About the author
Reginald McLaughlin, better known as Reggio "The Hoofer," danced his way out of the subways of Chicago and into countless schools, museums and libraries in the early 90's, when Urban Gateways, an award-winning educational institution for the performing arts, recognized his talent as a tap dancer and promise as an educator. Reggio has developed dazzling, diverse, multicultural performances for Old Town School as well as being a faculty member for over 21years. Reggio has earned numerous awards, including, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Rockefeller Foundation’s MAP Fund, and The Joyce Foundation, for his collaboration with the celebrated ragtime pianist Reginald Robinson and the Grammy Award winning string band, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, for their musical production of “African-American Roots in Vaudeville”. He is a 2011 recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Professional Development Award and just recently, he was awarded the 2014 prestigious Flo-Bert Award. Putting him on the list of others recipients as Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, Gregory Hines, Savior Glover etc. As an ambassador for the arts, Reggio continues to use his unique style of hoofing, to promote and preserve, traditional tap dancing, as a true American art form. His achievements have been profiled in books, television, radio interviews, magazines, newspapers and documentaries, making him a Chicago tap icon.