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What I'm trying to do is bring young people into doing tap so that the art form will keep going.

Illustrating is more about communicating specific ideas to a reader. Painting is more like pure science, more about the act of painting.

I grew up watching Gregory Hines banging out rhythms like drum beats, and Jimmy Slyde dancing these melodies, you know, bop-bah-be-do-bap, not just tap-tap-tap. Everyone else was dancing in monotone, but I could hear the hoofers in stereo, and they influenced me to have this musical approach towards tap.

I tell my workshop students, 'I want you to think of yourselves as artists. Then, when you're writing, you're painting, you're crafting, you're making a design, you're sculpting, you're creating choreography, sound, a sound script.'

Performing, I can take it or leave it. Horticulture is far more challenging. I'm absolutely fascinated by it.

I use my hands like a sculptor, to mold and shape the sound I want, to clarify.

Ah, the creative process is the same secret in science as it is in art. They are all the same absolutely.

Broadcasting is plastic; while it can ape the press, it can also emulate the arts.

Sculpture is made with two instruments and some supports and pretty air.

There are many different styles of, and approaches to, tap. My own leans towards a more intellectual view: tap dancing not just for the sake of entertainment but to educate and spark emotion.