For most of my twenties, making money as a professional dancer was not a worry or concern. But as any athlete quickly discovers, as the body sustains more and more injuries, both in overuse and accidents, it becomes more and more difficult to maintain the level of physical excellence you once had.
Coming to the realization that your performance career is quickly coming to a close is a hard pill to swallow. I’ve had many people ask me if I miss performing, and is it difficult watching others up on stage doing what I spent my entire life cultivating and nurturing? The answer for me to that question is in letting go with grace and gratitude for having had the privilege to experience what so many never get the chance to, knowing it was both an honor, a gift, one that I worked incredibly hard for, and a blessing.
Once that path in my career was in my rear view mirror, I knew the next road I had to head down was to inspire, educate, and support the next generation of dancers and performers. But, teaching for local dance studios has always been considered part time work, so there were no health benefits, no 401K’s, and no true living wage. If you want to make decent money in the dance industry you seek out work in the dance convention and dance competition arena. As a master tap instructor, with a deep knowledge base in tap history, I was sought after as a teacher and competition judge.
The following decade was good financially, that is until COVID hit and the world shut down. I went from flying out most weekends of the year to mentor, educate, and give my all to hundreds of the next crop of triple threats, to… zero. Large gatherings were not going to resume for a long time. So, it was time to take the biggest risk of my life to date. I set out to write a book on inclusion in dance, find a publisher, create a program that other dance educators could replicate once the world opened up again, and make a product for my business that did not exist.
This pivot for me was inspired by a dance performance back in 2017, where I saw a lovely dancer with cerebral palsy shine like a star in the sky. She took those of us in the audience on a journey through dance that left us speechless in our theater seats. In that moment I realized that this talented dancer would never be able to experience the joy, fun, and creative expression of tap dancing all because she was unable to stand unassisted. This is when I began piecing together what would become Tap for All™. Before COVID convention teaching and judging was still where my bread and butter was coming from, so I didn’t have to take that leap, that risk of the unknown. Creating something from nothing is what entrepreneurs do, and I was leaping into uncharted waters. Give me a piece of music and I can literally see the choreography in my mind, but becoming an entrepreneur was a whole other scary animal.
When COVID hit I was forced, like many others, to reevaluate my life; both personally and professionally. In May of 2020, only two months after COVID hit, I had undergone a hip revision for a hip replacement that had been done only three years prior. All of the titanium holding together my hip, back, and neck brought me to the stark realization that continuing to beat up my body was no longer an option for me, and that it was time take that leap of faith, trust in myself, my mission, and my goal of shifting the perspective of what dance is, what a dancer looks like, and what it means to dance. It was time to give birth to Tap for All™, and time to go all in, to make my idea a financially viable reality.
The first step was to finish my book. I began that journey with my master tap dance instructor mother, but when she passed away suddenly in 2018 it took until COVID hit for me to take on finishing what we had delighted in creating together. Once I was near completion I set out to find a book publisher. The subject matter of inclusion in dance, and taking the most exclusive dance form there is and transforming it into something that can give enormous benefits to those with Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s, and so many other conditions caught the attention of the publishers I submitted proposals to. McFarland Publishing believed in me and my manuscript and offered me a contract. I literally cried when their email hit my inbox. I knew my mother was also crying heavenly happy tears too.
The next thing I set out to figure out was how to make the tap mittens I designed. I had all the material since I had spent two years unsuccessfully trying to find someone else to make them for me. I also had a great sewing machine, which I hadn’t touch in years. Since COVID provided me with endless time on my hands, I pulled out the sewing machines manual and dove in to making my product. With every pass the tap mittens improved, and today they are being utilized by dance instructors and recreational therapists to help our veterans in four VA health centers from Puerto Rico to Fresno, California, with more being added monthly. I am over the moon that all the hard work I put in to create a product that didn’t exist is so beneficial to seniors and those with disabilities. By taking the taps off the tap shoes, and putting them onto tap mittens, those who cannot stand, or are simply unsteady enough to balance while standing, can reap all the cognitive, physical, and emotional benefits that tap dancing has to offer.
Dance has been studied since the early 2000’s for its effects cognitively on the brain, and because of dances ability to challenge the brain via learning steps and choreography, new neural pathways are created. Tap especially reigns supreme in this due to requiring the dancer to not only learn the steps, but also simultaneously play an instrument at the same time.
I am only one person, one dance educator. If I were to be true to my mission I needed to toss that pebble into the proverbial pond. With Tap for All™ I had created a business where 1) I was earning 2-3 times my local area dance classes paid, 2) I was no longer beating up my body, and 3) I was running my own business and not working for anyone else, giving me control of my destiny. In order to expand the reach of my Tap for All™ program, I created an online course and certification for dance instructors to replicate what I am doing where they live. I see so many posts in dance groups on social media from instructors that struggle with not earning a living wage, or having issues with their studio owner and parents, or feeling so burnt out that they are considering quitting a profession that once gave them so much joy. To all of those dance instructors I say, maybe it’s time to look at a different way to still do what you love, and help and inspire two populations that have been left out of the dance equation – those with disabilities and seniors.
In my opinion the dance world is way behind other businesses when it comes to inclusion, equity, and diversity, and that is due to the perception of what a dancer is supposed to look like, and the perceived accessibility that a dancer should have. Dance belongs to everyone, and everyone can benefit from dance. Once we take away the fear surrounding teaching a dancer with disabilities, we begin to open the door to dance for every dancer. That is why I created my Tap for All™ Course and Certification.
My Be The Difference / Make The Difference campaign is my way of sharing my message of how one person can make a difference in this world, and be the difference in someone else’s life. We rise by lifting others.
I was blessed with the talent of dance, and as much as I have loved giving my expertise and knowledge to the next generation, I know without a doubt that Tap for Al™l is going to make an even bigger impact for so many more people. When I can give someone with Parkinson’s a brief respite from their tremors by having them engage in a hand tap combination, or I see those with dementia remember something from the previous class, I know that not only am I helping them, but the families that love them.
Chair tap dancing has been around for decades. Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor’s famous chair tap dance performed on Gene’s 1959 television special proves that. Look it up on YouTube if you want a treat! By taking that concept to another level, focusing on all the ways it can help those with Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s, cerebral palsy, down’s syndrome, or those recovering from a stroke, tap dancing takes on a whole new meaning, and a whole new way of thinking about dance.
Some work to live, I live to do the work I do. I wrote my book, Tap Dance for All – Adapting Instruction for Disability and Mobility Impairment, for other dance educators to open their hearts and minds to inclusive and accessible dance. I created my tap mittens and tap boards so that if you want tap dance, tap dance wants you. I designed my Tap for All™ Course and Certification for those that want to replicate my teaching business for themselves. And lastly, I produced my online Tap for All™ video series for anyone who wants a class from me but can’t get to me.
I have many other ideas percolating on how to create a more accessible, inclusive, equitable, and diverse dance world. Stay tuned, I am just getting started!
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
In 2017, when I had the realization of how exclusive the dance world was, I looked back on my dance career. When I started taking dance at 4 years old, I never saw a dancer with a disability. When I auditioned for my first Broadway show at the age of 20, there was not one dancer with a disability auditioning. The same was true for my second Broadway show audition. When I went back to teaching dance both in studios and dance conventions, never did I teach a dancer with a disability. When I judged dance competitions for the decade before COVID, never did I judge a dance performed by a dancer with a disability.
It was clear to me that the door to dance for the disability community was closed. It was also clear to me that I wanted to help facilitate the change that needed to happen. Everything I have done, as it relates to dance, since that moment in 2017 has been to create a more inclusive, equitable, accessible, and diverse dance world. A world in which all dancers, nondisabled and disabled alike, are welcome in dance spaces. Where dancers with disabilities are given the same choreography as nondisabled dancers, and given the freedom to express those moves with whatever access they have to their bodies. Where teachers don’t simply stick the dancer with a disability in the back corner because they don’t have the knowledge base to teach that type of student. And finally, where the lack of knowledge and fear forces studio owners to only accept nondisabled dancers into their business.
I hear studio owners all the time say that they don’t have students with disabilities because they just don’t come to their studio. My reply to that is that they don’t come because they don’t know that they are welcome. It’s the same situation as before local buses were disability accessible. For the bus industry the argument was that they never saw anyone with a disability waiting for a bus. Well, that was because the disability community knew that buses were not accessible for them. Why would they wait at a bus stop when they can’t get on and use it to get them where they want to go? Once buses were made accessible the disability community began using them as a means to travel like everyone else.
Like the quote from the Kevin Costner movie Field of Dreams states; “If you build it they will come.” The same is true for dance studios, dance conventions, and dance competitions. If you make it accessible, and you treat the dancers with disabilities with the same respect, kindness, and compassion as you do nondisabled dancers, they will feel welcome and they will begin patronizing your businesses. Its a win-win for everyone. Plus, let’s remember that a dancer with a disability’s money spends the same as a dancer without a disability’s money. Open up your studio, convention, and competition to the disability community, and open up more avenues of revenue for your business. Like I said, it’s a win-win for everyone!
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
My answer today is definitely different than the answer I would have given you five or six years ago. Back then I would have said that inspiring and educating the next generation of dancers in their pursuit of their dance dreams. Now, the most rewarding aspect of what I do is to see how dance, when made available to seniors and those with disabilities, can give those who never thought they would or could tap dance the opportunity to experience the joy, fun, and immeasurable benefits that dance has to offer.
The first time I taught my Tap for All™ class to a woman with Parkinson’s I was amazed. I had written about it in my book, but to witness it first hand was astounding. This woman came into class with tremors in her arms and legs. As we began the first little combination with music I noticed that her tremors completely stopped. As soon as we finished the combination the tremors returned. The tap and music was like turning on and off a light switch to her tremors, and this continued throughout the entire class. As I was leaving I saw her in the hallway. With tears in her eyes said to me, “I need this class so badly.” Well, this brought tears to my eyes! I told her that all she had to do when her tremors became too much for her was to go to her room, put on some music, sit down, and do any step she could remember from today, and if she couldn’t remember any to just make it up.
To be able to give relief to someone suffering, even if that relief is brief and temporary, is so rewarding and fills me with such gratitude for the gift of dance that I’ve been blessed with.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.victoriamooretap.com/
- Instagram: @victoriamooretapofficial / @tapdanceforall
- Facebook: Victoria Moore Tap Dance
- Linkedin: Victoria Moore
- Twitter: @VMoore_Tap / @tapdanceforall