SOUTHEASTERN TAP EXPLOSION, INC. (STEP) is a non-profit corporation established in 1996 to bring Master Tap Teachers to the Southeast on a regular basis.  Its goal is to promote tap and to increase the understanding and appreciation of tap as an art form. The members of the board of directors are: Ruth Ann Blackwell, Carolann Borggaard, Sandi Friedman, Dena Herdt, Jason Kalish, Laurie Kotz, Leslie Jablow, Mitch Jablow, Beverly Resnick and Birda Ringstad.  All directors and volunteers are unpaid, and STEP is dependent upon your tuition fees to meet expenses.   As a non-profit corporation, your donations to STEP are tax-exempt (under the limits of tax law), and we welcome such support.

For Tap Explosion #15, we are proud to present the following Master Teachers:

Brenda Bufalino is a mixed genre artist; choreographer and tap dancer, singer and story teller, writer and painter. She has performed her one-person shows internationally and has appeared as a guest soloist at Town Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and in major concert halls all over the world.  Ms. Bufalino toured in a duet concert with her mentor and collaborator Charles “Honi” Coles from 1976 to 1983.   As artistic director/choreographer of The American Tap Dance Orchestra, she toured America and Europe with her company, and appeared at The Joyce Theater and on PBS “Great Performances . . . Tap Dance in America with Gregory Hines.”  She is the recipient of the Flobert Award, the Tapestry Award, and the Tap City Award for outstanding achievement.  She published “Tapping the Source . . . tap dance stories, theory and practice” and has created numerous DVDs and CDs.  She has received consecutive grants from 1986 through 1996 from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the NEA designated two of her choreographies American Masterpieces. 

Jay Fagan has been performing for sell-out crowds in Las Vegas for the past five years.  After being trained by the best tap dancers in the business, including Gregory Hines, Henry LaTang, Sam Weber, and Savion Glover, Jay is currently a professor at OCU.  Jay has studied all mediums of dance and works as both an instructor and choreographer.  He has worked with Dance Educators of America, Dance Masters of America, the Chicago National Association of Dance Masters, the Kansas Tap Festival, and the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, and has received the Presidential Scholar Award and the American Dance Award. Currently, Jay has developed and choreographed a new act with his sister called Sibling Rivalry, which has been performed at the Drury Lance Theater in Chicago to sold-out crowds.

NICOLE B. HOCKENBERRY has been dancing professionally for more than ten years with her unique style of rhythmic and improvisational tap dance.  She is currently the artistic and executive director of T.A.P. (Teach All People).  While directing her company, Nicole has been teaching and performing with the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Detroit Tap Festival, the St. Louis Tap Festival, Soul to Sole, and the New York City Tap Festival, to name a few.  Nicole has performed with the best of the business, including LaVaughn Robinson, Brenda Bufalino, Jason Samuels, Dianne Walker, James “Buster” Brown, Germaine Salsberg, Savion Glover, Lane Alexander, Acia Gray, Van “The Man” Porter, and Jimmy Slyde.

THE ISRAELI HOOFERS – AVI MILLER & OFER BEN teach tap dance, perform, and lecture. They teach 'Hoofing' worldwide while incorporating 'Middle Eastern' and Israeli movements to their work. In 2001, they relocated their Jazz Tap Center, Inc. production offices to New York. They established the not-for-profit incorporation: Tradition In Tap, Inc. - and produce tap workshops and performances devoted to the preservation of various tap masters' historic legacy and technique. Their hand-made Miller & Ben Tap Shoes are one of the world's best 'Musical Tap Instruments'.  Avi Miller & Ofer Ben were featured in July 2007 on the cover of Dancer Magazine and together with Germaine Salsberg, they were honored in March 2009, with The Preservation of Our Heritage Award in American Dance by Oklahoma City University. They 'team-teach' regularly at Broadway Dance Center in Manhattan. More information about the workshops and the shoes can be found at: www.JazzTapCenter.com

DIANNE “LADY DI” WALKER is one of the few internationally recognized women in the field of Tap Dance.  As a pioneer in the resurgence of tap, she is a frequent guest artist at many major events in the world of dance. For over 20 years her career has taken her to Broadway, television, the theater and numerous universities and jazz performance venues throughout the world.  She toured with Savion Glover in his show Footnotes, which also featured Jimmy Slyde, Buster Brown and Cartier Williams.  Dianne holds a Master’s degree in Education and was a participant at the Dance USA/National Task Force on Dance Education.  She has been awarded grants from the New England Foundation for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council and The National Endowment of the Arts. In Boston in 1997, she received the Tapestry Award for excellence in teaching.  In 1998, she received the Living Treasure in American Dance Award from Oklahoma City University.  In 2001, she received the Savion Glover Award for Keeping the Beat Alive.  Dianne was a featured dancer in the movie Tap with Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis, Jr.  She was a featured dancer (and chorus girl) in the original Paris production of Black and Blue.  In the Broadway production of Black and Blue, she was the Assistant Choreographer/ Dance Captain.  During those two years, she also had the prestigious honor of being the only female dancer in the famed “Hoofers Line” with Lon Chaney, Jimmy Slyde, Chuck Green and Bunny Briggs.  She is the Artistic Director of Tappin’ in Boston and continues her work as a performer, Master Teacher and dance educator/consultant.  

BAAKARI WILDER is internationally known for starring in the Broadway musical “Bring in Da Noise Bring in Da Funk” where he received a Bessie Award for his performance, and later assumed the lead role for a year. Baakari’s dancing has delighted audiences around the world in places such as the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Germany, Africa, and Japan. He has appeared on Jazz Central on BET, CBS’s Secret Talents of the Stars, and an episode of the Discovery Channel’s Time Warp. He also appeared as a tap dancer in Spike Lee’s Bamboozled. Baakari recently starred in The Bluest Eye directed by Walter Dallas at the University of Maryland where he is completing his degree in theatre.