- [Announcer] Ah, it's Evan Ruggiero, ladies and gentlemen.
(crowd applauding)
- [Jordan] Let me introduce you to a rising star,
who has been featured on The Ellen Show,
received a Drama Desk Award nomination,
and performed across the globe.
♪ Baby, oh, anytime she goes away ♪
- And he's had to overcome one giant obstacle.
(upbeat blues music) (tap dancing sound)
Whoa my god.
This is madness.
(crowd cheering)
Hello, everyone, I am here with Evan Ruggiero,
one of my favorite people on the planet,
an incredible dancer who I featured in two books,
and an inspiring human being.
So Evan, you have one leg.
- That I do.
- Tell me why.
- Well, when I was 19 years old,
I was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, which is bone cancer,
and I had about nine different surgeries
and my cancer came back.
And the only thing then left to do
was to amputate my right leg above the knee.
However, the one thing that I wanted to continue to do was,
I wanted to continue to tap dance.
- So what happened?
So they had to amputate your leg,
and you wanted to tap dance,
and how did that become a reality?
- So then after the amputation,
I underwent 16 months of chemotherapy.
I had two lung operations, the cancer spread to my lungs.
And finally I finished in October of 2011,
and I met with a prosthetist
and we talked about Peg Leg Bates.
He was a huge role model to me, being a peg leg tap dancer.
And I said, if he can do it, so can I.
And so we had a peg leg made for me
and I just kind of went off in a dance studio one night
and I re-taught myself how to tap dance by thinking it,
thinking of it more as a drummer and being a musician.
The one thing that really got me positive, though,
was going back to school,
hanging out with my friends, performing.
I went to school for musical theater
to sing, dance, and act.
So I was doing shows, I was singing,
I was getting chemo during the day,
and then at nighttime I'd go perform.
- There might be people out there
who are suffering from very scary diagnoses.
What would you say to them?
- I would say to stay positive
and find those people in your life
that really lift you up,
and to find your most positive self.
That was the one thing that my mother told me.
Think of what makes you excited to stay alive,
and think of what you wanna do with your life.
And it was to be on Broadway and to be tap dancing,
and singing and performing,
and be on TV and in movies,
and to have a career in the arts,
and that was the one thing that kept me through,
and that was the light at the end of the tunnel for me.
♪ Let me see you three times, oh ♪
♪ Let me see you two times ♪
♪ One time ♪
Let's get this thing off.
- Let's do it. - Let's take it off again,
I'm gonna lose another leg right now.
I'm serious.
- See, you can say these things, I cannot.
- You can, I'm all about it.
I think that's hilarious.
(upbeat music)
- Okay, here's the plan.
We want to spread the joy of tap to the world,
so we're gonna set up a board in Washington Square Park
and we're gonna invite people
to learn how to tap with my man, Evan.
Capezio has generously donated four pairs of shoes,
so we are gonna have different pairs.
We've got Grace the Intern,
who's gonna spray all these shoes with disinfectant.
My man, Nate, made an awesome poster.
And we got Anna to just charm everybody
with her luminescence, and between all of us,
I think we'll be able to get a few people to come up here
and learn how to tap with my man,
and maybe I'll learn how to tap too.
We ready?
Let's build this thing. - Do it!
- Yay!
(upbeat music)
♪ The heart is made of gold ♪
- Alright, we're all set up.
Evan's got his board, he's got his peg leg,
I've got my camera, we're ready to rock this.
But first, Evan has a very important thing to say.
- You've gotta subscribe.
And you gotta turn on your notifications.
- Anna and I are gonna go try to recruit some people,
or Anna's gonna recruit people and I'm gonna stand there.
You guys are gonna make some noise.
You ready? - Yeah, we're ready.
- Let's do this. - All right, here we go!
- Let's do it!
Go get em! - All right.
(slow jazz music) (board clacking)
And a one.
(concrete clacking)
One, two, three.
- Free tap lessons!
You wanna do it?
- Okay.
- Look, this is my tap.
That's nothing, right?
And I'm gonna do it.
All right, we got this!
Friends forever tap together, oh!
You don't have to be able to tap.
Look, who said, I'll do it?
- I'll do it. - All right, let's go!
- My name is Evan.
- I'm Destiny.
- Stamp, hop, step.
Stamp, hop, just let's get that in us.
And stamp, hop, step.
Ready, let's tap it out.
Step, hop, step, flap.
You got a timed step! - Yay!
- [Evan] Woo!
- Woo!
Okay, who wants to go first?
I do!
Okay, yeah.
- Hello. - Hello.
- I'm Evan. - Bridgette.
- Nice to meet you, Bridgette.
So three sound, one, two, three.
One, two, three, good.
Shuffle, step, shuffle, step,
shuffle, ball change, shuffle, step.
Yeah! - Whoa!
- [Evan] That was it?
(board clacking)
- [Jordan] Oh, I didn't know it was going to be that good!
Do that again! - Great.
(Evan grunting)
- Oh boy, One more time!
Bam! - Just like old times.
- [Jordan] Just like old times, that's awesome!
- The thing that I love about tap dancing
is that it's very musical.
It is very melodic and rhythmic
with not only your feet, but with your body.
Our next tap dancer, welcome.
My name is Evan, what's your name?
- Ty.
- Have you ever tap danced before?
- Yes, and it's called I Have No Idea What I'm Doing.
- Dig,
brush,
toe,
heel, exactly.
Dig, brush, toe, heel.
Dig, bru, now you know a paddle.
All right, it was very nice to meet you.
- Thank you. - Tap dancing
is a universal language.
You can speak English, you can speak Japanese,
you can speak Spanish, but you can also speak tap dancing,
and a tap dancer can communicate with one another
by using their feet.
I think people are intrigued by tap dancing.
I think people want to be a part of it
and they wanna understand what it is.
And it's not just getting up there
and just flapping your feet around
and making these random sounds,
and I think that is what entices people to say,
what is it that that tap dancer's doing,
and how do I do it, and it's so engaging to watch.
(funky music)
You can make really fast sounds out of your feet
and you could be captivated by that.
But at the same time you can make
really easy, slow, simple rhythms,
and still create a song that somebody wants to listen to.
- That was so good. - Thank you very much.
- Nice to meet you.
Thank you so much.
- I love to teach, I think it's fun.
I think it's exciting, as a tap dancer with one leg,
to communicate with a tap dancer with two legs
and to see where we go from there.
Dig, brush, toe, heel.
Yeah!
- Yeah!
- [Evan] I like to sing out the rhythms,
maybe something like,
shigga-dididiga-shiggiga-digga-didda-bom
or something like that, so that they're really engaging
with all of the sounds and the step
that I'm trying to teach them.
Yeah! (crowd cheers)
(upbeat music)
- Whoo!
Yay! - That's hard.
- [Evan] Yeah, Anna!
- Anna!
Okay, here we go.
- There's lots of roles I kind of,
I get shut out for, and that's just the reality of it.
Losing a leg has also opened up a door
to producers and creatives, saying,
well, why don't we try this,
and, look what we have here,
and, how can we elevate this to the next level
by having an amputee, and what can we do
to really kind of bring inclusiveness into this cast.
(board clacking)
Yeah!
Whoo!
(gentle music) (board clacking)
♪ Darling, won't you stay, won't you stay ♪
- [Evan] Yay, whoo!
♪ Our love will never change, stay the same ♪
♪ It all feels brand new but we know the truth ♪
(crowd cheering) - Whoo!
♪ The choices that we made ♪
- That was awesome! ♪ It makes me new ♪
♪ Here we go again ♪ - Yeah!
No matter what has happened to you in your life,
there is hope for a better future and a better tomorrow,
and Evan is a living example of that thing.
(crowd cheers)
Yeah, like this.
♪ What is it all ♪
- Yeah!
♪ Make us right ♪
- [Evan] Whoo!
Yeah!
Oh, yeah!
- [Jordan] Oh, I love that.
Thank you very much. - Thank you.
- [Jordan] Thank you, everybody.
- Thank you, thank you, guys.
♪ You're all behind the scene, behind the scene ♪
♪ And here we go again ♪
♪ Here we go again ♪
- We are still here and it's really, really late
because even though we lost all our light for shooting,
Evan would not finish until everybody got their lesson,
and a lot of people wanted lessons.
We are doing a giveaway,
the four tap shoes that we used here,
we're gonna give those away.
Here are the sizes, up one of those corners there.
If you want one, #capezio in a comment,
and we will pick people at random
to send them these awesome tap shoes signed by Evan and me.
Other than that, go to bed, it's late.
If you liked that video, please give us a thumbs up
and make sure to subscribe.
Now, you know what I did when I hit a million subscribers,
I did a photoshoot in a leotard and tutu.
Do you have a crazy idea for two million?
If so, leave a comment below,
and make sure you turn on notifications
'cause you're not gonna wanna miss this.
Are we gonna do the best
10-minute photo challenge in history?
(crowd cheers)
(bleep) - Yeah, go.
- Okay, let's get coffee.