TAPPERS CLICK UP THEIR HEELS.

THE ELEVENTH ANNUAL celebration of National Tap Dance Day at New York City's Town Hall is scheduled for May 28. Though an 11-year-old Act of Congress officially designated National Tap Dance Day as May 25, birthday of tap great Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, the New York Committee to Celebrate National Tap Dance Day has typically picked the closest Sunday to present its yearly extravaganza and awards.

This annual gathering always feels much like an extended family reunion, and charming master of ceremonies Ted Levy will focus the spotlight on several generations of tappers. Youthful Savion Glover is one of this year's Flo-Bert honorees, along with elder Leonard Reed, of shim-sham fame. Legendary tapper Buster Brown will receive the Peg Leg Bates Award for Leadership in Dance. The Flo-Bert Awards, named for Florence Mills and Bert Williams, Broadway dancers from the 1920s, are presented to tappers for their advances in performance, choreography, and teaching.

The evening's Tap Extravaganza features Roxane Butterfly directing BeauteeZ' and the Beat; Creative Expression, the still-sultry Mable Lee, The Silver Belles, Jimmy Slyde, "Lady DJ" (Dianne Walker), and the Ruth Williams School Dancers. The ever-resourceful Frank Owens Trio provides live music for the event. Co-chairmen of the New York Committee to Celebrate National Tap Dance Day are Al Heyward and Carl Schlesinger.