Jordan Pollard - The Tap Pack
This year The Tap Pack will celebrate a decade of shuffling their way around the world together. To celebrate, the high energy, tap comedy show inspired by the infamous 'Rat Pack' will be making its way to Brisbane & Sydney for a series of shows in July. Before they arrive though, founding member Jordan Pollard, took the time to sit down with Pario to discuss his journey with tap dancing, the formation of The Tap Pack & the inspiration behind this year's anniversary shows.
Growing up with a dance teacher mum Jordan was always destined to explore this creative pursuit. Little did he know he would excel at it & come to forge a decade-long career from it with his good mates. It was at this point of the interview that Jordan's passion really began to shine through as he spoke about the formation of The Tap Pack.
"When I left school I met the guys from The Tap Pack we all started doing gigs & shows together," recalled Jordan.
With almost every dance or musical theatre show having "1-2 token tappers" the members of The Tap Pack would often find themselves floating amongst the same circles. Eventually, this saw them forging very strong friendships, particularly as they came to realise they had similar interests & inspirations.
"We all love Gene Kelly & Fred Astaire, so we wanted to kind of imitate their style... We all shared adoration for swing music, especially the Rat Pack of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin & Sammy Davis Jr. So we thought, 'They were friends & they made it work' & we're all friends who Ike the same things so why can't we."
This simple thought became the foundation for The Tap Pack & as Jordan said "Luckily we were able to capture that spirit".
There is always the cliche of never getting into business with friends but when the idea began to percolate Jordan explained that The Tap Pack all had similar sentiment in mind, "our friendship always comes first, so if we're ever not having fun then maybe we need to look at it again."
Forming The Tap Pack was not only an incredibly fun experience for Jordan but it also fed back into his passion & reinforced in his mind that this was the career for him.
"My love for dance was really cemented when we formed The Tap Pack because it was just us making our own thing... It opened up a really, really great world of creativity with immense freedom.
"As long as we're having fun on stage then I think the audience can feel that as they come along for the ride with us. They can see that it's genuine emotion & fun for us so it translates across really well. During the show were inviting the audience to come be friends with us, so hopefully, the audience is the fifth friend by the end of the night."
In terms of what to expect from The Tap Pack show Jordan describes it as "just really joyous, funny & wholesome." On the music side of things, audiences will hear a very diverse range of music spanning all eras from the Rat Pack to Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran & even Beyoncé.
"We always say the show is suitable for anyone aged 8 to 80," said Jordan gleefully.
Follow Jordan's Creative Journey on social media at: @thetappack
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