TAP DANCING
How tap's top dog swapped his hard hat for dancing shoes
Dein Perry has now hung up his tapping boots, but is still touring the world as the choreographer for Tap Dogs
Australian tap dancer Dein Perry’s "positively electrifying" world tours are incomplete without stops in SA. He has been to the country five times since 2002. He first came as a dancer with his world-famous ensemble Tap Dogs. Now that he has hung up his tapping boots, he is still touring the world as the group’s choreographer. Perry left school at the age of 16 and went to work in the construction industry. "When I was doing my apprenticeship, as a fitter and turner in the steel industry, the furthest thing from my mind, I guess, was dancing," he says. "My whole family was in the steel industry in construction." Perry’s mother had sown a seed, though, by taking him and his siblings to dance classes. It later blossomed and he left the drab construction life and joined the world stage. "I learned tap dancing when I was very young. When I went to work at 16, I gave it all up. And I didn’t return to dancing until I was about 21," he says. When Perry quit school, he thought he’d be a fit...
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