Encore Performance: How One Woman's Passion Helped a Town Tap Into Happiness

by Vicki G. Riordan, Brian Riordan

Billy Elliot meets The Golden Girls in this inspiring true story of a woman who learned that it’s never too late to live the life you want. As a young girl, Vicki Riordan found her calling as a tap dancer and at eighteen she opened her own studio. But Vicki soon decided to put her tap shoes into early retirement to focus on marriage and start a family. When her marriage abruptly ended and Vicki was left with no means to support herself and her two young sons, she returned to her passion and began teaching adult tap. The Tap Pups program was born and at the age of sixty-two, Vicki opened what has become the largest adult tap studio in America.

Vicki has gone from teaching seventeen adults to 500. Her students range in age from twenty-one to eighty-nine (with an average age of fifty-seven), and thanks to the Tap Pups program many have transformed and reinvented themselves at a point in life when the expectation is that they should be slowing down. Tap has made them confident in their bodies and themselves and has joined the women of Vicki’s community into an unbreakable sisterhood.

Encore Performance is ripe with themes that readers everywhere can relate to: love, family, friendship, living your dream, keeping hope alive in difficult times, and so much more. Vicki’s story celebrates the importance of remembering your true passion, going after it with courage, and proving that it’s never too late to live the life you want.

Genres: Autobiography

254 pages, Hardcover

First published April 3, 2012

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fair warning: my review is going to be biased in the positive. My mom is one of Vicki's Tap Pups!

Vicki Grubic Riordan writes her autobiography, showing us that age really is just a number! Out of financial necessity, she started teaching dance classes after years of being removed from dance. Now she is the proud artistic director of Vicki's Tap Pups, the largest all adult tap group in America.

Reading Vicki's story helped me understand my mother's generation more clearly. These women silently sacrificed so much of themselves in order to raise a family. Now they are coming out in large numbers to do something for themselves or rediscover what they had put aside many years ago. Many of the personal stories in the book touched me profoundly. There are also many embedded video clips (which can be viewed on YouTube as well) so you can see the Tap Pups in action. But I highly recommend seeing the Tap Pups in person, if you ever have the chance. If we could harness the energy onstage, we could likely power all of Harrisburg for quite some time!

Vicki's story will remind you that it's NEVER too late to find your passion in life and run with it. May we all be inspired to live life to the fullest and make some noise! Tap Pups ROCK!

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an inspiring story even if you don't tap dance. So many women need to read this book and realize that it is okay to be selfish and do something for yourself just for fun...just because it makes you happy!

[Lindsay Ewing · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because I am a TapPup! This is a very touching, inspiring story. I certainly appreciate this memoir and I'm very thankful that I'm part of this organization!

[Dianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written--insightful and inspiring!

[Lisa Yee Swope · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un-put-down-able! Read it thru in one big gulp. Inspiring!