John  “Mr. Tap” Williams grew up in New York, where dance was always a part of his family and environment. 

“I remember when I was growing up, to preserve the soles of the shoes, they had those tap tap things on them, and I remember playing around with the shoes, clapping them together,” Williams recalls. “I’d also put thumbtacks in the bottoms of the shoes to make them tap and my mother would always tell them to get them off of her floors.”

Next week, Garfield County residents can see Mr. Tap in person at the Parachute Branch Library on July 1 at 1:30 p.m., July 2 at 1:30 p.m. at the Glenwood Springs Branch Library and at the Rifle Branch Library on July 3 at 2:30 p.m. 

Williams loves the type of community that has been built in the Western Slope of Colorado and views it as being part of the family.

“When I come to the Western Slope, to the libraries, places of history and knowledge and community, and they bring that community to the library, and I get to be a part of that community,” Williams said. “If I can make one child smile, then I’ve done a real good job, but when I see all those smiles, I don’t know what they were feeling before the library, but if I can brighten their day, that makes me happy.”

Williams could never sit still as far as he can remember, and he would dance around the house and at parties and get-togethers. 

“When I was young, around 12, we had a group called Destinations,” he said. “It was me and my two older brothers, and eventually we added another guy and girl to it. My older sister was our manager.”

When Williams was around 15, his sister put them into the Apollo Theater in New York for the Amateur Night Competition. 

“We took first place,” he said. “We won a recording contract and the name of the song was called “Dance to Keep From Crying.”

The recording contract didn’t work out long term, so Williams attended the Loretto Heights College in Denver, where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Education and Musical Theater.

“My teacher, Betty Ryer, had me in tap class and I was really good at it, so I decided tap dancing in Colorado was needed,” he said. “She dubbed me ‘Mr. Tap.'”

Williams, known as a triple threat for his ability to sing, dance and act, continued on to teach at the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Academy, where he’s been working for 35 years. He also teaches as a special needs educator in Cherry Creek School District for 19 years.

“Last winter, I spoke with one of the music teachers at Campus Middle School and I did a tap performance with the jazz band,” he said. 

Williams then came out to western Colorado, after he’d been invited to a Shoes show. 

“My shoes are tap shoes and I was the MC for that show in Carbondale,” he said. “I met Fran Page, the head of the Aspen Dance Connection, after she saw me. I did my spiel, grabbed some kids out of the audience and made some magic.”

Page called Williams back to perform for the library series. 

“Without children, there is no world,” Williams said. “If we can expose them to the different joys of movement and dance, it helps their well-being, and their ability to participate.”

Williams understands how it feels to children when they’re being asked to do something they’re uncomfortable with, like coming up to help in the tap performance, not knowing what’s going to happen. 

“When students come to class, some pick it up faster than others, and they’re afraid to make a mistake,” he said. “I’ll say to them, ‘If you make a mistake, who cares? You’re fabulous’ with two snaps and a twist. Don’t let anyone tell you you’re not the best, because you are.”

Williams’ family was a big influence on how he views the world and why he believes teaching children is so important. 

“My father was in the Army and was an engineer for Con Edison,” he said. “My mother was a fashion designer and she’d make dresses.”

Williams remembers that his mother would ask him and his siblings who would want to go window shopping and he would always raise his hand.

“We would stop at a shop and there was this particular dress in the window that she would stare at,” he said. “She got the fabric and she made the exact dress, with her stuff added to it.”

Williams’ mother was a dressmaker and he remembers being her mannequin sometimes. 

“We were poor, we didn’t have much, but we were rich because we had a lot of love,” he recalls. “My mother was always baking and making food for people.” 

In fact, Williams didn’t realize his family didn’t have much financially until he was going to college, because his parents never let him know. 

“My mother made do with what she needed to do and she did it,” he said. 

Williams’ mother was also the one who instilled in him that being kind to people would bring kindness back to him. Because of this kindness and his passion for tap, Williams turned it into helping those in need of joy. 

“Being involved and seeing street performers in New York, I think rhythm, timing and beat, it was embedded in me as a child,” he said. “People were still tapping in New York, L.A., Detroit, but in Colorado you don’t see it as much.”

Williams said that it’s not that people don’t want to do it, it’s that they don’t know how to teach it, so they end up not doing it. 

“There were children’s tap classes, but there weren’t a lot for me, adult classes, so I knew to do that,” he said. 

Williams has learned through trial and error that if a student doesn’t like you or the way you teach, they won’t do anything for you.

“We need to engage the community in a positive manner,” he said. 

Williams also remembers Page bringing him up to the community to be in some school assemblies, which he has strong memories of. 

“It was amazing. The love, support and applause from those kids, all different ages and grades, was bigger than a big crowd,” he said. “They don’t forget me, they don’t forget Mr. Tap.”