Nursery Tap, now in its second volume, features ballet, tap, and hip-hop dances choreographed to classic nursery and schoolyard rhymes. The brainchild of director and producer Juleen Murray Shaw, with choreography by dancer Krystal McMullin, Nursery Tap made its presence known by offering two big steps forward in movement videos for children: combining the rhythms of dance and language and thus allowing song to fade to the background; and cropping in close to dancers to emphasize their body movements and depersonalize them. Either of these steps, taken independently, would have a powerful effect on toddler viewers. Taken together, they have refreshed our total view of what dance means for young children, and how video can communicate that effectively.

The startling innovation behind Nursery Tap is Shaw's decision to cut off views of dancers at the waist or chest so that all that is seen onscreen is the dancer's movements, roughly speaking, from "hip to toe" - critically, without showing their faces. By focusing attention on a close-up view of one or a pair of dancers' leg and foot movements, Nursery Tap effectively "spotlights" the key area of interest in dance - what the body does when dancing - in a way that makes light bulbs - cannons, even - go off in young children's heads. Perhaps it's that dancers are stripped of their identity and personality, and young viewers can more easily inject themselves into the action.

Nursery Tap pulls off what must sound like a challenging format with grace and style. Despite its unusual framing of the dancers - or perhaps because of it - Shaw chose to stage each dance using props and set pieces appropriate to the rhyme, with impeccable and inventive costumes that are perfect for their audience: colorful, simple, and evocative.

This wonderful visual crispness and clarity is mirrored sonically as well. The spoken rhymes are enunciated clearly and delivered with feeling. The dancing is precise and is also slow enough to inspire young children, who can actually see and follow how the dances are performed, to mimic the movements quickly and with an enhanced perceptiveness. It took about three seconds for our two-year-old, Z, to start imitating the dancing when we first played this video. She tapped, she hip-hopped, she even tried her best to get on her tiptoes. Watching her and the video even makes me want to dig out my old tap and ballet shoes and dance along!

The above segment from the first DVD in the series to give you a taste. There are multiple styles of dance on each video. Some of the dances are also significantly more complex, but all are choreographed with an eye to young children trying to follow along. Each volume includes a mini dance lesson, one each for ballet and tap, on the DVD. Each is also packaged with a CD of the audio tracks.

We were sent the second and most recent volume of Nursery Tap to review. We are so impressed with it, and Z is getting so much out of it, that we'll be buying her the first volume of Nursery Tap for her birthday in a few months. We could not recommend it more highly.

You can learn more about Nursery Tap on their website, and buy it there or on Amazon.com. - Jennifer