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

In Harrisburg, Pa., Riordan founded the now 15-year-old Vicki’s Tap Pups, America’s largest adult amateur tap group. The more than 500 dancers, average age 60, are hometown celebrities and have opened for stars like Chubby Checker. As soon as she started her first tap class at age three, Riordan loved the cool shoes, the dance’s fast pace, and the crisp sound of her steel taps. At seven, her mother struck a deal to do a dance studio’s bookkeeping in return for Riordan’s lessons. Her love of performing landed her on local television but she abandoned dance when she became immersed in high school activities. After high school, though, she became certified as a dance instructor and opened a studio, only to leave dancing again for 17 years while living in New York City and New Orleans with an abusive husband, and later as a single mother and secretary back home in Pennsylvania. She started teaching dance again in 1986 to make mortgage payments. Riordan’s story is sweet and inspirational, but more appropriate for an article than a full-length book. Agent: Christy Fletcher and Grainne Fox, Fletcher & Company. (Apr.)