Encore Performance: How One Woman’s Passion Helped a Town Tap into Happiness

Growing up in the 1950s, Vicki Grubic Riordan idolized stars like Shirley Temple and Gene Kelly, but like many baby boomers, she put her passion on hold to focus on starting a family. It was only when her marriage ended and she was left with little means of support that she returned to her first true love: dance.

At sixty-two, when her peers were thinking about retirement, Vicki opened the doors to what has become America’s largest adult tap dancing studio, making Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the unofficial tap capital of the world and the home of her celebrated Tap Pups. Most of her dancers are in their fifties and sixties, but instead slowing down at this stage of life, tap has helped them to get in touch with their own natural rhythm.

Vicki’s students come from all walks of life, but through dancing together, they’ve found a powerful source of friendship, vitality, and fulfillment. In Encore Performance, Vicki inspires readers of all ages to listen to the beat of their own hearts and dance through life as they were born to do.