Fast Tap Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

A tap dance section danced to a quick, driving tempo, where speed, stamina and razor-clean sounds are marked together, performed as a solo, duo/trio or group.

Fast tap is the section where the tempo is high and the footwork has to keep up with it. The dancer is expected to deliver rapid shuffles, flaps, cramp rolls and wings without losing clarity, so a listener can still pick out each sound at speed. It is the most athletic of the tap sections, and the one where an unprepared dancer is exposed first: tired ankles blur the sounds and the beat starts to slip.

A round is one performance on the stage floor. The dancer or team is announced, the music starts at pace, and the adjudicator both listens and watches from the opening step to the last sound. Strong routines pace their energy, saving a clean, fast passage for the middle or the closing phrase, and use brief breaks in the footwork to let the dancer reset instead of running out of breath before the end.

On the Rise Up Dance Creative template, which this page is written from, Fast Tap runs across the full range of entries. Solos are split into three levels (Specially Restricted, Restricted and Open) across seven age divisions, from 6 and under to 17 and over. There are duo/trio sections, a parent and child section, troupe sections, and school-group sections. Solos run to three minutes and group entries to four, boys and girls compete together, no language is required, and every entry is marked out of 100 under the label Marks. The template prints no marking criteria for this item, so none are installed and the adjudicator’s own sheet applies.

Organisers run it as its own section because the demand is different from slow or straight tap: stamina and speed with accuracy, rather than control at an even pace. For a coordinator using eTalenter it is entered like any other item: register each dancer or team in the right level and age division, record the adjudicator’s mark out of 100, and placings follow within each division.

Where Fast Tap is run

In eTalenter’s data Fast Tap appears on eight Australian dance templates, from studio-style dance challenges to eisteddfod programmes. A fast tap section is a regular part of studio and eisteddfod dance programmes in Australia, and similar tap sections are run at dance festivals in the United Kingdom, North America and other countries with a studio dance tradition.

• Australia
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Canada

Key facts

• Solo, duo/trio, parent and child, troupe and school-group entries on the Rise Up Dance Creative template.
• Solos are split by level (Specially Restricted, Restricted, Open) and by age: 6 and under, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and under, and 17 and over.
• Boys and girls compete together; no language requirement.
• Time limit in the template: 3 minutes for solos, duo/trio and parent and child; 4 minutes for troupes and school groups.
• Marks out of 100 under the label Marks; the template prints no criteria, so the adjudicator’s sheet decides.
• Idea starters, not rules: a rapid time-step build, a buck-and-wing style number, a jazz-standard routine with a fast finale, or a short piece that alternates a quick run of steps with a clean break.

On eTalenter, Fast Tap is filed under Dance and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 8 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Fast Tap is most often entered as an Individual competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to 2–5 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Fast Tap

What a Fast Tap panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• Sound clarity at speed: each tap still distinct and even in volume, with no blurred, doubled or dropped sounds when the tempo rises.
• Rhythm and timing: the dancer stays with the music, neither rushing ahead nor dragging behind in the fastest passages.
• Technique: light, relaxed ankles, tidy shuffles, flaps and wings, and weight kept over the foot so steps are quick without being sloppy.
• Stamina and pacing: energy that lasts to the final sound, with the last phrase as clean as the first.
• Choreography and musicality: a routine built around accents and changes of speed, with difficulty matched to the level and age.
• Presentation and timing: finishing inside the limit with a confident performance; for groups, unison of both sound and movement.

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Fast Tap under Scoring Setup, or start from the full group dance judging criteria guide.

How to prepare for Fast Tap

How entrants and their teachers usually get Fast Tap right on the day:

• Build the routine from steps the dancer can make clean at full speed; a simpler routine played cleanly scores better than a difficult one that blurs.
• Practise each step slowly with a metronome and raise the tempo in small stages, only moving up once the sounds are even.
• Record practice with sound and play it back; fast mistakes are easy to hear and hard to see in the mirror.
• Train stamina with whole-routine run-throughs, then add a second run with only a short rest to mimic nerves and tiredness.
• Plan where the dancer can breathe: a short pause or a lighter phrase mid-routine prevents the last section collapsing.
• For duos, trios and troupes, rehearse sound unison separately from visual unison: eyes closed, listen for one set of taps rather than several.
• Rehearse in the real tap shoes on a floor like the stage floor, since a different surface changes both sound and grip.
• Check the music cut fits the time limit before the day, and rehearse the entrance and final pose so the last sound lands with the music.

Frequently asked questions

Is Fast Tap judged individually or as a team?

Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Individual entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.

What is the difference between fast tap and slow/straight tap?

Fast tap is danced at a quick tempo and rewards speed, stamina and clean sounds at pace, while slow or straight tap is steadier and rewards control. They are marked as separate sections.

How long is a Fast Tap routine?

On the Rise Up Dance Creative template solos, duo/trio and parent and child entries run to three minutes, and troupe and school-group entries to four.

Is Fast Tap judged individually or as a team?

Solos are judged individually. Duo/trio, parent and child, troupe and school-group entries are judged as one performance and ranked within their own division.

Are the judging criteria printed for this item?

No. The template prints no criteria for it, so the adjudicator’s own sheet is used and eTalenter records a single mark out of 100.

Want the full judging picture? Read the full group dance judging criteria guide, or browse every dance competition item.