2025 Dance Teacher Award Honoree Dianne Walker Has Devoted Her Life to Nurturing Tap’s Next Generations

“I’m kind of going to go off script for a minute,” Dianne Walker says within the first minute of our interview. With a chuckle, she adds, “Like I needed to preface that.”

For a teacher who is as beloved worldwide for sharing stories as she is for sharing steps, it’s no surprise that she’s eager to begin with an anecdote about fellow Bostonian and renowned tap dancer Jimmy Slyde.

“Sometimes, after a show, Slyde would look at me and say: ‘Thanks for taking the time,’ ” she remembers. “Every time someone ‘takes the time’ to acknowledge your contribution to something that’s as huge as the world of dance, I feel tremendously privileged and honored.”

Walker’s first foray into dance was with Ethel Covan and Mildred Kennedy, whose tutelage led to numerous opportunities as a child performer and model. She began teaching her own tap classes as a teenager, launching a five-decade career in which she has become a popular fixture at studios and festivals around the world, from Toronto to Tokyo.

“I feel that my early teaching of kids was the liaison that brought young people into the tap dance renaissance,” she says, referring to the period in the late 1970s and early ’80s when the art form received renewed attention and popularity. “I felt a real responsibility to connect young people to all the wonderful people and stories that had enthralled me.”

While many of her contemporaries, such as Brenda Bufalino and Lynn Dally, were creating concert dance, Walker relinquished her goal of attending law school to dedicate herself to getting young dancers involved in tap. She earned the moniker “Aunt Dianne” from Savion Glover and his contemporaries in honor of her nurturing character.

“She’s gotten me to love myself and my dancing,” says choreographer and educator Derick K. Grant. “Anywhere she’s been—a show, a rehearsal, a competition—she’s been there wholeheartedly, and then every moment after that, she shares that experience with anyone willing to listen.”

“I try to prepare students to have choices—not just to go wherever the path leads, but to take charge and define the path for yourself,” she says. “Let tap be the entrée to other stuff. Gregory [Hines] never forgot he was a tap dancer, but, boy, he prepared himself to do a whole lot of other things.”

Walker’s own path took an unexpected turn when she accepted the opportunity to perform in the musical Black and Blue, which premiered in Paris in 1985. The idea of participating in a Broadway-bound production had never occurred to her, a married mother with two kids in high school. She had never even heard of Henry LeTang, the celebrated choreographer whose work on the show would eventually earn him a Tony Award. By the time Black and Blue began its run in New York City in 1989, she was its associate choreographer and dance captain.

“It wasn’t my dream, but it was a wonderful experience,” she says. “My dreams are to jam with tap dancers, to just be with folks and dance. It doesn’t even have to be on a stage.”

“Her dream wasn’t to be the best, but she was always right there with the best, and that was important to me as her student,” says Grant. “Through her leadership, I realized I can enjoy myself and love being part of this community without feeling the burden of having to outdo people.”

One of the legends with whom Walker worked extensively was her mentor, Leon Collins. She studied with him in Boston in the late ’70s, eventually dancing in his company and running his studio. Collins choreographed a series of routines, initially created as class progressions, that are invaluable studies for tap dancers looking to understand technique and musicality. In fact, “Routine #53” has become a staple in many dancers’ repertoire, as Walker has frequently taught it on the tap festival circuit.

“His work is the alphabet of rhythm tap dancing,” says Walker. “I love the fact that through the visibility of his work, young people have come to know Leon and have wanted to enhance their teaching ability.”

In 2023, she announced the creation of The Dianne Walker Foundation, aiming not just to preserve her own legacy, but also to document and share Collins’ repertoire. She has been entrusting his choreographies to select tap dancers around the world who will be able to pass them on.

Although Walker promises that she’ll always dance, she says she’s ready to pass the baton as she formally launches her foundation’s programming. But you can be sure that she’ll still hold court at international tap festivals, captivating students with stories of tap luminaries like Lon Chaney, Honi Coles, and Ray Bolger.

“People listen differently to the stories than to the instruction about how to do a step,” she says. “I feel like I’ve introduced a lot of people to an aspect that goes much further than just a dance class. When you can get to that level, you’ve really opened up their life to the dance.”

To read about the other 2025 DT awardees, click here!

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