Old tap shoes rest on a chair as Gary Schaufeld describes his time as a young performer in dance competitions, Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022, at his home in Port Jefferson, N.Y. He was a teen in 2004, assisting a successful tap dancer named Danny Wallace. Schaufeld had fallen in love with tap at 7 years old, and assisting Wallace offered a chance to raise his profile and learn from one of the best. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Every year, one of the world’s leading dance competition companies sells the dream of Hollywood fame to hundreds of thousands of ambitious young dancers hoping to launch careers on television, in movies and on stage.
