Savion Glover | STepZ | Brooklyn Center of Performing Arts

Exclusive Interview · Tap

Savion Glover on STePz, His Tap Ancestors, and Who Should Write Our History

Before his Brooklyn Center performance in 2013, the legendary hoofer sat down with Dance Mogul Magazine to talk longevity, legacy and the responsibility of telling Black dance history correctly.

By Dance Mogul Magazine | Originally published October 30, 2013 | Updated October 2026

Savion Glover, tap dancer, in a 2013 Dance Mogul Magazine exclusive interview

This Interview at a Glance

Subject: Savion Glover — Tony Award-winning tap dancer and choreographer, Newark, NJ
Occasion: STePz at the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, November 2, 2013
Topics: Performing for young people, from Sesame Street to Hollywood, tap's ancestors, longevity, and Black-owned media's role in preserving dance history
Read next: DMM's five-star review of STePz · the Savion Glover Legacy feature

By 2013, Savion Glover had already lived several careers: Broadway child star in The Tap Dance Kid, Sesame Street regular, Tony-winning choreographer of Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk, and the feet behind Mumble in Happy Feet. Dance Mogul Magazine had the honor to catch up with the legendary Savion Glover to cover topics like his longevity and his highly anticipated show at the Brooklyn Center of Performing Arts, "STepZ," which played November 2, 2013. His final answer remains one of the most important statements this magazine has ever published.

The Interview

Dance Mogul: Growing up, I always heard you performing for the youth, whether it was at someone’s school or event. Is that important to you?

Savion Glover: Yes, this art form is for everyone, old and young, but I believe it is very important that as many young people get to see it and experience it as possible so they can be aware of the humble beginnings and what success looks like in the art form in case they are interested in it.

Dance Mogul: How did you go from opportunities like Sesame Street to Hollywood movies and music videos?

Savion Glover in Happy Feet

Savion Glover: I started to get a lot of requests. A lot of my appearances and performances have been by request. I’ve been blessed to be apart of an art form that is in demand. I’m happy to have been in that position and still be in that position.

Dance Mogul: What are your thoughts on the history of “tap” as far as Bill Bojangles Robinson, The Nicholas Brothers, The Berry Brothers, and The Hines Brothers?

Savion Glover: These are all great and wonderful contributors that we have had in the art form. Without them, there would be no me. I pay tribute to them and their legacies every time I dance, perform and even during my daily course of life. Anyone claiming to be a tap dancer should know there would be no us without them.

“Anyone claiming to be a tap dancer should know there would be no us without them.”

Dance Mogul: What do you contribute to your longevity and clean image?

Savion Glover: Besides my maturity and me realizing that I’m in the public eye, this is God’s journey for me, and I’m just along for the ride.

Dance Mogul: What are you up to now as far as the Brooklyn Center of Performing Arts?

Savion Glover: Stepz! This is one of our commercial efforts to get people to enjoy the dance. It’s basically a dance concert. What we have included is a tribute to any tap dancers that have used stairs or risers. So now, Marshall Davis and I are presenting our energy on these stairs. It’s our way of reminding people of Bojangles and The Nicholas Brothers, and we are just paying tribute to them through our energy on the stairs. Overall it’s a great concert with music that has been inspiring to me and helped the progression of our world featuring the likes of John Coltrane, Stevie Wonder, Prince on down to Shostakovich.

Dance Mogul: Do you feel that it is necessary to have an African American owned magazine that is committed to documenting the history of African American Dance properly?

Savion Glover: It’s always important to have our own, to document everything that we do so it can be preserved in the proper hands. A lot of times when we give other people a chance to write our history, that’s exactly what they do. They re-write our history. So it’s very important to have those that witness it and that are close to the heritage of these art forms to write about it.

“A lot of times when we give other people a chance to write our history, that’s exactly what they do. They re-write our history.”

Why This Interview Still Matters

More than a decade later, Glover's last answer reads like a mission statement — not only for this magazine, but for anyone who loves a dance form rooted in Black communities. Tap was nearly erased from mainstream memory once already in the twentieth century. It survived because masters like Jimmy Slyde, Gregory Hines and Buster Brown passed it directly to young dancers like Glover, and because people close to the culture kept telling its story accurately.

That conviction is the foundation of DMM's Legacy library — full, carefully sourced profiles of the dancers and choreographers who built the culture, written by people who witnessed it.

Savion Glover Since This Interview

STePz earned a five-star review from three DMM writers who attended the Brooklyn performance. In 2016 Glover reunited with director George C. Wolfe to choreograph Broadway's Shuffle Along, earning a Tony nomination for Best Choreography. He continued building HooFeRzClub, the tap school he founded in Newark in 2009, and served New Jersey Performing Arts Center as a dance advisor and board member — directing a 2019 NJPAC production of The Tap Dance Kid, the show that made him a Broadway kid in 1984. His full story is told in our Legacy feature, Savion Glover: The Hoofer Who Turned Tap Back Into Music.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did Savion Glover speak with Dance Mogul Magazine?
In October 2013, ahead of his November 2, 2013 performance of STePz at the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts.

What did Savion Glover say about tap history?
He credited Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, the Nicholas Brothers, the Berry Brothers and the Hines Brothers, saying "without them, there would be no me."

What did Savion Glover say about Black-owned dance media?
That it is important "to have our own" so history is preserved "in the proper hands," because when others write our history, they rewrite it.