In 1986, Vicki Grubic Riordan made a decision to focus her dance business, Vicki’s Studio of Rhythm, LLC, solely on teaching adults through her proprietary Tap Pups and Social Dance programs, as well as through conferences and conventions around the country. Vicki’s Tap Pups, created in 1997, has grown into America’s largest adult tap group consisting of three levels – beginner, intermediate and advanced with ages ranging from 21 to 89. Vicki often says, “I am definitely the luckiest dance instructor in the world,” in regard to the opportunity and joy she gets from teaching adults. The laughter and camaraderie of the Tap Pups is truly astounding.

Having danced throughout her entire life since the age of 3, Vicki first opened Vicki’s Studio of Rhythm back in 1964, teaching children a full range of jazz, tap, ballet, acrobatics and baton. After getting married and moving to NYC, Vicki closed her studio to pursue her life as a wife and mother. Ten years later, unexpectedly finding herself as a single mother receiving no child support, she moved back home to Central Pennsylvania to raise her two sons. In 1986, during the height of the retro-comeback of the 50’s and 60’s, Vicki was asked by countless people in social situations to teach them to jitterbug. Needing to find an additional financial solution to support her two teenage boys, she created her first adult dance class called “Dances of the 50’s and 60’s,” which later became the ever popular “Social Dances.” Since that first class, she has been honing and perfecting her philosophy of teaching adults to dance. Vicki’s philosophy mixes a unique blend of serious technique with everyday life experience o help adults not just learn, but to relate to her classes. She has the ability to infuse just the right level of fun to the program that keeps her students coming back year after year. Vicki’s classic-style-choreography helps to create a sense of reinvention that lets her students feel extremely relevant in today’s youth-oriented-pop-culture society.

Vicki first started dancing with the Bette Weeks Winn Academy of Dance in Harrisburg. At the age of 7, she was dancing once a month on a local talent show, “TV Teen Time,” with Ron Drake and at age 8 appeared as a dancer in a local Saturday morning TV show, “Uncle Josh.” At 12, she performed as a dancer in the Harrisburg Community Theatre’s production of “The Pajama Game” and performed throughout Pennsylvania with the Academy of Dance. Vicki studied and trained in New York City with the Luigi’s Jazz Center and the June Taylor Dancers. After high school graduation, she received her certification as a dance instructor from Jay Dash School of Dance in Philadelphia. In October 1964, she opened Vicki’s Studio of Rhythm in Steelton, PA, with the studio’s theme song being “I Got Rhythm.” In 1966, at a national dance teachers’ conference in Philadelphia, Vicki won awards for “Best Jazz Instructor” and “Most Congenial Instructor.”Since the relaunch of the “more mature” Vicki’s Studio of Rhythm, now focused on adults, Vicki has taught over 7000 students in seven different states through her own programs, leading master classes at various locations and instructing large groups of up to 400 at various conferences and conventions. As Vicki plans to expand her Tap Pups program to other cities in the country and launching a national DVD series, she is most excited about launching The 3R Project with her son, Brian. The 3R Project is a supporting organization that directly impacts the lives of single mothers. Since 2006, The 3R Project has used the Tap Pups Annual Spring Show to raise awareness of and funds for the YWCA of Greater Harrisburg’s Domestic Violence Shelter.

Based in Central PA, Vicki has two grown sons and two beautiful granddaughters. An avid golfer, she founded and created the Central Pennsylvania chapter of the Executive Women’s Golf Association (EWGA), which became the fastest-growing chapter in the national organization. As Vicki plans the next phase of Vicki’s Tap Pups by nationalizing her program, she can honestly say that her philosophy has never felt so right. There truly is Happiness Through Tap.