Darrlyn (Cook) Smith (1938-2002) and her husband Joseph Smith, both educators, relocated to Seattle from New Orleans in the early 1960s. In Seattle, Darrlyn Smith taught at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School, where she kept a box of tap dance shoes in her classroom and taught tap to interested students during recess. Darrlyn and Joseph Smith later owned the dance school TTAAPP (Talent, Tap, Acting, Arts, Performance & Production) Central, in Seattle’s Central Area. When Smith died suddenly in early 2002, TTAAPP head dance instructor Melba Ayco and Joseph Smith kept the program running. In 2006, Ayco opened her own studio, Northwest Tap Connection (NTC), to carry on Smith’s legacy, using tap to teach life lessons. As of 2025, Melba Ayco continues to teach tap to children and adults at NTC, alongside lessons about discipline and community, and Black heritage, history, and music.

In this image, Alex Jackson, 13, in foreground, and other students stand in front of a mirror-lined wall at TTAAPP Central. At the time, 43 students, ages 4 to 65, practiced at the studio, just one year after its opening. Alex Jackson went on to have a career in dance, and was an instructor and choreographer at Northwest Tap Connection.

Caption information source: "They're into tap dancing, heart and soul" by La Monica Everett-Haynes, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 27, 2003, pp. B1, B4.
Caption information source: Northwest Tap Connection website at https://www.nwtapconnection.org/about-us
Caption information source: "Northwest Tap Connection Blends Movement With Mission For Racial Justice" by Sydney Goitia-Doran, July 2, 2025, Seattle Metro News website, retrieved at https://seattlemetronews.com/2025/07/02/afro-heritage-dance-education/