The Biggest Dance

One October evening 1,801 tap dancers shuffled and clicked their way down Hennepin Avenue to open their arts center the first flash mob, decades before the Internet and set a Guinness World Record. The upbeat tapping paved the way for a new image for the downtown thoroughfare, for all the townspeople had signed up. Church ladies tapped beside ladies of the street already in fishnets. Families, lovers, and dancing schools too, joined in the dance, more alike than different with tap shoes on their feet.

And it just goes to show you thousands, millions of people have a warm spot in their heart their tap shoes hanging back behind the old tennis racket, somewhere.

Garrison Keillor, A Prairie Home Companion, guest appearance; 6:57 p.m., New Year s Eve, 1983

Looks like a scene in Rosalie, all those tap-dancers.

Eleanor Powell, 1930s film star

. . . Tappers who are good, some who are oh-so-bad and then, the great ones, should read this book because it is about the joy of tapping by a woman who loves it and it shows. Enjoy!

Barbara Flanagan, Minneapolis Star Tribune, columnist

This is a story that will dance its way into your heart . . .

Kate St. Vincent Vogl, author of Lost and Found

I can't wait to read both books! What fun you have provided for all.

Marilyn Carlson Nelson, chairman, Carlson Companies