National Tap Dance Day to be Celebrated in Hudson River Park, 5/24

The American Tap Dance Foundation's TAP ATTACK, an outdoor celebration in honor of National Tap Dance Day, will take place on Sunday, May 24 at Hudson River Park, Pier 45, NYC. Over 100 tappers - young and old, student and professional - will be dancing together in riffs and open jams marking the 26th anniversary of this yearly celebration of tap dance as an American art form and national treasure.

ATDF students (children, teens and adults), the Tap City Youth Ensemble and special appearances by top tappers will enhance the afternoon's festivities, from noon to 2pm. The event will also include an award presentation to winners of Tap Treasures, ATDF's week long tap dance hunt and tour, which culminates that day. From legendary theaters to rehearsal spaces, the ATDF Tap Treasures hunt and tour covers pivotal moments in tap dance history and the role each location has played, or continues to play, in New York City and beyond.

According to Tony Waag, Executive/Artistic Director of the American Tap Dance Foundation, Tap Attack and Tap Treasures celebrate tap dance and honor tap history. "I want everyone to remember who Gregory Hines was, Donald O'Connor, Honi Coles and the Copasetics... National Tap Dance Day is the perfect occasion to honor those history makers as well as motivate dancers to preserve the art form," he said.

National Tap Dance Day falls on May 25 of each year, selected to mark the birthday of tap dance legend Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (1878-1949). National Tap Dance Day is celebrated throughout the United States, but holds special resonance in New York City, the birthplace of American tap dance. National Tap Dance Day was signed into law by President George W. Bush in November, 1989.

TAP ATTACK ON THE HUDSON:

Sunday, May 24 (Noon-2pm)
Pier 45, Hudson River Park
(just off of Christopher St)

Master of ceremonies: American Tap Dance Foundation Artistic Director Tony Waag.

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