Dianne Walker

Dianne Walker is a tap dancer, also known as Lady Di. Her thirty-year career spans Broadway, television, film, and international dance concerts. Walker is the Artistic Director of TapDancin, Inc. in Boston, Massachusetts.

She began her dance training in Boston with Mildred Kennedy-Bradic and later studied with Leon Collins, Jimmy "Sir Slyde" Mitchell and Jimmy Slyde. In 1979, she began a professional dance career. She later performed with Collins & Company and became one of the Directors of the Leon Collins Dance Studio, Inc. in Brookline, Massachusetts.

She is considered a pioneer in the resurgence of tap dancing. The Boston Herald has called her "America's First Lady of Tap." Prominent contemporary tap dancer Savion Glover and his peers affectionately call her “Aunt Dianne” in acknowledgment of her unique place as mentor, teacher and confidante.

She is often seen in jazz clubs (and festivals) around the US. A memorable appearance was at the Rainbow Room in New York City with Ruth Brown, Grady Tate, Al McKibbon and Sir Roland Hanna. Jazz Festival appearances include North Sea (The Hague), Pouri (throughout Europe), Chicago Jazz Festival and Montreal Jazz Festival with Gregory Hines. Dianne was featured in both the original Paris production and the two year Broadway run of Claudio Segovia and Hector Orezzoli’s musical Black and Blue. She is also in the PBS production of Black and Blue directed by Robert Altman. She was the only female to dance in the famed “Hoofers Line” which included Jimmy Slyde, Ralph Brown, Buster Brown, Lon Chaney, Chuck Green, Bunny Briggs and Savion Glover.

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