Volodymyr SHPUDEIKO discusses the step dance, shoes, and child labor

Volodymyr Shpudeiko says, “I’m a patriot.” Nowadays, with everybody having become ever so patriotic, often using it as a front for getting the biggest cut in the pie, his words do not sound like some vain boast. Many of his pupils have made their names as tap dancers abroad and performed with the most prestigious companies. In fact, he could have long followed suit and built a small fortune for himself and his children, given his talent. Something makes him stay, perhaps the school where he teaches tap or the letters he receives in response to his television program, “Jazz and Tap Dance Class,” on TET. In one such letter a 72-year-old man thanks him for showing something he had dreamed about all his life but never been able to see. After reading that letter, Volodymyr Shpudeiko was outraged: “Who could have denied that man the pleasure? Why?” Actually, he took up tap dancing because he did not want to deny himself the pleasure.

The Day: What does it take to learn tap dancing in the first place, talent or practicing real hard?

Shpudeiko:Everybody can speak, yet not all can become actors. I mean, everybody can dance tapping out the rhythm in a certain way, but doing it onstage, of course, takes some study. There is the initial level that anying takes talent.

The Day: Step dancing and tap dancing. Are the notions synonymous or do they mean different dancing techniques?

Shpudeiko: They are synonymous. It’s just when they started tap dancing in Russia it was an imitation of the sound and it answered every tap dancing requirement. In Russia, it became known as tchettchotka and there was a time when it was officially frowned upon, probably because someone upstairs thought it was not serious enough. Ballet, ballroom dancing were perfectly OK, but tchettchotka! Later, it became known as just “step.” In Germany, tap dance became known as Schtep, in Italy as tip-tap. Well, whatever you call it, it remains the same tap dance. We all know that dancing is possible only in harmony with music. Without such accompaniment it is called pantomime. Now tchettchotka is a self-accompanying dance. It’s just tapping out a rhythm but can be almost as expressive as a melody.

The Day: You mean you can tap dance any melody?

Shpudeiko: Sure. After all, you can tap out a rhythm with a finger and recognize the tune. Rhythm and harmony are interrelated; rather, the rhythm emphasizes the melody. In our parlance we say that the feet sing or play. Moscow tap dancer Konstantin Nebredinov has a number titled “Step Dance on Hands,” tapping out any tune played on the piano.

The Day: How does he do it?

Shpudeiko: With his feet, but standing on his hands, jumping, performing tumbles. Simple and very effective. Actually, you must be able to play every melody with your feet, from pop tunes to Beethoven and even Bach.

The Day: When did you discover tap dancing for yourself?

Shpudeiko: In 1981. I was working on a project called Movie Actors in Pop Shows as a staff actor with the Dovzhenko Studios. I had parts in many films, and it took a lot of time. You may remember me in All the World in Your Eyes, There Beyond the River, and so on. I was a trained ballet dancer, so getting on a concert team wasn’t a problem. Even then I used some tap dancing techniques in my numbers, and the audience loved it. It was unconventional and interesting. In fact, I became very interested and realized it added to my popularity. So I decided to do it professionally.

The Day: Playing in movies and tap dancing wasn’t easy to combine, was it?

Shpudeiko: While I was with the studio I had to spend a lot of time there, and I didn’t do any serious tap dancing. But then, unfortunately, our cinematography went down the river, and I had more time for tap dancing. I must say I still feel a pain in my heart about what happened to our filmmaking. The government isn’t doing anything to revive it. We could take Russia as an example. They don’t levy so much tax on movie investments as they do, raine, they placed culture on the same footing as other business. That’s wrong! Culture is a great asset capable of reviving the nation. The tax policy must be changed, then we’ll be able to do something about our culture. Well, after the movie industry collapsed I had to earn a living, so I started buying and selling things, and I made good money but didn’t create anything; I realized that I was producing nothing and didn’t want to live like a dependent. So I decided to invest in my own development, creative search, and education. I traveled across Europe, visiting various dance schools and buying video cassettes with noted tap dancers. It was expensive for me as a cassette sold at $20-60, as did the heel-taps (I brought 20 to Kyiv). A heel-tap wears thin in a year. I wanted to bring the tap-dancing art back from an oblivion it didn’t deserve but into which it had been forced when branded as bourgeois and damaging [to Soviet culture]. There are very many children that don’t want to study ballet and folk choreography, but love tap dancing. It’s better than smashing windows and mugging passersby.

The Day: Tell us please about your professional equipment, your shoes.

Shpudeiko: It took me almost a month to make the first pair. I attached the heel taps without actually knowing how. I remember my feet were bleeding after every performance, but the shoes sounded good and the audience liked it. Now I have special molds, so I can make the heel taps much faster. They are made from an alloy of aluminum, copper, and other metals. I also have a shoemaker. I taught him the right design. He bought a shipment of European quality that lasts. In other words, my shoes are no longer a big problem. Of course, those enrolling in a tap dance school should have their own shoes, for without them it’s like learning to play the violin without having the instrument.

The Day: When did your school and the Jazz Tap Dance program appear?

Shpudeiko: The first students appeared in 1997. At the time I didn’t even plan a school, I just had my program on TET. They’re still playing tapes. It’s an educational program, a kind of video textbook showing examples and step dance masterpieces starring great performers that started as jazz dancers. The program was directed by a gifted woman, Halyna Shyhayeva (her short film debut won first prize at an international festival in Turin). Our program won prizes at numerous festivals in various categories, as the best entertainment, educational, and children’s program. After it appeared on television we received a lot of calls. People wanted to know where they could study tap dancing. There were so many calls that I finally decided to start a school. I leased the Enerhiya Factory club and began tap dance classes. These were eventually group and a concert program. In a word, we were coming close to the show business, meaning an altogether different phase of my creative endeavors.

The Day: Speaking of show business, there’s no avoiding the subject of money.

Shpudeiko: We operate on a self-accounting basis, meaning no sponsors or budget subsidies. That makes me feel sorry for children from low-paid families; they can’t afford step dancing, but we have to earn money to keep the school going. Classes last 75 minutes each, for tap dancing any longer is too tiring. All that easiness of a good tap dancer is achieved by backbreaking practicing. I can only marvel at my children’s team.

The Day: During the Days of Ukraine in Russia you gave a concert in Siberia, dancing only with girls. Are girls really better tap dancers than boys?

Shpudeiko: It’s a world trend. Girls show better progress everywhere and are more hardworking. Boys are more oriented toward playing games; they’re more on the gambling side and more aggressive, if you will. Yet if a boy gets really interested he’ll show good results. Most of my students that made professional tap dancers are men. If they really make up their mind, they’ll go all the way.

The Day: What about your audiences? You must have plenty of offers from nightclubs.

Shpudeiko: I long ago stopped performing in nightclubs. The school takes too much time, and there are also festivals and quite prestigious concerts. You won’t find a concert stage in Kyiv where I haven’t tap danced. Even at the Ukrainian House: there are carpets everywhere, so I brought a special board and danced on it.

The Day: Do you think step dancing has prospects in Ukraine?

Shpudeiko: Folk dancing and ballet are very well developed here. Jazz dancing is practically at the nil mark. The show business is believed capable of sustaining itself. Making tap dancing popular requires a program financed by the state budget. I recently organized the first Step Dance Country Festival in Kyiv on the stage of the former Young Pioneers Palace. It’s hard to make all arrangements at your own expense. Given help, tap dancing would evolve harmoniously in Ukraine. I’m sure of that. I saw talented tap dancers in Odesa, Sevastopol, and Rivne. They simply need help and then who knows, they might follow in Michael Flatley’s footsteps. He’s known all over the world as an outstanding tap dancer. After watching his Irish numbers an American said they had previously known Ireland as a world trouble spot but now they recognized it as a country with an original culture and traditions. Thousands were invested in his show and he brought in hundreds of thousands.