I know this first hand, pun intended. On August 16, I laced my dusty black tap shoes for the filming of Jazz Hand. Written by my friends Mary Archbald and Pat Shay, the film is based on one of New York’s most macabre tap auditions.
On that merciless August day, we dancers flapped, time stepped, and winged ourselves into brain cell-killing oblivion. The music, Patti LuPone’s Anything Goes, made us dance at about 130 beats per minute. We did many takes over the next three hours.
It kicked my buns.
Although I am a fitness instructor, I rarely exercise that intensely for that length of time because that would be nuts. This day was a special day dedicated to friends and creativity. Still, I was curious. I surfed the web to find Livestrong.com’s The Daily Plate. How handy! The on-line exercise and food journal calculated calories burned versus calories consumed.
After entering age, weight, and height, a menu bar let me select my current lifestyle, feelings, and goals. In the search bar, I typed "tap dancing." A photo and definition appeared as well as a box asking duration, distance, and heart rate. I selected 180 minutes and left distance and heart rate blank; I didn’t know them.
Seconds later, I knew the results: the Jazz Hand Calorie Challenge subtracted 947 calories from my 2,751 calorie a day diet! That means that three hours of tap burns more calories than 180 minutes of golf (888 c) but less than running (1,973 c).
Extra Jazzy Credit
After the shoot, Mary and Pat treated us to Irish cuisine. I had a chicken sandwich (+430 c), fries (+100 c), and at least two rolls (+480 c). I washed it down with Magners Cider (+215 c).
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