When Nicholas Shamp started tap dancing at UConn as a sophomore in 2012, UConn Tap Club and UConn Tap did not exist. However, there was a non-competitive club that was connected to the UConn Tap Team. The club, which didn’t have a formal name, had a single number in the Tap Team showcase and only had about six members. 

 

During Shamp’s first showcase, the leader of the non-competitive group announced that they were graduating and that Tap Team wanted to focus more on its competing members. In order for a noncompetitive club to exist going forward, someone needed to become president.  Everyone declined the position until the offer came to Shamp. 

 

“Eventually it landed on me last and I said sure, not knowing what I was getting myself into,” Shamp said. “So officially I became the president of a club, without even knowing what that meant. The next year, I got an email to bring my club to the involvement fair, once again not knowing what that meant, and it picked up from there.” 

 

Shamp said Tap Club needed to exist so that UConn dancers who enjoyed recreational tap and did not want to deal with the stress of competitive tap could have a place to express their love.  The first step to create this formal club was tabling at the involvement fair. The fair could have been a disaster if Casey Timmerman didn’t jump in. 

 

Timmerman, who had never tap danced before in her life, said she didn’t think she would join a tap dancing group in college. However, she knew she had to step in when she saw her friend, Nick, standing by himself at the involvement fair. 

 

“Every club had a booth and was recruiting members,” Timmerman said. “I was on my way to class and cut through it, eyeballing the groups. And guess who I see. My friend, the loveable Nick Shamp.” 

 

Timmerman said she recalled a conversation with Shamp that was similar to this:  

 

Timmerman: "Oh, has anyone signed up?"

Shamp: "No..."

Timmerman: "Do you even have a sign up list?"

 

She said this moment felt like the beginning of a sitcom. 

 

“Cue laugh track as I roll my eyes at him and whip out a binder and notebook,” Timmerman said. “And in that moment, Tap Club was reborn.”  

 

Shamp and Timmerman reached out to their fellow friend, Kristen Greenwood, to help form the new and improved Tap Club. Similar to Timmerman, Greenwood said she had never tap danced before college. She had watched Shamp perform with Tap Team’s small group and wanted to learn from her friend. 

 

“It was a lot because it was getting built from the ground up, but we, as a trio, were able to lean on each other to get the job done,” Greenwood said. “ Lots of tears, laughs and a few sleepless nights, but nothing we couldn’t handle.” 

 

The beginning of Tap Club meetings involved a lot of hard work to get a new organization off the ground, Timmerman said. 

 

“Tap Club started a little bit of a mess. Nick inherited it at the end of sophomore year, and well... There I was junior year…” she said. “The first year, we organized the meetings to have some semblance of structure. We made email lists. We took attendance. We taught people dances, and Kristen and I fumbled through a lot of flap-ball-changes. We got shirts, we tried to be provocative, until someone with sense told us we can't just do that, and we had a lot of fun.” 

 

The basic structure of meetings had Shamp leading warm-ups and choreographing numbers for the whole group to learn. This resembles Tap Club’s current fall semester meetings. 

 

“As time went on, we started having members choreograph something for the week, and when there was no one who wanted to, it was on me to figure something out,” Shamp said. “Additionally, we had some members who never danced before, so typically a half an hour before rehearsals I would have them come and we would do ‘crash tap’ where I would teach the basics.” 

 

Greenwood said it was so rewarding to see returning dancers who were appreciating all of their efforts. 

 

“As it started getting off the ground, it felt good to see progress, members who came each week and people having fun,” Greenwood said. “It’s like we planted a seed and now that it started growing, you just wanted to see how much it could bloom.” 

 

Once Tap Club started to get some momentum, the “trio” needed to expand to make sure the club could fully handle all the responsibilities. That is when Julie Pickett joined the executive board. 

 

Pickett had been tap dancing for about 15 years when she first saw Tap Club’s table at the involvement fair. She didn’t plan on continuing tapping at UConn, but she was drawn in by Shamp’s and Timmerman’s personalities and never looked back. 

 

“I got involved in just attending a couple meetings and then they put out that they were looking to expand the e-board so I jumped on the opportunity,” Pickett said. “When I joined Tap Club, it was something super small when I started and continued to grow and grow each year.” 

 

Pickett said she remembers the potential Tap Club had. 

 

“[Tap Club] was for people like me that didn't want the added stress that Tap Team could bring and just wanted it to be fun," Pickett said. "Building it wasn't easy and there were a lot of late nights with the eboard but we are so proud of what it has become” 

 

For Tap Club’s first spring semester, Shamp said it became the eboard’s goal to create an informal showcase. 

 

Shamp choreographed an opening and ending number for all Tap Club members. Other members volunteered to choreograph small group numbers. This created a showcase template for years to come. 

 

“Putting a show together is challenging if you have never done it before and never had anyone tell you the things that needed to get done,” Shamp said.  “I had to choreograph and teach the group numbers, manage our costumes, and cut the music, all with little experience. It was an absolute blast and an amazing experience.” 

 

Two other dance groups, Husky Bhangra and UConn Irish Step Team, were invited to perform numbers in the showcase. It was a unique opportunity to do a collaboration number, Shamp said. This started the tradition of inviting other dance groups to perform in future formal showcases. 

 

“We did a collaboration number with those using hard shoes in Irish,” Shamp said. “We did this silly thing where we would pass an identical rhythm back and forth, but using different moves from our respective dance. Then at the end we both did the same thing and ended together. It was SO cute but also SO hard to choreograph because they have a different way of counting things and heel drops don’t exist.” 

 

By the end of the first year, Greenwood said that the club was slowly becoming a family. 

 

“We always tried to make our newcomers feel welcome and wanted to show that we could have fun, even if we weren’t competing. It took a lot of work because we were figuring it out as we went so things got changed, but the club was flexible,” Greenwood said. “We tried to get their input too so we could know what worked and what didn’t. It was exhausting and exhilarating all at once. You’d have a long practice or be panicking about scheduling but it was worth it to see everyone perform at the showcase.”