On a quiet afternoon within the walls of Ed Landreth Hall, if you listen closely, you just might hear a trio, tip-tapping away. 

Henry Cawood, Gabriela Yarbrough and Wesley Adams, juniors in Theatre TCU, bonded over their shared love of rhythm and blues. And when they put their heads together, they came up with a club that would unite riff-ram with the shim-sham: the TCU TAPpoles.

Yarborough had the idea first and approached Cawood as soon as she could. 

“We wanted to start a tap club,” Yarbrough said. “And we were in the BLUU, and Henry and Wesley were talking. We found out that Wesley also taps. And we’re like, let’s, let’s get this started.”

They had their first meeting during the second week of school. They’ve been tapping together ever since. 

“It’s like such a musical dance form,” Cawood said. “You’re creating your own music. A lot of people think it’s just the legs, but truly, your whole body has to be engaged to get that musicality in there and make sure you’re doing this correctly and functionally. So I just love how it engages everything. You’re not only dancing, you are creating something with it. You’re creating music.”

As for the club’s name, they can’t take credit. But, a mother can. 

“​​It was all my mom,” Yarbrough said with a laugh. “We were brainstorming names for so long. And she was like, ‘How about TAP poles, like tadpoles?’”

The club invites advanced tappers and beginners alike to rehearsal on Sundays in Ed Landreth Hall or to classes featured on the organization’s engage page.

In the meantime, if you need Cawood, Yarborough or Adams, just listen for the shuffle and scuffle of a soft shoe on a Sunday afternoon.