Soft Shoe Dance Team

[1959?]

This photograph, circa 1959, shows the Springfield College students who performed a soft shoe number during a SC gymnastics exhibition team performance, most likely during their annual Homeshow. Tom Waddell, class of 1959, is on the far right in the top row. Soft-shoe, a style of tap dancing, is a relaxed, graceful dance done in soft-soled shoes and popularized in vaudeville. It preceded what is currently considered to be modern tap, but has since declined in popularity. The soft shoe number is just one of many types of dance, gymnastics and physical feats of strength, art and agility that the gymnastics exhibition team still perform to this day. For biographical information on Tom Waddell, see: https://springfield.as.atlas-sys.com/agents/people/155. Photograph appears in the Souvenir Program for the 1959 Springfield College Gymnastic Exhibition Team.