Jane Goldberg Tap
Shoot Me While I'm Happy: The Book
Click to view image larger.
Ordering the book
Order the book through this website, JaneGoldberg.org and receive a LIMITED EDITION, FREE bonus DVD! The DVD, valued at $50, is only available through this special offer, NOT through other online book vendors! The DVD includes the entire By Word of Foot:Tap Masters Pass on Their Traditions with Gregory Hines, Honi Coles, Bunny Briggs, Cookie Cook, Bubba Gaines, John Bubbles etc, PLUS excerpts from Goldberg's Rhythm & Schmooze and Sole Sisters!
Buy online with a credit card
No PayPal account required! Just use your credit card.
Hardback: $40.00
Paperback: $25.00
Buy with a check or money order
Hardback: $40.00
Paperback: $25.00
Add $11.05 for shipping and handling. Sales tax included.
Send with check or money order payable to:
Changing Times Tap
310 Greenwich St. 13K
New York, NY 10013-2711
About the book
This is not a history of tap dancing. It is one determined woman’s highly personal account of falling in love with and living the tap life. One of the linchpins behind the Great Tap Revival of the 1970s and 80s, Jane Goldberg tracked down, studied with, and performed alongside some of the tap greats of the twentieth century. In the process, she came up with a genre all her own Rhythm & Schmooze.
A romantic, Goldberg thought tap dancing would provide the most direct route to finding a partner like Fred Astaire. It did not, she discovered quickly. What she did discover, however, were her happy feet. Those feet, combined with great tenacity and endless curiosity, led her to ferret out a generation of show biz hoofers who had involuntarily gone underground. Shoot Me While I’m Happy - the title comes from an old vaudeville expression - captures a wealth of memories both wacky and touching.
What people are saying
One of the people who had a tremendous impact (on tap) was Jane Goldberg. Sometimes I think she single-footedly brought tap back to the city . . . Jane Goldberg presents people actually showed up! And we in the community felt that someone was actually looking . . .
—The Late Gregory Hines
Jane Goldberg’s memoir is like one of her famous tap-dance performances. It is easy, breezy, fast-moving, exciting, funny. You will learn things about tap and Jane that you cannot get simply by watching her on-stage.
—Howard Zinn, Professor Emeritus, Boston University
Part memoir, part history, part anthology of absolutely indispensable interviews with the giants of tap, Jane Goldberg's Shoot Me While I'm Happy accrued a nearly-legendary stature during its long gestation. Jane, an accomplished dancer in her own right, was a major figure in boosting the tap revival and she remains a living repository of much of its lore. Her unique book is funny, moving, candid, and always illuminating. It exceeds expectations--which were large.
—Gary Giddins, author of Natural Selection and Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams
Publicity
Tapperina's tales by Marcia B. Siegel
The Boston Phoenix, August 13, 2009
Read the review on ThePhoenix.com
Dance Magazine Recommends by Valerie Gladstone
Dance Magazine, June 2009
Read the review (PDF)
Tapper’s Tale: She Had the Time-Step of Her Life by Claudia La Rocco
The New York Times, Arts section, January 4, 2009
Read the story on NYTimes.com
Tapped In by Mindy Aloff
NextBook.org, December 8, 2008
Read the interview on NextBook.org
Tap Dancing: A Love Story Reprised hosted by Liane Hansen
NPR's Weekend Edition, November 30, 2008
Listen to the full interview on NPR's website
See video of Jane and Liane talking and tapping
More information
Please email woodshedproductions@yahoo.com