Ryan Gosling’s jazz pianist in “La La Land” may be obsessed with bringing back beebop, but in real life the Oscar-nominated film has resurrected another arcane art form: tap dancing.
“I’ve been teaching tap around the city for about three years, and the past few semesters I [had] maybe three people in a class,” says MacKenzie Cutcliffe, who teaches a beginners’ tap workshop at the 92nd Street Y on the Upper East Side. “This time, it’s all sold out. People are a lot more excited about it. And I think ‘La La Land’ definitely inspired a lot of people.”
That’s what happened with Alan Rubinstein, who saw the movie a month ago and left the theater with a sense of purpose.
“I went home and was Googling like crazy looking for any tap classes nearby,” the 70-year-old Upper West Side resident tells The Post. “I’ve always loved watching tap,” adds the “Singin’ in the Rain” fanatic. “So I figured, ‘What the hell? Go ahead — I’m retired!’”
Rubinstein called 92Y five times to make sure that the class was “truly for absolute beginners,” bought a pair of silver-bottomed shoes at Capezio and shuffled into his first class two weeks ago.
“I’m an old guy and have two left feet, so I found it quite challenging,” says the retired lawyer. But he had a lot of fun, and when he got home he couldn’t wait to show off his new footwork to his daughter in Los Angeles.
“I sent her a video, and then we FaceTimed practicing the moves together. She’s very proud of me!”
Pat Brown, a 65-year-old retired gym teacher, had wanted to learn tap-dancing for quite some time, but seeing “La La Land” in January gave her a renewed sense of excitement.
“Watching the movie brought back memories of when I was a little girl,” says Brown, who drives from her home in Valley Stream, Long Island, for her weekly dance class at 92Y. “I never took dance, but I watched the musicals all the time. Dance was always in my spirit, and when I saw ‘La La Land,’ I thought maybe tap will come back.”
She says that when she’s done with her beginner’s workshop, she’ll likely sign up for Level 2.
“The teacher is very encouraging,” Brown says.
The movie has also motivated former tappers, such as 31-year-old Annemarie Tak, to strap on their dancing shoes again. The Upper West Side resident had learned how to shuffle-ball-change in her native Netherlands, but she stopped the lessons when she and her husband moved to New York City 2 ¹/₂ years ago.
“I was like, ‘I should start doing classes again,’ but the times were never really convenient,” says the law firm assistant. But an ad on Facebook for Steps on Broadway on the Upper West Side, where she’s been taking classes for a few weeks, piqued her interest.
“I saw that in January, and I thought, ‘I should sign up,’ and then I saw [‘La La Land’] and I thought, ‘Yeah, I really should do this.’”
As for why “La La Land” has particularly resonated with adults, Cutcliffe thinks that the movie’s scruffy, less-polished musical numbers — done by leads Gosling and Emma Stone, who aren’t professional dancers — make the film more relatable.
“It’s just two normal people dancing,” she says. “It wasn’t like, ‘Here’s a big dance number!’
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